AUGUSTA — The two sides rarely meet, but the issue keeps bringing them together.

As a few hundred black delegates to the annual S.C. NAACP convention wrapped up business Saturday, about 100 white demonstrators waved Confederate flags on the street, protesting the presence of the civil-rights organization.

“They basically brought their boycott of South Carolina into Georgia and demanded we bring down the Confederate flag,” complained Woody Highsmith of Evans, Ga., one of the demonstrators. “I believe it was on their agenda to get the flag off these monuments.”

Highsmith and his allies contend that the national NAACP is on a mission to remove all symbols of the Confederacy from public view, starting with flags then concentrating on Confederate monuments. This latest confrontation was sparked when Augusta Mayor Bob Young ordered a Confederate flag be taken off Riverwalk Park, the city’s most visible public attraction.

Young removed the flag a few weeks ago at the request of Augusta’s NAACP branch, which had consulted with the South Carolina branch. The mayor said local businesses and civic groups supported the flag’s removal.

“He wanted to change history,” Highsmith said.

The Rev. H.H. Singleton, president of the NAACP’s Conway branch, says the issue is simple.

“Listen,” he said. “We’re not against the Confederacy, just against the Confederacy flying the flag on the people’s ground.

“We’re saying the Confederate flag is not a bona fide state flag (of) the state of South Carolina... . No flag, not the NAACP flag nor the Confederate flag, should fly at the state Capitol, except for the U.S. flag and the South Carolina flag.”

Singleton is the only South Carolina member who sits on the national board of the NAACP. The S.C. group held its meeting in Augusta to honor its continuing economic boycott of South Carolina over the flag issue.

Many of the weekend’s protesters actually have a problem with Georgia’s recent history with the Confederate flag. Former Gov. Roy Barnes had the state flag changed from a Confederate design in 2001 to a blue field with small representations of several flags. The protesters said Barnes promised a referendum on a new flag design but didn’t deliver.

“Why can’t we come together and reach some agreement?” asked Walter Riggins, a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans Old Abbeville Camp 39. “All we ask is to stop taking away our flags and monuments. The people they (the NAACP) have a problem with is the Ku Klux Klan, not the banner.”

Riggins on Saturday wore a handmade gray infantry uniform replicating what he said his great-great-grandfather wore in the Civil War.

“I’d be the first to say what happened to the blacks was wrong, hateful and awful. But the only way we’ll ever settle this is for both sides to get together and stop the bigotry, stop the hatred.”

Meanwhile, protesters held up signs that read “The NAACP is a hate group” or “Flush the NAACP” or “NAACP racism.”

Various heritage groups participated in Saturday’s demonstration. One group placed a broken toilet on the sidewalk across from the Radisson Riverfront Hotel Augusta and stuck the effigy of a man’s body in it, head first.

“The key to this whole thing is to teach the truth in our schools,” said Michelle Hamlin of Atlanta, who waved a Confederate flag. “Teach ... that there was love in the families (between slaves and slave masters).

“We love those antebellum homes, but oh, don’t talk about slavery. Whites feel that we are not gonna get anywhere until whites and blacks learn history and settle on the truth. Education is the key.”

Hamlin said that the South’s history-laden tourism industry is at risk for both blacks and whites because of “constant friction” about the Confederate flag. She suggested that whites and blacks should “unite” as Southerners.

“This is not a black and white thing, it’s a culture thing,” said Rex Johnson of south Atlanta, who carried a Confederate flag draped over his shoulder. “What I want is the right to teach our children to be proud of our culture, and we want the nation to know we have the right to teach our children about our culture.”

Sen. John Matthews, D-Orangeburg, an NAACP member, said there still is a problem.

“You have two organizations looking at the same thing and seeing something different. We see that as a racist symbol of slavery. That’s a symbol of the past. They won’t turn the past aloose. As long as that flag represents racism and the past, there will always be conflict.”

A spokesman for the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office said the department had 35 officers on duty for the day of protest and there were no incidents or arrests.

Reach Burris at (803) 771-8398 or rburris@thestate.com.