Throughstone #20: Giving Permission After 250 Years...or Not

1976 – the Bicentennial – and being of mixed Tarheel and West Virginia hillbilly blood, I was just beginning to fathom the confused distinctions between the American and the Confederate revolutions. Both flags flew in North Carolina in those days, often with equal stature. But as I leaned forward from the back seat of our Ford Galaxy 500, trying to read the billboard despite the obstruction of the rear-view mirror between my parents’ heads, one of those flags took on a gut-twisting difference. 

Mom and Dad were taking us to see our new home, where my father had accepted a call to serve as minister of the Presbyterian church. Entering the city limits at the edge of the muddy Neuse River, the small city limits sign was literally shadowed by the billboard towering above it. 

Help Fight Communism & Intergration 

Join & Support United Klans of America Inc 

KKKK Welcomes You to Smithfield

The hooded knight on horseback with the flaming cross was no Paul Revere, and his cry was not to advance but to “Go back!” – back in time, back to where you belong, back down, and back off. But my parents drove on, offering complicated explanations and gentle assurances. The pastoral call had come, and it was time for faith, values, and common decency to deny permission to open hatred and hooded intentions. 

I don’t know what conversations ensued within the community, but finally, in 1977, the billboard came down. Maybe 200 years of a tempestuous experiment in decency proved too much. 

For more history on the billboard in Smithfield, NC, see https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article232986152.html 

Photo Credit: News & Observer file photos