Confederate flag returns outside South Carolina arena before NCAA game
A few hours before second-round games begin at the NCAA tournament regional in Greenville, S.C., a Confederate battle flag — the most polarizing symbol in the state — was flying in one of the most visible places near Bon Secours Wellness Arena.
A columnist for the Raleigh News and Observer was among several media outlets to tweet a photograph of the “Stars and Bars” waving on the top level of an adjoining parking garage. It flew near the arena’s main fan entrance, making almost certain that — if it’s not removed before — many attendees at Sunday afternoon’s games will see it on their way in. The University of North Carolina, the No. 1 seed in the tournament’s South regional, is scheduled to tip off against eighth-seeded Arkansas at 6:10 p.m.
Furman University, whose campus is a few miles from the arena, is the host school for the Greenville regional. Last summer, the NCAA moved the regional from Greensboro, N.C., to South Carolina in response to North Carolina’s House Bill 2, which makes it unlawful for transgender people to use restrooms for the gender with which they identify.
That decision came a little more than a year after the NCAA ended a 14-year boycott of predetermined postseason events in South Carolina, whose State House in Columbia displayed the Confederate battle flag on capitol grounds until July 2015.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2017/live-updates/ncaa/2017-march-madness-live-updates-and-analysis/confederate-flag-returns-outside-south-carolina-arena-before-ncaa-game/
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