Gov. Bobby Jindal isn’t seeking to have the Confederate battle flag stripped from a Louisiana-issued license plate for the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
While governors in some Southern states are suggesting redesigns or an outright end to the issuance of similar specialty plates, The Associated Press reports Jindal didn’t join them on Tuesday.
The Republican governor, who is expected to announce his presidential candidacy today, says in a statement: “Certainly it’s possible that the Legislature will look at this issue next time they are in session. But the bottom line is that states need to decide these issues.”
Louisiana has issued 160 specialty plates with the Confederate battle flag, according to the Department of Public Safety. Calls for removing the flag from license plates comes in the wake of the mass shootings at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, where lawmakers are also debating whether or not to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of the state capitol.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans calls the flag an important piece of history and their heritage. Paul Graham of the group’s South Carolina chapter tells WRAL-TV in North Carolina—which is among the states where lawmakers are looking to remove the flag from license plates—that the flag shouldn’t be conflated with the Charleston church shooting and that removing the image from public places won’t change people’s actions.
“It will not change anything. What it will do is it will embarrass and shame people that have nothing to do with this event—nothing,” Graham says.
