Confederate Group to Sue Georgia City Over Removal of Battle Flag from Historic Cemetery

Credit Image: © Erik S. Lesser / ZUMAPRESS.com

The Sons of Confederate Veterans is preparing to sue the city of Columbus, Georgia, over a dispute involving the flying of the Confederate battle flag on a historic cemetery’s grounds, regional news outlets reported Thursday.

Martin O’Toole, a spokesman for the Georgia Sons of the Confederate Veterans, said the group plans to file a lawsuit in response to the Columbus City Council voting to rescind a 1994 resolution that had until recently allowed Confederate flags to be flown at Linwood Cemetery, a historic burial ground and the final resting place for scores of Confederate soldiers.

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The City Council voted to rescind the resolution last month after a local chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans repeatedly flew the Confederate battle flag at the cemetery despite being a request by officials to display the first national flag of the Confederacy, a design that is different from the more controversial battle flag.

“So, we basically told them that was the one flag we did not want on there,” Mayor Skip Henderson said at the time, WRBL-TV reported last month. “They flew it. So council rescinded that resolution and we very carefully removed the poles.”

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Both the flags and the flagpoles are being held at the city Department of Public Works for the Sons of Confederate Veterans to pick up, the mayor’s office said in the statement.

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