Local activist Chris Adams was back at the Coffee County Courthouse Thursday morning, this time with a handful of reinforcements and a permit to picket issued by the City of Douglas.
Adams first showed up outside the courthouse Wednesday morning, dressed in a Confederate Army replica uniform and waving a former state flag of Georgia that prominently displayed the Confederate battle emblem. Adams was asked to leave shortly after appearing Wednesday by someone he thought was a law enforcement officer.
“The man came up to me and said the ‘head lady’ at the courthouse wanted me to leave because she didn’t feel comfortable with my presence there,” Adams said.
As it turns out, the man who approached Chris was not a law enforcement officer at all, but a person he described as wearing a organge shirt with a sheriff’s office baseball cap, who remains unnamed.
With some help, the 18-year-old protestor obtained a permit to picket from the City of Douglas that grants him persmission to protest on city property adjacent to the courthouse so long as the activities do not impede vehicle or pedestrian traffic flow or parking lot entrances and exits.
The permit also grants permission to picket this Saturday, June 27.
Adams stated earlier this week the current controversy surrounding the Confederate battle emblem was only scratching the surface of the issue. With the recent decision to remove South Carolina’s flag from the capitol building, he is concerned other states are considering banning Confederate flags on state property. He added he is particular worried this movement will wipe out the memory of thirty of his ancestors who fought for the Confederacy.