HARRISBURG — In an effort to bring attention to acts of racism in Pennsylvania, Harrisburg-area activist Gene Stilp announced plans to launch a statewide tour of county courthouses, beginning in Perry County on Nov. 9.
Stilp is applying for a permit to burn a combined Nazi/Confederate flag outside of the courthouse as part of the tour, he said Wednesday.
Stilp has held several ceremonial flag burnings over the last few months. He burned a Nazi/Confederate flag outside the Columbia County Courthouse in September to mark the beginning of the Bloomsburg Fair after vendors there received permission from the fair’s board to sell Confederate flags.
After Columbia County commissioners approved his request, Stilp burned a flag, with the Nazi swastika on one side and the Confederate battle flag on the other, in a metal trash can outside the courthouse. He said the combined flag made the point that both symbols represented “misguided value systems…racism, hatred, bigotry, white supremacy, slavery, intimidation, intolerance, and death.”
Stilp has also burned flags outside NASCAR races in Dover, Delaware, Talladega, Alabama and Martinsville, Virginia after President Donald Trump pointed to NASCAR as a sport where no one would take a knee during the national anthem, contrasting that behavior with that of several NFL players, who said they chose to kneel in an attempt to bring attention to racial injustice.
The confederate-nazi flag burning will start at the Perry County Courthouse on November 9 and continue to the Luzerne County Courthouse in mid-November and then the Lycoming County Courthouse. Other courthouses will follow as permits are obtained under the First Amendment, Stilp says.
“The educational effort is designed to make people think about the symbols they are displaying and what they mean,” Stilp said.
