The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles has voted unanimously against a proposal to allow Confederate battle flags on vanity license plates.

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Gov. Rick Perry had remained silent on this controversy until telling reporters in Florida recently that he opposes putting the Confederate battle flag image on Texas license plates.

"That's just a part of history that you don't need to scrape that wound again," Perry said two weeks ago.

Texas NAACP President Gary Bledsoe and others appealed to the TXDOT board to not sanction a symbol that represents such a dark period of American history for so many people.

Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson and his agency sponsored the confederate license plate application. Patterson told the board the license plate would "commemorate the soldiers, not the politicians"

The board listened and voted against the battle flag.

Patterson and others, including some newspaper editorial writers and the Sons of Confederate Veterans, have suggested what they believe is a non-controversial alternative.  The "real" Confederate flag.

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They say the battle flag was not the official flag of the Confederate States of America. And they point out that the "official" Confederate Stars and Bars flag has flown without controversy in any number of public places for many years.  Six Flags Over Texas is just one example.

 

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