The graves of Confederate war dead buried at federal cemeteries will likely no longer be decorated with Confederate flags following a vote Tuesday night by the House of Representatives.
The House passed an amendment that prohibits the controversial banners from being placed on any graves in federal cemeteries, The Hill reported. The matter must still be approved by the Senate.
The practice of placing Confederate flags on graves is common in places, such as Alabama, that still mark Confederate Memorial Day.
Alabama has three national veterans cemeteries, located in Montevallo, near Phenix City and in Mobile. The newest cemetery, in Montevallo, does not have any Civil War-era graves and no Confederate soldiers are buried at Fort Mitchell cemetery near Phenix City, which opened in 1987. The Mobile National Cemetery, established in 1865 after the Port of Mobile fell into Union hands under the assault of Rear Admiral David Farragut, is home to 841 Civil War dead, mostly Union soldiers. Four Confederate soldiers are interred at the cemetery, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Previously, the National Park Service allowed individuals to place Confederate flags on graves but directed staff to remove them as soon as possible following the holiday.
Tuesday’s measure, introduced by Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., easily passed on a voice vote.
“We can honor…history without celebrating the Confederate flag and all of the dreadful things that it symbolizes,” Huffman said. “This House now has an opportunity to add its voice, by ending the promotion of the cruel, racist legacy of the Confederacy.”
Another amendment by Huffman, this one to prohibit the National Park Service from entering into new contracts to sell items with images of the Confederate flag, also passed. A separate measure, introduced by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, bans the National Park Service from buying or displaying the flag outside of a historical context.
The measures come following the June slayings of nine people at a historically black church in South Carolina, a state that still flies the flag on its property. The alleged shooter, Dylann Roof, reportedly said the incident was racially motivated.
South Carolina’s Senate, which must approve the removal of the flag from state grounds, voted 37-3 to take down the banner.
http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/07/ban_confederate_flags_at_feder.html
That’s unreal! I have direct ancestors , as well as most indigenous Americans, that fought in the Civil War and WWII and all the way back to the Revolutionary War. They will get payback for this.
Eh,I find a confederates grave will put up a bars and stars for em,so sick of the pc nonsense.Keep a sharp eye out,tis this nonsense meant to distract folks from mush larger issues,keep flying whatever flag you wish while watching the big picture,figure folks here know that though.
Maybe we should ban the stars and stripes and the agents of the government that committed genocide against my people. How is it that a handful of people murdered get the confederate flag banned, yet the government that murdered millions of my people go about their business as nothing happened and in fact, still to this day deprive us of what was were promised in numerous treaties? If they can ignore that atrocity they have no right to denounce a people who were only protecting themselves from tyrannic agression.
Yet the flag of Israhell is acceptable anywhere.
“The matter must still be approved by the Senate.”
Done deal. They’re just as communist as the House.
What i s going on with this BS? How did the collectivists get such a fanatical fervor whipped up over 9 people shot? They shoot more than than that every weekend in Chiraq and nobody says anything!
If they are really oh so concerned about symbols of oppression, remove the stars and stripes, that is the flag that waved over slavery for well over 80 years.
Congress really has nothing to do with their time but vote away on pointless things like this. I mean who cares about open borders and illegal immigrants and jobs and the economy and everything else? I mean that CONFEDERATE FLAG at the cemetery takes TOP SPOT for We the Sheeple and the puppets in government.
Unfrigginbelievable!!!!!!!!!!