Welcome sign paired with Confederate flag sparks debate in Ohio city

WHIO Staff
·2 min read
2

Residents are raising concerns over a Confederate flag in a city south of Dayton.

Several people told our news partners at WCPO that not only is the flag shocking, but also the sign below it. The sign reads “Welcome to Harrison, Ohio.”

“I drive past here every single day and never, ever, ever seen anything like that,” Wayne Johnson told WCPO.

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The display also features Mayor Ryan Grubbs’ name on the welcome sign.

According to WCPO, Grubbs said in an email, “This was brought to my attention Saturday afternoon after the family that owns the property posted the sign and put the flag up. This is not a City property or project.”

The mayor said citizens have the right to free speech and choose to “speak” in different ways.

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“While the property owner may be within his rights, I do have a team looking into the display,” Grubbs said. “We are looking to see if it is in violation of any of our zoning requirements, or if it is misrepresentation. It would be very easy for individuals to think that it is a city display.”

Trudy Gaba, a social justice curator at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, told WCPO she isn’t shocked to see a Confederate flag fly in Ohio.

“Flags are representative of ideologies of belief systems,” Gaba said.

Gaba told WCPO it does complicate Ohio’s history, considering Ohio was a free state.

“It begs one to question what are we glorifying, what are we celebrating here,” she said. “The Confederate flag is emblematic of the desire to own people as property. You can’t separate that from today’s history.”

Gaba said flags like the one in Harrison are why places like the Freedom Center need to exist.

“The Freedom Center is committed to really unifying the plurality of our voices and perspectives, to look at history of the past, so that we can arrive at a different future — one in which we celebrate solidarity and unity, and we fight for equality,” Gaba told WCPO.