Protest organizer Erin Kreeger said she coordinated the event after seeing a news story about a lone protester sitting outside the flag owner's house on July 3.
"I saw the flag before but I wasn't sure how to express my displeasure with it," Kreeger said. "So then when I saw the lone guy sitting outside with a sign, I was like, I can do that. We can all do that."
When Kreeger heard that Germaine planned to fly the flag again on July 13, she made a Facebook event to gather some friends and family members to stand on the sidewalk with signs. More people shared the event until about 236 had signed up as interested.
Andrea Crouse (from left), Ethan Adams, 11, and Carolyn Adams all of Duluth hold signs Monday while participating in a protest against Arthur Germaine Jr. who flies a Confederate Flag at his home in the Lakeside neighborhood of Duluth. (Clint Austin / caustin@duluthnews.com)
Kreeger said the sidewalk protest was planned with the goal of providing education about the Confederate flag. She said she hoped that the protest would "show solidarity and build community conversations about why the flag is harmful."
Protesters were also encouraged to wear masks, stay 6 feet away from other participants, spread out along Glenwood Street and not block street or sidewalk traffic.
The protest started small at 4:30 p.m. but eventually grew to about 100 people standing alongside two blocks of Glenwood Street by Germaine's house. At first Germaine ignored the protesters, playing march music from his house with the door open.
Arthur Germaine Jr. of Duluth uses a megaphone to talk to protesters Monday from his front porch on Glenwood Street in Duluth. Germaine displays a Confederate flag on his house during major confederate holidays. (Clint Austin / caustin@duluthnews.com)
Many of Germaine's neighbors turned out to watch the protests. Some joined the protesters such as Sara McNeill.
"I've seen that flag fly a few times and we decided it was time to speak up and not be silent any longer," McNeill said. "We want to make sure that people know that he doesn't represent the community of Lakeside as a whole."
About midway through the protest, Germaine's neighbor Verne Wagner approached his house to talk with him about removing the flag.
"We've lived in this neighborhood since 1984 and we believe in the freedom of speech and all that, but we don't appreciate him drawing all this attention," Wagner said. "And that's what this is all about for him, the attention. So I want to just ask him as a neighbor. Because what does it say to our non-white neighbors? How does that welcome them?"
The two conversed for several minutes on Germaine's front porch, but the flag stayed in place following the conversation.
A driver of a truck pulls over Monday on Glenwood Street to tell a group of protesters, "there are 50 more trucks coming to mow you down." The protesters filled the sidewalks near the home of Arthur Germaine Jr. to get him to stop flying a Confederate flag at his home in Duluth. (Clint Austin / caustin@duluthnews.com)
Germaine said he flies the flag on every major Confederate date, not just Forrest's birthday. He said he does it because "secession is the linchpin of the Confederacy," and that it's "not a symbol of hate."
"The men who marched under that flag were the envy of the world at that time," Germaine said. "The opinion of those people (the protesters) is not universal. They want to strip us of our pride and I will not be stripped."
Toward the end of the protest, Germaine sat outside on his porch. Protesters began to chant "Do the right thing, take the flag down!" and "Black Lives Matter." Germaine used a loudspeaker and began to respond to the protesters.
"You're wrong-headed," he said. "This has nothing to do with Black lives."
Eventually, Kreeger thanked protesters for coming and encouraged them to disperse. The crowd began to clear around 6:15 p.m.
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Protesters gather as Duluth homeowner flies Confederate flag - Duluth News Tribune
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