‘Then you need to go back to Africa!’
A request to relocate a Confederate flag from outside a Virginia museum to a display indoors prompted an angry showdown between local residents, some of whom don’t want the divisive symbol moved.
State law, however, appears to be on the flag supporters’ side.
The director of the Danville Museum of Fine Arts & History asked the City Council to remove the flag from a monument outside and relocate it as part of an indoor exhibit.
Confederate heritage organizations protested the request, while civil rights groups described the flag as a “gang or Klan sign” of hatred little different than a Nazi flag.
“The Confederate flag has been used by many in acts of hate in the process of hate crimes,” said the Rev. Avon Keen, president of the Danville/Pittsylvania County chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
However, the city manager said last month that Danville lacks the authority to remove the monument – although museum director Cara Burton said she asked only to relocate the flag.
Burton said a new three-year strategic plan calls for a Confederate exhibit including the flag inside the museum, which is located inside the historic Sutherlin Mansion.
The city took over ownership of the dilapidated mansion in 1914 with $20,000 contribution from the Anne Eliza Johns Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
The museum leased the renovated mansion in 1983, and in 1994 the Historic Preservation Association installed a seven-foot granite obelisk and flagpole flying the third national flag of the Confederacy to celebrate the building’s Civil War history.
“Jefferson Davis was in that building right there when he got news that Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox,” said Frank Harvey, the commander of the local chapter of the Sons of the Confederate Veterans. “They could do the last days of the Confederacy right here in Danville and bring a lot of tourism to this area.”
But opponents of the flag argue that its display harms the town’s reputation and economy, and they could ask the U.S. Attorney General to become involved in a legal challenge.
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