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Sons of Confederate Vets defend use of battle flag at Sussex monument

Courtesy: Jeffrey Plummer
The Delaware Confederate Veterans Monument was erected in 2007 in Georgetown.

Amid calls to remove the Confederate battle flag from public lands in several Southern states, one memorial in Delaware is still proudly flying the stars and bars. The Delaware Grays monument in Sussex County lists the names and stories of fallen Confederate soldiers from the First State.

 

Grays camp leader Jeffrey Plummer says for him, the memorial and the symbols its displays are about history, not racism.

 

 

"Confederate history is American history," he says. "I think, for our children, we need to present all history, not just take out the parts that we don't like. And the Confederate flag doesn't mean anything racist to me."

 

In many Southern states, the flag flies on public lands -- outside state offices and above capitols. Some have already heeded calls for the flags' removal, after nine black worshippers were killed at a historic church in Charleston, South Carolina earlier this month. Suspected shooter Dylan Roof, a 21-year-old white man, has been pictured with Confederate symbols on display. 

 

Plummer acknowledges that some have used the flag in the context of hate. But he thinks it still has its place.

 

"As long as the flag is displayed properly -- on a Confederate monument, or at a graveyard -- as long as someone is portraying it in the right way, it's fine," he says. "And I don't believe it should be taken down."

 

The Grays are still working on researching all of Delaware's Confederate history, which Plummer says spans several states, transcends race and extends overseas. The memorial went up in 2007. 

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