House Republicans sidestepped the divisive fight over displays of the Confederate battle flag at the U.S. Capitol with plans to put up state coins instead.
Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., who heads the House Administration Committee, announced Thursday that reproductions of commemorative quarters depicting the 50 states, District of Columbia and the territories will line the wall between the Capitol and the Rayburn House Office Building.
“A print of each state’s commemorative coin will be tastefully displayed for this highly trafficked area, as each quarter serves as a reminder of the ideals, landmarks and people from each state, as well as this nation’s great motto, ‘out of many, one,'” Miller said in a statement.
The walls previously displayed state flags, and Mississippi’s includes an image of the Confederate battle flag. Democrats complained last year that the flag celebrates a murderous, racist past in the nation’s history. The Republican-controlled House was forced to scrap a vote on permitting the Confederate flag at Park Service-run cemeteries in a fierce fight over the issue.
Last July, South Carolina removed the confederate flag from statehouse grounds after 54 years, a move that came weeks after nine people at an historic black church in Charleston had been shot and killed.
The Confederate battle emblem has been on the Mississippi flag since 1894, and voters chose to keep the design in 2001. Since the Charleston slayings, several Mississippi cities, counties and colleges have stopped flying the banner.
Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., welcomed the decision, saying the “symbols of hatred and bigotry” will no longer be displayed in the esteemed halls of the U.S. House.
“I can only hope that this understanding will somehow reach the hearts and minds of the elected officials in the state of Mississippi, and they will follow suit and rid our state of this ultimate vestige of slavery and bigotry,” Thompson said.
Miller said that given the “controversy surrounding confederate imagery, I decided to install a new display.”
The chairwoman said lawmakers could display their state flag alongside the American flag outside individual offices.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Since Slavery was so Brutal to some! let’s Ban all Media, Schools, and Past Laws, from teaching or making any public use of any of that History! You don’t hear the Irish, the Indians, the Egyptian’s crying all the time about being Slaves and Brought to this country! it’s always the poor little black people! What is really funny about all of this is, If they are so Proud of their African Heritage and so tired of Americans pissing on them, NOT ONE OF THEM HAS EVER SAID THEY WANT TO GO BACK TO AFRICA! WHY IS THAT?
YOU SAID IT IF THEY WHAT TO AFRICA’S!! THEN GO HOME AND SHUT UP!!
VERY GOOD QUESTION??? WHY HAVEN’T THEY.
99.9% OF BLACK PEOPLE IN AMERICA WERE BORN HERE. “SO, GOING “BACK” TO AFRICA IS SHEER RACIST NONSENSE. OUR ANCESTORS HELPED BUILD THIS COUNTRY DURING 246 YEARS CHATTEL SLAVERY:THE WORST KIND. SLAVERY WAS A FORM OF WELFARE FOR WHITES,PAID BY BLACKS. MY PATERNAL GRANDMA AND GRANDPA WERE SLAVES. GRANDMA WAS KEPT IN SLAVERY FOR 6 MORE YEARS AFTER END OF CIVIL WAR TILL RESCUED AT GUN POINT BY GRANDPA. THEY LEFT SLAVERY WITH ONLY THE RAGS AND SCARS ON THEIR BACKS. BLACK AMERICANS DO NOT OWE AN RACIST WHITE SUPREMACIST ANY EXPLANATION ABOUT WHY WE DO NOT “GO BACK” TO AFRICA
KEEP SNIVELIN, IT ONLY MAKES IT WORSE. MY GRAND PARENTS WHERE SLAVES ALSO, BUT OUR DIFFERENCE IS I CAN PROVE THEY WHERE SLAVES,, BECAUSE THEY WHERE SOLD INTO INDENTURED SERVITUDE. THEY ALSO SUFFERED, BUT I DONT RUN AROUND SNIVLIN ABOUT IT!. NOTHING YOU NOR I CAN DO TO CHANGE IT, IT HAPPENED! AND THE SAD PART ITS STILL HAPPENING TODAY AN NOT THAT FAR AWAY. SO BUCK UP GRADY, YOU AINT THE ONLY PEBBLE ON THE BEACH, TYME TO LOOK FOWARD..
Very Good Point, EEL RIVER
OK THAN why don’t you shut your big fat mouth.
Slaves used to work FOR Whites NOW they collect Money for nothing, from mostly Whites! I detest Slavery but the Muslims still thrive on it. Slaves were captured by blacks and sold to the Spanish whio imported them to sell to the UK and USA, etc.. Two years after the USA Ended Slavery the UK followed. Incidentally the CIVIL WAR was NOT FOUGHT over Slavery but was fought over Unjust Tariffs/\/Taxes, created by the North against the South. ~Rick Magee, “MOLON LABE”
Well if any of you don’t like the welfare system that the biggest share of you get then quit complaining about slavory as I’m sure you were never one just like I have never owned one.
There is not one Citizen in this great Country that cannot trace their heritage back to slavery. Why in the world do you think the first white people came here? They wanted to be Free from the bondage they were in. Also, it really amazes me that the blacks are so ticked off at the whites for enslaving them when it was their own people in Africa that sold them to the slave traders. Furthermore, it is hard for me to imagine a person that would buy a farm tractor just so he could beat on it all day long. The same is true with slaves, they were well taken care of because the person who bought them, paid a handsome price for them and did not like damaged goods. I am not saying that they were not mistreated but, the actual inhumane abuse was probably minimal. Also, I cannot see where this Country owes the blacks anything, because there is not one person now who was alive at that time, so thank God above for the freedom you now have and stop being a parasite on the ass of humanity and let’s work together to keep America Free for us and our posterity.
Oh? Mein Großvater came to America as a WWI draft-dodger. My mother’s family–late 1800’s I guess, probably looking for farmland. In Wisconsin. Where are the slaves in this picture?
And it’s hard for you to imagine beating someone all the time because you’ve probably made no attempt to understand what anyone’s life was like prior to the late 20th Century. In the Deep South, it was not unusual for families to have to borrow slaves for a dinner because they’d beaten their own too badly to serve. Beating a slave was the white man’s way of reinforcing his own superiority, whether the slave had done anything to merit any punishment or not.
Ms Wendy:
All I can reply with is my original post and further say that you and I (everyone) need to thank God for what freedom they have now and stop complaining about ancestors. You can’t unscramble an egg.
Everyone seems to have forgotten that 90% of black slaves were sent to south america and worked to death in the mines and don’t have relatives to cry about it. Ours were the lucky ones. Also remember that nearly all or them were brought here by the English.
The snowflakes in Washington just melted again.
My Great Grand parents were slave owners who took good care of their slaves. ALL of the children of the slaves were born in “the big” house with their mother and father staying there until the child was “weaned” then they went back to their furnished home. All of their slaves were taught to read and write. Slave owners who mistreated their slaves were looked down on by the other slave owners. When Nat Turner led his “rebellion” in South Hampton County, my relatives where protected by their slaves. I feel that this was because they were well treated by my relatives. Also, when my relatives went to war, during the Civil War, their slaves continued to work the farms. After the war their slave were told that they free to leave if they wanted to, but they all stayed and became paid farm hands. I was taught, by my parents, to be considerate of ALL people which I try to do.
Well thank goodness that the same Congress which has spent our country to the point of bankruptcy isn’t going to harm our country by displaying a flag of one of its member states.
This is beyond belief. Each state designs its flag. The government should display the flag of each state. Not all southerners owned slaves. Not all slave owners mistreated their slaves. A piece of fabric never owned a slave or mistreated one.
This Confederate Flag borrowed heavily from the British Union Jack. This history goes back much farther than the US Civil War. And these British outlawed slavery and the transport of slaves on the high seas. (This is why Virginia became the breeding ground for Southern Slave States.) A flag is history. And we can’t change our history. It will be there until the world ends.
History, and facts, are often brutal. Virginia planters had over-planted tobacco, and their plantations didn’t produce as well. So when the British began intercepting slave ships, and burning and sinking them, Virginia plantations started selling their slaves to other Southern States. This statement is historically accurate. But not pleasant.
A lot of people forget (or were never taught the real history in school) that the Emancipation Proclamation only freed Southern slaves. Slavery was still allowed in the North until many years after the Civil War. I like the idea of “Heritage, Not Hate” when it comes to the Confederate battle flag. My heritage is as important to me as anyone else, regardless of color. So why can’t I display my heritage like other cultures display theirs? It’s almost a reverse discrimination case. I never owned slaves and they were never slaves, so what is the problem? I’m from N.C. and I guess I learned a different (and truer) history in school 40 years ago. If you don’t believe me then compare History books from the 60’s and books from the 90’s. They don’t compare well at all.
Slavery is as much a mental condition as it was a a condition of life. This condition was exploited by blacks selling other blacks, the Spanish, portuguese, and British. The mindset was European and was brought to the Americas. Early Americas struggles were not spicific to blacks but was tough on all who immigrated as minorities. Blacks ignore the origins of slavery to blame America for everything. Most of the harsh conditions came from owners who had slaves that were rebelious and unuseful for anything. This is why Indians had it worse. They were considered unuseful as slaves . Under the European mindset imported here. Today we do not practice slavery nobody I know was involved. The new slavery is in PC exploitation of keeping and perpetuating the idea that slavery was all Americas fault. Even with the opertunities availible to blacks who truly want to improve their condition. And many have. There will all ways be political exploitation because blacks have learned to use guilt as a political tool that keeps them dependant. Slavery is a mental state that is taught generationally. Once they realise there anger is misguided they might let it go and move on. There will always be whinners that complain about the unperfect world we live in. We have come a long way to try to make things better.