Congressman Jerrold Nadler (NY-10), senior member of the House Judiciary Committee and former Chairman and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, released the following statement in response to a Republican amendment allowing the display of Confederate battle flags and other Confederate imagery at federal cemeteries, as well as the sale of Confederate merchandise through the National Park Service.

“Yesterday, the House adopted three amendments prohibiting the sale or display of the Confederate flag and other confederate imagery in National Parks.

“We are going to vote today on the Calvert Amendment which would, in effect, repeal the three amendments we adopted yesterday and would enable the continuing flying of the confederate battle flag and the sale of other confederate imagery.

“The confederate battle flag is a flag of racism; it is a flag of slavery; it is a flag of treason – a flag of waging war against the United States – a flag flown by people firing on Old Glory.

“A song sung in 1865 and afterward expresses some of the sentiments represented by that flag:

                       "I’m a good ol’ rebel, now that’s just what I am;

                       For this fair land of freedom, I do not care a damn.”

“We are told that this flag represents the Southern heritage.  But, it represents a shameful part of that heritage. It represents a defense of slavery, of owning human beings' body and soul, of support for the doctrine of racism – of racial superiority and oppression.

“Other countries and peoples have shameful parts of their heritages and histories. Germany has a Nazi heritage. The Germans are, properly, ashamed of it.  They prohibit, by law, the display of Nazi imagery. We can’t go that far. The First Amendment wouldn’t permit it.

“But it is shameful that we should officially promote or display a treasonous and racist flag and other such imagery.

“Slavery and racism are shameful parts of the Southern – of the American – heritage. We have still, obviously, not eradicated racism from our land. The murders in the Mother Emmanuel Church in Charleston vividly show that.  The continuing struggles against racism in many facets of American life show that.

We must continue the struggle against racism.  Lowering the Confederate flag from flag posts, banning it from sale or display in our national parks and historic sites, is one more step in that struggle. 

“We must not honor racism and treason.  The Calvert amendment is shocking and shameful. It must be defeated.”

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