The connection of the Confederate Battle Flag with the murders of nine church members in South Carolina has prompted the National Park Service to end sales of the flag in gift shops and bookstores located inside parks.
“We strive to tell the complete story of America,” Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis said of the agency’s reputation for telling difficult parts of our history. “All sales items in parks are evaluated based on educational value and their connection to the park. Any stand-alone depictions of Confederate flags have no place in park stores.”
In a news release the director said the murders of nine church members at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, which is near Fort Sumter National Monument, galvanized a national discussion that includes symbols and relics from our nation’s past such as the Confederate Battle Flag. A manifesto linked to the suspect in the case included photos of himself with versions of the Confederate flag.
“As that discussion spread across the country,” Director Jarvis said, “one of our largest cooperating associations, Eastern National, began to voluntarily remove from the park stores that it manages any items that depict a Confederate flag as its primary feature. I’ve asked other cooperating associations, partners and concession providers to withdraw from sale items that solely depict a Confederate flag.”
In the telling of the historical story, Confederate flags have a place in books, exhibits, reenactments, and interpretive programs, the Park Service said. Books, DVDs, and other educational and interpretive media where the Confederate flag image is depicted in its historical context may remain as sales items as long as the image cannot be physically detached. Confederate flags include the Stainless Banner, the Third National Confederate Flag, and the Confederate Battle Flag.
Comments
According to the NPS Facebook page, "The flag will continue to be used or displayed in national parks when it is in a historical context, such as in a museum exhibit, to signify troop locations, or in a reenactment or living history program."
It is hard to see how this policy will be implemented at Manassas NBP. Almost evey sale item comes with the Confederate flag.
"Any stand-alone depictions of Confederate flags have no place in park stores." This seems to imply an interpretation of the flag, in this context, as its valorization, in which case I would agree with the statement from Jarvis. Good for NPS.
I may have missed an editing function in the Traveler's new format, but my previous comment seems to converge with Jim's observation. Thanks for that, Jim.
Agreed, beachdumb. A good day.
My previous comment was a reply to beachdumb's comment, "Thanks to the new activist SCOTUS, we can now replace all those confederate flags with rainbow flags." I don't seem to have figured out the editing in this new format.
For those standing in defense of the flag, is it political correctness and liberal left wingers? Or might it actually be something you haven't considered.
Step into the shoes of another for a moment.
Imagine yourself to be of the Jewish faith and having to look at a Schwaztika flying over your state's capitol.
Now imagine yourself to be a descendant of slaves or even one who remembers the days not very long ago of White and Colored drinking fountains and then imagine yourself having to see the Stars and Bars flying from a flagpole or plastered on the back window of a pickup truck.
Are you aware that the Confederate flag was not flown in Carolina or on other state flags until the 1960's. It was then place there as a middle finger salute to the Civil Rights Movement and the terrible Federal government when the Feds forced good White southerners to start to associate with those *******.
Does that change your viewpoint at all. If it doesn't you may need to do some real soul searching.
"Not at all a surprise to see the far right wing falling all over itself to justify emblems of both racism"
A rather ironic statement given it was the republicans who fought to end slavery in the first place. Perhaps that's why they don't suffer from an irrational guilt complex.