Cooter Defends The General Lee, Vows To Keep Selling The Confederate Flag

The reaction to Tuesday’s news that Warner Bros. would stop licensing recreations of the General Lee from “Dukes of Hazzard” due to its Confederate flag roof has drawn enough reaction to fill all the hollers in Kentucky. Today, the actor who’s made a lifetime career out of his role in the show announced he would stick by the flag and the show, modernity be damned.

Ben Jones, who played Cooter in the series, runs a chain of “Cooter’s Place” stores in Tennessee and serves as the unofficial head of Hazzard fandom, organizing festivals and making public appearances with his copy of the General Lee. In a Facebook message (changed here from the all-caps version as posted,) Jones said the Confederate battle flag was a “symbol of independence,” and vowed his stores would keep selling them until a chilly day in hell.