Display with Confederate flags, figures with wigs spurs controversy

LINDALE, OH - A display featuring several Confederate flags, black figures with wigs, and a black mannequin with painted lips is spurring controversy in Lindale.

Some witnesses have described the display as disturbing. The homeowners claim they have received threats over it.

The flags and figurines are outside a home in the 2000 block of OH-132, about a 30-minute drive east from downtown Cincinnati.

"In no way, shape, or form should anybody think that it's racist," said Louie Jones, Jr., who lives at the home where the display is set up.

Jones says the porch has multiple antique pieces on it including a tin poster of John Wayne, a lantern, and a gnome.

Jones lives at the home with his father. He says the display has been up for years.

FOX19 NOW's Maytal Levi asked Jones: "What would you say to someone driving by this saying that family hates black people?"

"Everybody hates everybody, ya know?" Jones said. "It just depends on what you hate and what you like. It ain't got nothing to do with race, we ain't racial."

Jones' friend Tammy lives down the street.

"They went up a few of them at one time and then a couple more were added, but the flags have always flown, that's for our country," she said.

Jones says it's a "rebel flag."

"It's not racist," he said. "It's for the war that we won."

"Which war?" questioned Levi.

"The Civil War," Levi responded. "So, that would be the wrong flag."

"In some people's eyes," said Tammy.

Jim Wenker has lived in Clermont County for most of his life. He says Lindale is a quiet community but some things are unacceptable.

"If he's doing something in poor taste with something black as an effigy or whatever that's not appropriate," said Wenker.

When Levi asked about the meaning of each figure on the porch, Tammy replied, "All the baseball players on there are actually from the first blacks that played the baseball game."

Levi asked, "What's the black mannequin supposed to represent?"

Tammy replied: "Like, the mother of the baseball players, basically."

Jones says his family has been threatened over the display, but doesn't plan on taking it down anytime soon.