Many Tulsa Stores Removing Confederate Flag From Shelves

Several big manufacturers say they're going to stop making Confederate flags, and local stores that have sold them before are taking them off the shelves.

At Liberty Flags, the number one seller is, by far, the stars and stripes, but they have lots of other flags they sell all the time.

In contrast, they only occasionally sell a Confederate flag and the customer usually wants something specific for some sort of historical display, according to Charlotte Zakharian.

"There's museums all over that have flags flying," she said.

In the last few days, they said there's been more demand for the Confederate battle flag, but it's clear the supply is drying up.

The big flag manufacturers have stopped making them and Liberty has stopped selling what's left.

Zakharian said, "We want to be respectful and conscientious, we don't want to fuel a fire for anyone, so everything is gone off the shelf, everything has been removed."

Some history buffs, like Rudy Reynolds, worry the new drive to eliminate the Confederate flag ignores America's history and tarnishes the memory of soldiers who fought in the Civil War.

"We had it in the camp, we took it on the battlefield," he said.

Reynolds is a Civil War reenactor and had ancestors on both sides of the Civil War. He likes to honor their memory by taking part in reenactments, and, of course, flying the flag.

"To take it away from memorials, that's like taking the flag from Arlington, the American flags away. They fought for what they believed in; there were Americans, 600,000 died in that war, both sides,” he said.

While American factories and stores are getting out of the Confederate flag business, at Liberty they're sure some overseas company will meet the demand, but they don't sell imported flags and they won't sell Confederate flags either.