COLUMBIA TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Kirk Chidester says he had distant relatives who fought for the South in the U.S. Civil War. He sees the Confederate flag they fought under as a battle flag and part of U.S. history. “You can’t erase history,” Chidester told the Jackson Citizen Patriot on Saturday as he and about 30 other people gathered in a southern Michigan community to commemorate Confederate Flag Day. The group carried various versions of the flag in a carpool lot in Columbia Township, southwest of Detroit. The public display of Confederate symbols has been widely debated since the slayings of nine black worshippers at a Charleston, South Carolina, church in June.