Council Votes to Condemn Use of Confederate Flag

The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to condemn the display of the Confederate flag over South Carolina’s Capitol.

With some members comparing the symbol to the Nazi swastika, the council also voted to bar city employees from visiting South Carolina on official business until the flag is taken down.

“It’s bad enough when individuals display symbols of hate, but for a government to do it is inexcusable,” said Councilman Joel Wachs, a mayoral candidate who proposed the motion. “Flying the Confederate flag over a state capitol encourages racists everywhere.”

In recent weeks, at least 90 groups--led by the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People--have canceled meetings, reunions and conventions in South Carolina to protest the continued presence of the flag, which has flown atop the Capitol dome in Columbia, below the U.S. flag, since 1962. It was raised to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of the Civil War.

“The Confederate flag means oppression, it means murder, and it means rebelling against a government based on the need to suppress one population--and that population is Africans and African Americans,” Councilwoman Rita Walters said.