Confederate Flag Battle

The confederate flag brings many thoughts to many people, but the decision by the city of Ringgold NOT to fly it three years ago, has now brought a lawsuit.

A group with ties to the Sons of Confederate Veterans filed a lawsuit today..

The Southern Legal Resource Center filed this lawsuit in Ringgold today against the city, saying it's a Georgia state law that you can't disrupt a memorial, like the Ringgold Depot where the confederate flag used to fly.

They say they don't want money, they just want their symbol put back where it belongs.

Four flags fly at the Ringgold Depot today but none are the Confederate flag.

Kirk Lyons believes an effort is underway. "Seems like there's a concerted agenda of people that want to remove the confederate flag from public life and from public experience," Lyons said.

He came to Ringgold, as part of the Southern Legal Resource Center and filed this lawsuit.

He says the people that wanted to take it down simply don't understand its meaning.

"What I see is either a lot of cynicism, and unfortunately I see a lot of ignorance about what the confederate flag is and the history behind it, and bigotry, bigotry and intolerance," Lyons added.

The SLRC says back in 2005, the city of Ringgold took down the confederate flag from this pole and put up this Hardy Pattern

Battle flag instead, which they say is less recognizable and less legal. But when we called here to the ringgold city hall to get their

response they said they couldn't comment on this pending lawsuit.

Roger McCredie with S-L-R-C says the grounds for the lawsuit is simply the grounds where the flag flew.

McCredie says this property is part of a memorial to confederates that they helped design, and that can't be changed.

McCredie said, "The applicable section of Georgia law forbids the taking away of anything from or changing, or interfering with a memorial."

A memorial that some say is lacking without the flag their ancestors fought for.

Lyons added, "We're about love of our heritage and family and you're a part of it too, it's not about disrespecting you, it's about respecting our own heritage."

The group says they've been trying to get the flag back up for the last three years and have tried asking the city to reconsider... but they say it's come down to this final, legal step.