New Jersey Assemblyman Troy Singleton (D — NJ 7th) has sponsored a resolution that condemns the official use of the Confederate flag, or any elements of the flag, in “certain state monuments and flags, and supports current efforts in those states to omit any references to the Confederate flag.”
The resolution was added to Thursday's assembly board list, according to the N.J. Assembly Democratic Majority Office.
According to the resolution, seven Southern state flags — Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee — feature elements of the Confederate flag. Copies of the resolution will be sent to the governors of each of those states.
The resolution comes at a time when many are speaking out against the Confederate flag following the Charleston church shooting June 17.
Annin Flagmakers, America's oldest and largest flag manufacturers, announced Tuesday that it would stop producing and selling Confederate flags. The company, founded in 1847, has had locations in New Jersey since World War I and its corporate headquarters moved to the state in 1988, according to the company's website.
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley supported the flag’s removal from State Capitol grounds on Monday and the subject will be debated this later this summer. Alabama removed the flag from its State Capitol on Wednesday, following an order from Gov. Robert Bentley.
"[Gov. Haley] has demonstrated what it means to be a leader during extremely difficult and tragic times for her state and our country. I commend Governor Haley for her decision to remove the flag from the grounds of the state capitol," New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said in a statement Tuesday.
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“Defenders of the Confederate flag see it as a symbol of the South’s heritage, history, and pride,” the resolution says, “but many others see it as a heinous symbol of the racial hatred and prejudice that are a part of that heritage and an unacceptable expression of support for intolerance, racial hatred, and bigotry that have no place in modern American society.”
The resolution notes that according to the 2010 Census, the aforementioned seven states were home to 12 million African Americans, “so that approximately one-third of the nation’s black population lives under a state flag that evokes, in the opinion of many, the Confederacy and its legacy of racial hatred and oppression.”
