SPLC Statement on the Marines Banning the Confederate Flag in its Installations

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Lecia Brooks released the following statement after the U.S. Marine Corps announced it is banning the Confederate battle flag — including on bumper stickers, mugs and T-shirts — in public spaces at all of its installations in the U.S. and abroad.

“For more than a century, the Confederate flag has stood as a symbol of white supremacy and the enslavement of Black people. We urge the other branches of the U.S. military to follow the U.S. Marine Corps’ example, including the National Guard, state and local law enforcement agencies, and other law enforcement branches of the federal government and agencies governed by the Department of Homeland Security, and remove all symbols of the Confederacy."