Officials at an Illinois museum say they will not remove the Confederate flag from a “General Lee” vehicle on display, saying that the vehicle is a part of history and “erasing it will not change the facts.”
The announcement comes in the midst of a national debate following the massacre of nine people at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina.
“If any location is appropriate for displaying a Confederate flag, it is within a museum,” Volo Auto Museum officials said in a release Wednesday.
The museum is home to one of the 249 Chargers used during the “Dukes of Hazzard” series production. The General Lee, a 1969 Dodge Charger featured prominently in the hit 1980s TV series, has a Confederate flag painted on its roof.
“We are a museum, a place where people can view and learn about history,” Brian Grams, museum director, said in a statement. “History is not a book to be edited where you can just keep the parts you like and erase the parts you do not like. The TV show happened. The General Lee wore a Confederate Flag … erasing it will not change the facts.”
Despite the museum’s stance, Grams said the debate over the flag should continue.
“It’s entirely appropriate for lawmakers to debate whether taking the flag down from a place of government-grounds prominence is long overdue,” he said. “We’re well aware of the symbol’s connection with a vile aspect of our nation’s history. Again, though, it is, in fact, a part of our history.”
Local
Warner Brothers, the studio behind "Dukes of Hazzard,” has said it will stop sanctioning the manufacturing of any products featuring the flag. That includes products with the iconic 1969 Dodge Charger General Lee.
Warner Brothers joins Walmart, Sears, Target and Amazon, who have dropped their flag-emblazoned products, after widespread protests following the massacre at a historically African-American church in Charleston last week.
