Confederate icons under fire

The massacre of nine African-Americans June 17 at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church – allegedly by a white gunman who posed in photos with the Confederate flag – and S.C. Gov. Nikki’s Haley’s call days later to move the flag from the State House has prompted a renewed groundswell against Confederate icons.

Among happenings in other Southern states this week:

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe ordered the replacement of vanity license plates depicting the Confederate flag, saying the banner is “hurtful” to too many people.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, a conservative Republican, brought down four secessionist flags at the Capitol in Montgomery.

Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn become his state’s first top-tier Republican to call for the Confederate emblem to be removed from the state flag.

In Tennessee, Democrats and Republicans said a bust of Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest must be removed from the Capitol in Nashville, while the mayor of Memphis called for Forrest’s grave and statue to be removed from a city park.

In Kentucky, both candidates for governor, along with other prominent political leaders, are calling for the statue of Jefferson Davis, the only president of the Confederacy, to be removed from its prominent place in the statehouse rotunda and placed in a museum.

In New Orleans a battle is brewing over the landmark column and sculpture dedicated to Confederate hero Gen. Robert E. Lee, at Lee Circle on St. Charles Avenue connecting downtown to the Garden District.

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory wants the General Assembly to pass a law that would discontinue the use of the Confederate flag on specialty license plates issued by the state.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal announced plans to seek a redesign of the state license plate that has an image of the Confederate flag. Friday, state Democrats called for an end to state holidays commemorating Confederate history.