The House voted to ban the display of Confederate flags at historic federal cemeteries, like the one in Andersonville, Ga. and Vicksburg National Military Park.

“It really doesn’t affect Vicksburg National Military Park at all,” ranger Ray Hamel said. “They are trying to lay down a mandate saying that in the future you can’t fly Confederate flags in the National Cemetery, but keep in mind that the National Cemetery is a Union Cemetery.”

The proposal by U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., added language to block the park service from allowing private groups to decorate the graves of Southern soldiers with Confederate flags in states that commemorate Confederate Memorial Day.

The National Cemetery at VNMP does contain two Confederate soldiers’ graves. They were initially misidentified when buried.

“Historically we have never flown Confederate flags for those two,” Hamel said. “Because most of the folks who work here are Southerners, out of honor what we do on Memorial Day when we put those 17,000 to 18,000 flags on the graves we put two First National Confederate flags on those graves as a courtesy.

“Right now I don’t know if that is going to change or not,” Hamel said.

VNMP does not hold any special programs for Confederate Memorial Day.

“It doesn’t change a thing here, so folks can rest easy,” Hamel said.

On June 27, the National Park Service called for gift shops inside its parks to remove all gift items bearing Confederate imagery.

By lunchtime on that day, a solitary figurine of a flag bearer clad in gray and carrying the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia was the only Confederate themed gift for sale in VNMP’s gift shop.

“As for Eastern National, the company that runs the gift shop, they are not going to sell the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, the freestanding one,” Hamel said. “They still sell the First National and the Mississippi state flag.

“As a matter of fact we got a whole new shipment in late last week and by Sunday they were gone. They’re selling like hotcakes.”`

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., filed a resolution on June 23 to remove Confederate images from Capitol spaces controlled by the House. He sent a letter to a committee chairman Wednesday, urging her to advance his proposal.

Thompson says the Confederate states were “treasonous” and tried to tear apart the nation to perpetuate slavery.

He does not fly the Mississippi flag in his offices.

But House leaders have deferred action on the plan by Thompson to ban Confederate images such as that contained in the Mississippi flag from being displayed in the House complex. Numerous statues of Confederate figures such as Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States, are also on display in the Capitol.

 

The Associated Press contributed to this story