Last year, I shared my surprise in all of the welcoming and supportive messages I discovered throughout the small towns of West Texas and New Mexico, so I knew I wanted to share my experience this time around too.
Needless to say, this roadside welcome was not as warm.
Just before Cooper Chapel, there’s a sign marking the city limits of Bella Vista, AR. The FIRST HOUSE after that sign flies a Rebel flag. It wasn’t the first I’d seen, and wouldn’t be the last. Roadside vendors lined the highways between towns with their flags for sale: American, Arkansas, POW/MIA, Rebel. Without fail. After losing a little time on the backroads to Dogwood Canyon, the fact that I’d barely seen any other cars left me inclined to punch it, but all the Rebel flags I had seen tacitly reminded me to stay in line. The flag just inside the Bella Vista city limits particularly felt like a warning, as I’m sure was intended: come visit, but keep on moving. So when an oversized, overly aggressive truck appeared behind me, all of my defense mechanisms went up. Were they from the house with the Rebel flag? Did they have one hanging themselves? Was I going the speed limit? Was I going too slow? If I pass the car in front of me, am I making myself a target? Am I if I don’t? If I miss my turn, where is it safe to double back? If something happens to my car, can I pull over here, or trust anyone who might help? WILL anyone help?
I arrived safely and without incident, but where my other countryside drives had felt carefree and scenic, after the Rebel flags dotting my drives to Cooper Chapel and Dogwood Canyon near & over the Arkansas/Missouri state line, I didn’t see anything beyond my mirrors, my gauges, and the yellow lines ahead.
I didn’t know how I would tell that story until the day I discovered this one at the Smithsonian’s Green Book exhibit at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center.
There was no robed Klansman for me, but that’s the insidiousness of modern-day racism, isn’t it? It could be anyone. At least the ones flying Rebel flags show their faces.
where i wandered:
where joy wanders 