North Carolina is waving the proverbial white flag, declaring its intent to discontinue license plates featuring the Confederate battle flag.
The North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles announced the change in a statement released on Monday.
“The Division of Motor Vehicles has determined that license plates bearing the Confederate battle flag have the potential to offend those who view them,” the agency wrote. “We have therefore concluded that display of the Confederate battle flag is inappropriate for display on specialty license plates, which remain property of the state.”
The change, which quietly took effect on Jan. 1, according to the Star-News of Wilmington, primarily focuses on the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a civic organization afforded a custom Confederate flag license plate by the state. The group is still entitled to a tailored number plate, but it will not feature any insignia pertaining to the 1800s-era rebels.
In a 1998 court case, Sons of Confederate Veterans v. Faulkner, the group sued the state of North Carolina and demanded to be recognized as a civic organization to qualify for vanity plates. The Sons of Confederate Veterans won the case.
The group is permitted to seek approval for a new custom license plate, but in the meantime, the DMV will “either issue SCV members standard plates and refund any specialty-plate fees paid or provide them with different specialty plates.”
The Confederate flag as a cultural symbol has come under increased scrutiny nationwide due to the outburst of civil rights protests that rocked the nation following the death of George Floyd in May 2020. The North Carolina DMV noted that it had received backlash for its issuance of Confederate battle flag plates after Floyd, a black man, died on Memorial Day when a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for around nine minutes.
Floyd’s death prompted a flurry of activity throughout the Deep South designed to redress the grievances of protesters. In mid-January, Mississippi leaders voted to eliminate the Confederate imagery from their state flag, instead hoisting a redesigned flag, titled “In God We Trust,” over the Capitol.
Striking a note of optimism amid the change, the Department of Archives and History said in a statement that the updated flag, which sports a magnolia flower and 21 stars, “represents Mississippi’s sense of hope and rebirth, as the Magnolia often blooms more than once and has a long blooming season.”
