Confederate Flags to Be Banned From VA Cemeteries

Confederate flags are to be banned from display at cemeteries administrated by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The agency says it the ban comes under a new directive to restrict flags that represent the killers of U.S. government soldiers, The Washington Post reports.

"Confederate flags will not be displayed from any permanently fixed flagpole in a national cemetery at any time," the VA said.

Rep. Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat, told The Post the Confederate Flag symbolizes "treason and racism."

"The people who raised that flag, they took up arms against the United States … No matter what background you come from, no matter what color you are, that flag should be a deeply offensive signal," he said.

The Civil War, which was fought from 1861 to 1865, pitted the Union against secessionists in eleven Southern states called as the Confederate States of America. It ended with the surrender of the Confederate army.

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