April 22, 2016•Update: April 28, 2016
WASHINGTON
A controversial display in the U.S. Capitol featuring state flags with Confederate symbols will be replaced, a House committee announced Thursday.
Candice Miller, chairwoman of the House Administration committee, said in a statement that the display in the tunnel connecting the Capitol with a House office building will be replaced with a display of commemorative coins depicting the 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.
“Given the controversy surrounding confederate imagery, I decided to install a new display,” the Republican congresswoman said. “I am well aware of how many Americans negatively view the confederate flag, and, personally, I am very sympathetic to these views.”
Lawmakers who hail from states whose flags bear confederate imagery will be allowed to post their flags outside their offices.
Mississippi is the only state to bear a full image of the Confederate Battle Flag on its flag.
But confederate imagery still figure prominently on the flags of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida and Georgia.
Many see the Stars and Bars as a relic of pro-slavery sentiments stemming from the American civil war.
House Speaker Paul Ryan told a weekly gathering of reporters that he supports the move.
Controversy surrounding the flag was reignited in 2015 when a white gunman entered a church in Charleston, South Carolina, and gunned down nine black parishioners.
Prior to the shooting, suspected gunman Dylann Roof had posted images on social media in which he is holding the Confederate Battle Flag, and in another, burning the American flag.
