After the manufacturer decided to no longer supply Confederate flags to her business, Alabama Flag and Banner owner Belinda Kennedy decided to take matters into her own hands.
Starting early Friday morning, Belinda and the employees at Alabama Flag and Banner began producing Confederate flags in-store using their own materials and equipment.
And just as soon as they hit the machines, the orders came pouring in.
"I feel like my responsibility to my customers is to fulfill their needs when they want it, and I had customers wanting it and I wasn't going to turn them away as I felt like I had been turned away," Kennedy said.
Sales for the Confederate flag spiked for her business on Tuesday, the owner said, as the flag faced new controversy after a man confessed to killing nine people in a Charleston, S.C. church last week. The shooter, Dylann Roof, appeared on a white supremacist website holding a Confederate flag.
Although the flag is perceived by some as a symbol of hate following the church shooting, Alabama Flag and Banner will continue to sell it to their customers.
As of 3:45 p.m. on Friday, the business reported over 1,000 sales, with orders continuously rolling in, both online and in-store.
"It's simply a historic flag," Kennedy commented. "It's not hate, it's history...and the people that are making it a racial issue are pushing an agenda."
m_gallery = "alabama_flag_company_begins_co"; m_gallery_id = "18204862"; m_gallery_total = "5"; m_gallery_blog_id = "4558"; m_gallery_related_slide = "0";