In recent years, the Confederate flag became an increasingly common sight in New Jersey, which fought on the side of the Union in the Civil War,
The Associated Press reported.
“In Camden, it’s practically the official emblem for country-rock tailgate parties outside the Susquehanna Bank Center, where a concertgoer was charged this summer with bias intimidation for allegedly waving it at city residents and spewing racial slurs,” the AP said in 2013.
The June 17 racially motivated murders of nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina has triggered widespread efforts by government officials to discourage the display of the Confederate flag, which is seen by many as a symbol of racial intolerance.
Vote Now: Should the Confederate Flag Be Removed From All Government Buildings?
The New Jersey State Assembly voted 73-0, with one abstention, on June 25 to condemn the official use of the
Confederate flag, according to NJ.com.
In a letter to the editor of the New Jersey Herald published July 1, Eugene Provost of Wantage Township, N.J., expressed dismay about the killings, saying they illustrate how the continued display of the Confederate flag should upset “every right-thinking American.” Provost wrote: “While driving around beautiful Sussex County, it has never failed to upset me to see the Confederate flag displayed so routinely on cars, baseball caps and front porches.”
The AP said this about that phenomenon in 2013: “Nearly 150 years after the Civil War ended, the Confederate Battle Flag — a complicated and incendiary symbol of rebellion, slavery, Southern pride and white supremacy — is seemingly becoming a more frequent sight north of the Mason-Dixon Line.”
New Jersey high school student Gregory Vied, 17, was suspended from school in New Jersey’s Hamilton Township in March 2014 after he refused to stop flying the flag on his truck,
Fox News reported. Vied said he saw the flag as a reflection of Southern pride and a connection to relatives from the South.
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