Confederate flag in North Carolina state building will come down
A Confederate flag that was briefly displayed inside the old North Carolina State Capitol building is coming down and will be moved along with an exhibit on the Civil War to another site.
The flag had been hanging for about a week before the Associated Press published a story about its display inside the building, which houses the governor’s offices.
In a statement provided by the governor’s office, Susan Kluttz, the head of the state Cultural Resources office said the intent of the exhibit was to represent the Capitol the way it was in 1863.
State Historic Sites director Keith Hardison told the AP the battle flag should be seen in proper historical context. The president of the North Carolina NAACP, the Rev. William Barber, objected to that notion.
“He is right that it has a historical context,†Barber told the AP. “But what is that history? The history of racism. The history of lynchings. The history of death. The history of slavery. If you say that shouldn’t be offensive, then either you don’t know the history, or you are denying the history.â€
Kim Genardo, a spokeswoman for Gov. Pat McCrory, told the Los Angeles Times on Saturday that the governor had been under the impression that the exhibit would be up for a short time. When he learned that the flag would be displayed until 2015 the decision was made to move it. She said the governor’s office had not received any complaints about the flag.
The exhibit was part of a multi-year effort to mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War in North Carolina, which over three years has featured various aspects of the war, Genardo said. The Confederate flag had gone up only recently.
It will now be moved to a museum or state historic site, she said. A final decision on the location will be made sometime next week.
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