Confederate flag still under voluntary ban for 2021 Medina County Fair, residents want further action

MEDINA — A voluntary agreement remains in place for vendors to not sell the Confederate flag at this year's Medina County Fair, according to fair directors. While sale of the flag is still permitted in vendor contracts, the Medina County Agricultural Society board announced last June that vendors had agreed to end its sale and display during the weeklong event. Residents including Medina County Auditor Mike Kovack recently contacted the board regarding a permanent ban. "After last year, I was tremendously surprised to see that this year's vendor contracts didn't ban the sale of Confederate flag merchandise," Kovack said in statement. "County residents were clear last year when they demanded it. I hope this omission was an oversight rather than an intentional move backwards." In June 2020, the fair board cited case law labeling county agricultural societies as political subdivisions and classifying some fair activities as governmental functions. Because of those government functions, the board said that a ban would be subject to constitutional challenges and decided against such action. When reached Monday, board President Mike Gall said that stance along with the voluntary vendor ban has not changed. "We don't have any new vendors coming in this year and they're all the same ones who agreed to not sell it last year," he said. "Our position is we've asked our vendors to not sell or display the flag and they've voluntarily cooperated with that. We told them it's a sensitive issue for our area and they've understood that. There hasn't been any arm-twisting. They're not going to be selling items of that nature." Those urging the fair to institute a ban have pointed to examples of that step being taken at the Ohio State Fair and among entities including the U.S. military, NASCAR, the state of New York, Amazon, Walmart and eBay. "This is a family event and we don't try to bring politics and so forth into that," Gall said. "My advice would be that if they want a true ban they start with their state Legislature. We're just not taking that position politically. We don't take political positions on that kind of stuff." Medina County Indivisible plans to hold a demonstration against continued sale of the flag from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Medina Square. "Medina County has long sought to be a welcoming place for everyone," said Leah Nichols, a Medina resident who has led the call for the flag to be banned at the fair since last year. "Allowing people to promote and profit from racism and hate at a public event is antithetical to our community values." Last year, the state of Mississippi passed legislation to redesign its flag and remove Confederate symbolism. State flags in Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina, Arkansas and Georgia are still considered to contain related imagery. What came to be known as the Confederate flag was first carried by the Army of Northern Virginia, the confederacy's primary military force on the Civil War eastern front. Historians believe this design was drawn up due to the confederacy's national flag at the time looking too similar to the United States' Stars and Stripes, which commanders thought might cause battlefield confusion. While the Confederate flag itself was largely absent from public discourse between the end of the Civil War and the 1940s, the vast majority of U.S. Confederate monuments were built between 1890 and 1950. In contrast to most earlier memorials that aimed to honor dead soldiers as a group, these were built with depictions of figures such as Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. Since the mid-20th century, the Confederate flag has carried close association with the Ku Klux Klan as well as numerous other hate groups and neo-Nazi organizations. "What kind of message are we sending to visitors of the fair if we don't stand against this hate symbol?" Kovack asked. "What message are we sending to local businesses hoping to attract a diverse and skilled workforce? To our children and grandchildren? To out-of-county visitors? We can do better, and we should." Many bearers of the flag say it symbolizes Southern heritage and is not a symbol of hate. Contact reporter Jonathan Delozier at (330) 721-4050 or jdelozier@medina-gazette.com.