Even in rare sunshine, Susan "Sue" Chapman was not thrilled to be out in the cold on a Saturday in February at all.
That she had to go out there to change the Confederate flag she's flown above her southeast Lansing home for more than four decades pissed her off even more.
But she did it anyway, with tears in her eyes and the assistance of her sons.
Chapman was prompted to change her flag after Melik Brown, a videographer and radio host, decided it was time Lansing talk about the inappropriateness of flying Confederate flags.
Brown said he strives to put only joy into the world, but for years he would cringe when he passed Chapman’s house.
For Brown, seeing the flag meant that the neighbors flying it probably didn't like him — and not for the content of his character. After all, the "stars and bars'' is the flag flown by violent white supremacists and Brown is a Black man.
Last month, Brown photographed the home and posted it to Facebook, where it immediately received more than a hundred angry comments, a few threats, and the attention of City Pulse, which assigned a writer to go knock and find out: Who has the gall to fly a confederate flag in Lansing?
After several attempts to contact the homeowner, Chapman finally called back.
Chapman said she had no idea there had ever been any conversations about her flag — or why anyone would take issue with it.
She said she has friends who are Black and no one in her house ever had “any problems with the blacks.”
But she didn’t want to talk about the meaning of her flag. “It has a meaning for me, and it is nothing hatred,” Chhapman said, attempting to end the discussion.
The following morning, Stacy Chapman called City Pulse from his home in Florida. He is Chapman’s youngest son and he wanted to talk about his parents, Sue and Charles “Chuck” Chapman.
He said they started flying that flag high above their bungalow not long after they purchased their home in 1975. It was before he was born.
To Chapman, the flag was his parents’ emblem and for them it had nothing to do with race. He said his parents flew it to signify their willingness to stand up to the government, to live freely and to enjoy their civil liberties. After all, it was the "rebel flag" and his parents were bikers.
The Chapmans lived together under their Confederate flag and raised him and brother, Kirk.
Then on Aug. 8, 2002, at age 49, their father died under their Confederate flag at home surrounded by his wife and their sons.
The Chapmans have continued to fly the Confederate flag as a daily reminder of their husband and father, Stacy Chapman said.
He said his father worked hard every day alongside a beloved colleague, a Black man who came to Chapman's funeral along with 300 other people of all races.
He said his father was a simple man with a rebel flag, a love of Harley-Davidson motorcycles and neither of his parents were ever racist.
Still, the Confederate flag is associated with slavery, segregation, racism, white supremacist views and a whole lot of violence.
Since 2015, when Dylan Roof wrapped himself in the Confederate flag and murdered nine Black churchgoers, efforts to remove Confederate symbols on public land have increased and the Southern Poverty Law Center has been mapping and tracking those efforts.
Kimberly Probolus, an expert on Confederate monuments, said hate groups didn’t transform the flag into a symbol of white supremacy.
“The argument that the flag represents heritage ignores the near-universal heritage of African Americans who were enslaved by millions in the South and later subjected to brutal oppression under the white resupremacist Jim Crow regime,” Probolus said.
Stacy Chapman said he is aware that Confederate memorials are being removed from public areas all over the South and he supports those efforts.
So, he sent his mother a new flag — a brown and orange Harley Davidson one. He also asked that an apology be extended to Brown and his family.
Sue Chapman, meanwhile, said she has not changed her mind: She and her late husband were never racists.
Chapman agreed to replace their flag with the Harley Davidson one because of her concern that continuing to fly something understood to be a hate symbol in front of her home could put her at risk of becoming a target of hate and violence herself.
Chapman said the new flag doesn’t hold quite the same meaning. Her son called her and her late husband “rebels,” and that will not change. She wants people to know that she hasn’t been bullied and “you haven’t won.”
But since she can’t change the world, she had to change her flag.
“You’re welcome,” she said.
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esnoot
Melik Brown maybe you should have talked to Sue yourself before starting a hate group of your own towards this woman. We all know the history and that is why its called history. We cant change it but we can make the future better by learning from it. Sue Chapman did nothing to you but you attacked her through social media. Shame on you
Thursday, March 3, 2022 Report this
JustineFacts
esnoot
What a ridiculous comment.
Monday, March 14, 2022 Report this
sbohne
I have a problem with someone wanting to fly the flag of a traitorous movement. Yes, it's our history, but dwell on this: Germany has no monuments to Hitler or Nazis...but to the victims. But if you MUST fly a Confederate flag, PLEASE be sure it is the HISTORICALLY ACCURATE ONE...a white flag of surrender!
Monday, March 14, 2022 Report this
JohnGrimaldi
esnoot, perhaps you should go back and understand history! The Confederate flag is a hate symbol.
I grew up in the South and had ancestors on both sides of the Civil War, but the "history" I was taught was false.
If Melik Brown posted truth on social media, do you have a problem with truth? Why do you call it a "hate campaign?"
If a neighbor flew a Swastika next to your house, would you have a problem with that? Would you call "shame" on a Holocaust survivor who posted about it on social media?
Monday, March 14, 2022 Report this
SusanRobertson1
I've driven past this house often in my 50 years living in Lansing. I've always found it an embarrassment, and an object of ridicule. I had no knowledge of the owners, nor did I ever care to have said knowledge. For the last 2 summers, everytime my grandson and I drove by, we flipped that flag off. Gestures of useless rage, but nevertheless, it felt good. I'm really glad it's gone.
Monday, March 14, 2022 Report this