OKLAHOMA CITY — The President’s Oklahoma visit sparked controversy all over the state.

Supporters of the confederate flag have their own message to send to President Obama.

In Durant, Okla. Wednesday morning, trucks lined up awaiting his arrival, and now supporters are in Bricktown.

Supporters want to let the President know the Confederate flag, they say, stands for heritage, not hate. The organizer of the event is someone you might not expect to see standing behind this cause.

It is a red, white and blue that, for many, carries a message of hate… but that’s not the point these folks want to get across.

“We don’t believe it’s a symbol of racism,” Andrew Duncomb, an organizer in Oklahoma City who calls himself “the Black Rebel” says.

“Hell, I’m just out here supporting my flag, not racists, I don’t want no [sic] problems with anybody,” a supporter said.

Andrew Duncomb

A message contrary to the thousands gathering weeks earlier in South Carolina to remove the very same flag.

“They’re blaming the racist problems on the flag and not on the real problems of America. Through the race lies the people who carry and harbor the hate inside,” Duncomb says.

One man says he feels passionate about it, so he organized the rally.

“Again, look at these people, they all followed the black guy out here. Do you think that any of them are racists,” Duncomb says.

While our cameras were there, some Oklahomans spoke out.

“Sir, I’m letting you know that this flag right here represents hate,” Kiana Smith, an Oklahoma woman said.

“I’m letting you know that all these people out here right here do not believe it’s about hate, they believe it’s about heritage” Duncomb responded.

But the woman was not buying that thought.

“Please do not be fooled and brainwashed by the misconceptions, that flag in the south was about slavery,” Smith says.

This group was the same one that was lined up downtown to greet the President. They say they plan on setting up more rallies in the future.

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In Oklahoma, protesters greet Obama with Confederate flags

By SARAH WHEATON

 

7/15/15 11:56 PM EDT

OKLAHOMA CITY — Confederate battle flags greeted President Barack Obama as he arrived here for an overnight stay on Wednesday.

Across the street from his hotel in downtown Oklahoma City, as many as 10 people waved the flags as his motorcade arrived. The group stood among a larger group of demonstrators, many of them there to support the president, who is in town ahead of a visit to a federal prison on Thursday as part of his weeklong push on criminal justice issues.

According to local news organizations, a man named Andrew Duncomb, who calls himself the “black rebel,” organized the Confederate flag demonstration. He also put together a similar protest on Saturday at the Oklahoma State Capitol — just a day after South Carolina removed its contested flag from the State Capitol grounds. His Facebook page features photos from that rally.

Wearing a T-shirt bearing Obama’s picture, Sequoya Turner stayed at the demonstration site at the convention center across from Obama’s hotel 45 minutes after the flag-bearers had left, trying to compensate for the flag display.

“He should’ve had a better welcome than he had,” Turner said, breaking into tears. She said she grew up all over Oklahoma and has lived in its capital for seven years, and said Confederate flags are not a common sight, “maybe every blue moon.”

Aside from one exchange of words between a passerby and the flag-wavers, the mixed-race crowd was relatively peaceful and its members tried to ignore one another, she said.