While most of America was focused on remembering the fallen soldiers who gave their lives to defend freedom, “performance artist” John Sims and other Detroit social justice crusaders were busy “de-zombifying” the Confederate flag.

“We are de-zombifying the flag,” Sims, 49, announced at a “cremation” for the Confederate flag held at the site of the city’s infamous 1967 race riots on Monday. “The flag should have died with the soldiers on the battlefield.”

A crowd of dozens – many local poets, artists and social justice advocates – cheered Sims on as he tossed a full sized, folded Confederate flag into a pit of flames. Afterwards, those who attended the event tossed their own paper Confederate flags into the fire before filing inside to drink and toast to the death of what they view as a symbol of white supremacy, Al Jazeera reports.

“This is a time to think about what the Civil War really means and how the flag, after the war, was co-opted by the Ku Klux Klan and turned into a symbol of terrorism and intimidation,” Sims said. “We’re drawing strength from the protest energy of Detroit … and the pride and capacity of its people to speak up and respond actionably.”

According to Simms’ website “Burn and Bury,” “the goal of this annual action is to send a powerful message to the nation, especially under the Trump presidency and alt right politics, that the Civil War is over, and the days of the Confederate flag and white supremacy are numbered.”

The ceremonial cremation “is also a way to honor the memory of social justice soldiers who fought against slavery and for Civil Rights and everywhere in between,” the website reads. “Sims wants to send the message that it is time for the Confederate flag to act as a symbol for cathartic action, giving birth to a new ritual for all Americans to engage a moment and space of healing and transformation.”

The Memorial Day ceremony was open to the public, though Burn and Bury solicited a “$10 suggested donation” to attend the event, held at the N’Namdi’s Art Gallery in Midtown. The antics were also live streamed on Sims’ website.

This year’s event marked the first time Sims had burned the flag in his hometown, which is home to the highest concentration of black folks of any city in the nation. Sims’ previous Confederate flag “performance art” included repainting the flag in Pan-African colors and waiving it at a KKK rally, and lynching the flag at Gettysburg in front of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Al Jazeera reports.

At previous demonstrations, Sims was confronted with death threats and allegations of racism. In Detroit, his antics were met with cries of “Amen!” and “Yes!”

“For some people it’s the symbol of some kind of pride,” Jessica Care Moore, a local poet who attended the Detroit ceremony, told WJBK. “When you think of what that war was about, it was about keeping us in bondage.”

“If you’re an artist and you’re not talking about what’s happening, then you’re not really doing what your call is,” another attendee, Sabrina Nelson, told WXYZ.

The ceremony follows building movement to remove Confederate symbols in the wake of a racially motivated church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015. The racist who killed nine black church members liked to pose with the Confederate flag on Facebook.

Shortly after the massacre, South Carolina removed the Confederate flag from the statehouse, and officials in numerous cities have moved to dismantle Confederate monuments and rename schools and buildings originally named after Confederate leaders.

Most recently, in New Orleans, city officials faced protests from both supporters and opponents of several Confederate monuments removed in the city.

But not everyone believes that simply erasing the country’s ugly history is the brightest idea.

Ryan Spencer, who manages The Henry Ford Museum’s Greenfield Village in Dearborn, said the Confederate flag is an important educational component for the hundreds of folks who come out to reenact the Civil War every year, according to the Detroit Patch.

“Civil War remembrance comes from a place of mourning, and the country is still trying to come to terms with what happened – the good and the bad,” Spencer told Al Jazerra. “Difficult history is still history. We can’t just forget.”