Will Dallas be next battleground for Confederate symbol protesters?

By Ruth Ferguson, NDG Editor

The protests America is watching unfold in Charlottesville is a fight that actually began in May over attempts to remove Confederate related symbols from the University of Virginia. This has increasingly become a hot topic in Dallas in recent months and there was a clash this week between two groups on opposite ends of the debate.

Last night at the University of Virginia, an alt-right protest was broken up by police who declared it was unlawful assembly because they lacked the proper permits. However, there was a planned protest featuring members of various white nationalists, white supremacists, and alt-right groups on Saturday, followed by counter-protests. The governor called for a state of emergency because of the potential for increased violence between the clashing factions.

Now reports and videos show a car has deliberately rammed into a crowd of counter-protesters.  Recent unconfirmed reports indicate injured and one dead from the attack. Also, reportedly the driver, who fled the scene, has been arrested.

In his recent column, Ed Gray NDG’s Senior Columnist called for the removal of the Confederate symbols throughout Dallas. On Thursday, a group gathered at the Dallas’ Confederate War Memorial in Downtown Dallas at Pioneer Park Cemetery. Eventually, the event reportedly became a shouting match as counter-protesters showed up waving the Confederate flag claiming the Civil War was about taxation, not slavery.

The two groups disbanded as they tried to out sing each other. One singing, “We Shall Overcome” while the others sang, “I Wish I Was in Dixie.”