Essex County Freeholders Call For Confederate Flag Ban

The Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders has joined the chorus of community and political leaders who are calling for the banning of the Confederate flag.

During their June 24 meeting at the Montclair Municipal Building, the board unanimously approved a resolution calling on the South Carolina State Legislature and all state, county and local governments throughout the South, to remove Confederate battle flags from their buildings and properties.

Before reading the text of the resolution aloud, Freeholder President Britnee N. Timberlake - the resolution’s author - stated that the flag is a symbol of racial hatred and intolerance, not of Southern pride and heritage.

Timberlake recounted an incident in her childhood when, as a bi-racial child living near her dad’s Army base in North Carolina, she witnessed a march by members of the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan adorned in their white hoods and gowns amid a sea of Confederate flags.

“[It was] an experience I have never forgotten,” Timberlake said.

Read the full text of the resolution here.

A NATIONAL ISSUE

In the wake of the tragic shooting at an African-American church in Charleston – reportedly done with the motivation of starting a race war - a national movement to ban the image of the Confederate flag has taken root.

• Nikki Haley, South Carolina Governor, Calls for Removal of Confederate Battle Flag
• Not just South Carolina: Countless Confederate tributes across U.S.
• Walmart, Amazon, Sears, eBay to stop selling Confederate flag merchandise
• Michigan Flag Businesses Rejecting Confederate Flag
• Mayor Calls for End to Confederate Flag License Plate in Maryland
• National Park Service Bans Confederate Battle Flag

But there are also critics of the movement who want the flag to remain flying:

• Group Will Fight to Keep Confederate Flag Flying
• Keep the Confederate Flag Flying
• PHOTOS: Sons of the Confederacy vows to keep the flag up
• Cruz’s SC point men fight to keep Confederate flag flying at state capital

What do you think? Should the Confederate battle flag be banned? Take the Patch reader poll below.