NCAA moved March Madness out of North Carolina because of HB2, only to run into Confederate flags in South Carolina

On Sunday, the Duke Blue Devils lost to the hometown South Carolina Gamecocks and the North Carolina Tar Heels escaped with a win over the Arkansas Razorbacks at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, S.C. Outside the arena, groups of men and women paraded around the city with Confederate flags, attaching them to the top of the arena, or to their pickup trucks.

Despite the timing, one of the protesters said that their demonstration wasn’t about race or sports.

“People tend to mistake this for a race thing,” he said, wearing an infantryman’s cap with Confederacy symbols on it. “It’s about history and it being erased. And it is being erased.”

Another man, Hunter Meadows, told the Associated Press that it wasn’t “fair” for the flag to come down after the state decided to remove the stars and bars from statehouse grounds following Dylann Roof’s massacre of nine churchgoers at Emmanuel AME in Charleston.

“I didn’t feel it was right when the flag came down,” Meadows, who has family members that fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War, said. “We wanted to show the NCAA that we’re still here.”

The NCAA moved the games to Greenville from North Carolina after the passing of House Bill 2, better known as HB2, a discriminatory, anti-LGBTQ law. The body condemned the flag-wavers the day of the games.

“No symbols that compromise that commitment will be permitted to be displayed on venue property that the tournament controls,” Dan Gavitt, the NCAA’s senior vice president of basketball, said in a statement on Sunday. “Freedom of speech activities on public property in areas surrounding the arena are managed by the city of Greenville and we are supportive of the city’s efforts.”

Shaundra Scott, the executive director for the ACLU’s South Carolina branch, said that, though she didn’t necessarily condone what happened, waving flags is a matter of free speech.

“You have to remember that, in the grand scheme of things, we don’t necessarily have to like the speech but we have to protect the speech,” Scott told SB Nation. She also said that because the NCAA moved the games because of an injustice it perceived was being done to the LGBTQ community, that protesters may have felt that a similar injustice was being done to them.

That said, Scott clarified, the feeling of apprehension that people of color have when they see the Confederate flag can’t be ignored.

“Saying it’s for your heritage, black and brown people have a different experience,” she said. “I think that can be seen as a stain and something negative.”

Other local advocates, community organizers, and national organizations denounced the protesters in Greenville.

What was happening outside the arena was felt by the teams playing inside. Frank Martin, the head coach of South Carolina’s basketball team, acknowledged the protest after his upset win over Duke.

Martin said the flags being waved around the arena were unfortunate, but also made it clear that “it’s America.”

“You think we all agree on everything?” Martin said. “Our state is united. Our state believes in peace and harmony. That’s why this event is being held in our state right now. Our state is progressive. Our state has incredible people that’s about moving forward.”

Martin continued, saying that people have freedoms to do “whatever they want.” He is the son of Cuban immigrants and is married to a woman of Jamaican descent. He said that South Carolina has accepted and treated him like one of its own from “Day 1.”

“I wouldn’t want to coach in any other state or with any other group of people, for any other bosses than the ones I’ve got,” Martin said. “Our alums, our community is a beautiful, beautiful place. It’s a united state. Unfortunately, things like that happen but we live in the United States of America — and we don’t all agree on things.”

Johnathan Bragg, a police information officer for the Greenville police department, told SB Nation that no arrests were made in connection with the flag protests. This also isn’t the first time Confederate flags have waved in Greenville this year during a sporting event.

Bragg said that during the SEC women’s basketball championship in March, people came out in similar numbers and similar trucks, driving around the city with the Confederate flag attached to the beds of the vehicles.

“If any large event comes to Greenville, we usually see this happen,” Bragg said. “Not every event but we expect it to happen so we are prepared for it.”

Judith Browne Dianis — the executive director of the Advancement Project, an American nonprofit focusing on racial justice issues — said that there are too many people in these states that still celebrate symbols of racism and oppression, and that the Confederate flag cannot be disconnected from slavery or the legacy of Jim Crow in America.

“Individuals still have First Amendment rights, but people need to understand the consequences of their actions,” Dianis said. “Waving that flag means you stand for a troubled time in our history and you associate with that. And it’s unwelcoming and offensive to black people and the people who care about the progress we have made in this country.”

Regarding the argument that the flag is about preserving history, Dianis didn’t see the merit.

“There is no erasure of whiteness,” Dianis said. “White people are still the majority in this country.”