Workers at Antietam National Battlefield took Confederate flags, T-shirts and magnets off gift shop shelves Thursday as the National Park Service announced plans to stop selling some items with the increasingly controversial symbol.
Park service officials said they would stop “stand-alone depictions” of the familiar battle flag, which has 13 white stars on a blue “X” over a red field. They said educational items such as books, exhibits, and media showing re-enactments and interpretive programs may use images of the battle flag “in its historical context” as long as they cannot be “physically detached.”
“We strive to tell the complete story of America,” National Park Service director Jonathan B. Jarvis said in a statement. “All sales items in parks are evaluated based on educational value and their connection to the park. Any stand-alone depictions of Confederate flags have no place in park stores.”
For the Antietam National Battlefield in Sharpsburg, that meant handheld flags and other gift items came off the shelves Thursday morning, but books and educational CDs embossed with the flag remained available.
Meaghan Barry, the Antietam Battlefield gift shop manager, said very few items were removed, but customers might miss those products.
“I’m sure at some point someone will say the battle flag should come back, but we’ll see how that comes,” she said. “Visitors here side with their ancestors of both sides. They might want to have mementos and souvenirs of that family.”
The flag, which was flown in battle by Confederate troops during the Civil War and adopted by white supremacist groups in the 20th century, has come under more scrutiny since the shooting deaths last week of nine black church members in Charleston, S.C. The suspected shooter, Dylann Roof, appears in photographs online with the flag in one hand and a gun in the other. He has been charged with nine counts of murder in what authorities are describing as a hate crime. (continue reading)