Confederate Flag Can Still Be Sold At Ohio Fairs: Ohio House

COLUMBUS, OH — The Confederate flag can be flown and sold at Ohio county fairs, the Ohio House decided Friday. Lawmakers had proposed banning the display and sale of Confederate flags and memorabilia at all Ohio fairs.

State Rep. Juanita Brent, a Democrat from Cleveland, introduced the proposal to ban the sale of Confederate flag memorabilia. The proposal failed largely along party lines on early Friday.

"It’s 2020 and the Ohio House Republicans voted to keep a flag that represent a treasonous group of people that wanted to keep slavery ... Ohio was not a member of the confederacy," Brent said on Twitter after the vote.

The Ohio State Fair banned the Confederate flag in 2015. Popular racing series NASCAR banned the flag this week, after weeks of protests over racial inequality gripped the nation. The U.S. Navy announced it would be banning the Confederate flag at all its installations, following a similar announcement made last week by the U.S. Marine Corps.

"For more than a century, the Confederate flag has stood as a symbol of white supremacy and the enslavement of Black people," said Lecia Brooks of the Southern Poverty Law Center said following the Marine Corps' announcement.