A local group that celebrates the South’s Confederate past will take down a prominent sign that had greeted those traveling into North Carolina on U.S. 321 for the past several years.
Sons of Confederate Veterans had placed the sign, which includes the
Confederate flag, along U.S. 321 North believing that it was on private
property, said Bill Starnes, commander of the Maj. Charles Q. Petty
Camp, the Gastonia-based group that erected the sign.
However, the Department of Transportation looked at the location of the
sign this week and determined that the sign was on public land and
within the highway’s right of way.
Transportation officials talked with leaders in the Sons of Confederate
Veterans group who agreed to take the sign down, said Jordan-Ashley
Walker, a spokeswoman for the Department of
Transportation, on Friday.
Transportation, on Friday.
Starnes said his group does not want to violate any state policies.
Both transportation officials and leaders of the Sons of Confederate
Veterans group said the sign has not drawn any criticism that they could
readily recall.
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