Confederate Flag Removed From Pennsylvania Capitol Display

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: ABC News / AP

Pennsylvania's governor had a Confederate flag removed from a Flag Day exhibit in the state Capitol on Wednesday after the chairwoman of the black legislators' caucus took it down and it was subsequently restored to the display.

Gov. Tom Wolf acted after learning of the dispute over a Confederate battle flag reproduction that's part of a historical society collection in Hanover. "The Confederate flag is a symbol of racism and hatred and he doesn't think it should be displayed in a state building," said Jeff Sheridan, spokesman for the Democratic governor.

Rep. Vanessa Lowery Brown, D-Philadelphia, said she was astonished to see the reproduction of an 1863 Confederate battle flag as she walked through the Capitol's east wing on Tuesday. "I just did what I thought was right and I took the flag down," said Brown, who heads the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus. She carried it into the House chambers and gave it to Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny.

<...>

Sheridan said the Department of General Services has the flag, along with two other Confederate reproductions that were also removed from the exhibit. Markle said the 50 flags on display were also exhibited in 1966 in the U.S. and Pennsylvania capitols.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/confederate-flag-removed-pennsylvania-capitol-display-39880437

---

Struggle after struggle. It never ends.

[PADemD]

1. Last year, there were four houses in our little PA town that were flying that flag.

[Orrex]

2. Hell, I know of four in my little PA town just on my way to work

Who knows how many others are festering out there?

It's encouraging to see such Confederate pride so far north of the Mason-Dixon.

[riversedge]

3. Slow but sure. It will end some day--not in my lifetime that I know.

[Duckko]

4. Excellent move

Our flag is the American flag.

[Doctor Jack]

5. That reminds me of something that happened when I lived in Minnesota

This was last year. A firefighter was in the 4th of July parade in a town just north of St. Paul and he flew a confederate flag from his truck in the parade. The reaction almost everyone had was "Minnesota wasn't even part of the Confederacy!". Same thing I wonder about here. Why is Pennsylvania, which also wasn't in the confederacy, displaying confederate flags?

Oh, the firefighter has given a very long suspension for that stunt.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. In this case

it was part of a traveling display of 50 past and recent U.S. flags.

However the Mason-Dixon Line runs right along the entire southern border of PA and if you drive down I95 to MD from here in Philly, there's a spot when you cross the border between DE and MD that marks that line (the informal separation between the "North" and the "South&quot .

I have relatives in MN and the irony there is the Mississippi River that runs all the way up through the Twin Cities (an old route that transported southerners to the north and vice versa).

[marble falls]

6. Why is the Dixie Rag being shown for any reason in PA??? ....

Old joke:

What lays between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh? Alabama.

Rep. Vanessa Lowery Brown, D-Philadelphia for Congress!

[BumRushDaShow]

8. See reply #7.

Was there as part of a temporary traveling display celebrating Flag Day. Was glad it was highlighted and removed from the display!

[marble falls]

9. I read that. Its only a justification for showing it, a step above rationalization. My question is:

Why is there any reason at all to show the Dixie Rag anywhere, flag display or not. No one knows what it looks like?

[BumRushDaShow]

10. I agree

and it will take years of doing this (removing it) to eradicate that pestilence. Of course there will always be those who insist that they can display it as part of their "first amendment rights".

[marble falls]

11. Democracy is something we have to work at every day. Thanks for posting this OP. Its important stuff

[BumRushDaShow]

12. +infinity

[Adrahil]

15. Well Gettysburg is in PA. No reason to not show it there....

That town pretty much exists around the Battlefield, and probably 90% of the businesses are based on tourism. I think it's reasonable to display the flag in that context. I am very anti-confederate battle flag, but pro-history.

[modrepub]

13. Is this analogy over the top?

I believe the Representative's reasons for pulling the flag are legitimately different than mine; I also think that we've whitewashed the whole history of Slavery in this country but that's another story.

So here's my question: Would this be like flying the Nazi or Imperial Japanese flag over the WW II memorial and claiming it's just for "historical" purposes? I'd like to think that any WW II veteran would be incensed by that type of display.

A little background, if you've been to Gettysburg you'd notice differences in some of the monuments on the field. The Confederate ones especially on the areas of the first day's battle, which the Confederates carried, are metal since they were placed for the most part in the 20th century. Nearly all the Confederate markers on the battlefield were not placed until well after most Union soldiers had died and control of the fields passed from Union Veteran organizations to the National Park Service. Confederate soldiers would participate in some of the last gatherings of Civil War veterans but there was a long time when the presence of a Confederate soldier on that scared field wasn't welcome. In Philadelphia mobs broke windows of any prominent person who didn't drape their houses in black as Lincoln's body passed thought the city.

It's clear to me, at least, that there was little sympathy for the Confederates by Pennsylvanians and other people who supported the Union and they would, IMHO, be appalled that openly Confederate symbols would be displayed in one of the states that provided the largest number of soldiers to the Union armies.

[BumRushDaShow]

14. I live not far from where a huge Civil War hospital complex existed

The Mower hospital serviced injured soldiers who were brought there by train from the front lines in the south. The facility was a good ways from downtown, in the NW part of the city.

The entire complex was bowled down when the war was over. Houses, apartment buildings, and a shopping area were built on the land, but the train station remains (still in service and run by SEPTA) and the old stone water tower that supplied water to the complex is still around (now part of a park/playground with tennis courts right across from an elementary school that I had briefly attended back in the late '60s). You wouldn't know what was there before - it's pretty remarkable.

So yeah, very much a Union city.