If we set out to discuss all of the major changes that the United States has experienced over the past year, we’d likely be here all day. But while political turmoil and the lingering presence of COVID-19 have turned normally mundane aspects about American life into areas of great concern, 2020 has also seen the nation grapple with issues of racial justice.
And while the May 25 death of George Floyd was a significant catalyst for the protests and national conversations that marked the latter half of the year, many of the aspects of systemic racism that activists continue to speak out took root into American culture decades ago.
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This realization has prompted efforts from within the U.S. Military to rename bases that now bear the names of Confederate leaders, and has led Mississippi to remove the infamous Confederate battle flag from the one representing the state.
And now, it has also compelled the North Carolina DMV to draw the line on what can and can’t be featured on the state’s license plates.
On February 1, the North Carolina DMV announced that the state would no longer issue license plates with any variation of the Confederate flag on it.
This may come as strange news to many drivers in or around the state as most plates already did not show any such iconography.
If there isn’t an image of the Wright Brothers’ plane, a feather, a piece of watermelon, or a veteran tag like the one shown here, you’d likely see either the motto “first in flight” or “first in freedom” on any given one.
However, there was a specialty plate available to members of a group called the Sons of Confederate Veterans that did feature the flag until the new policy came into effect on January 1.
As ABC 11 reported , the position of the DMV is now that such an image is not appropriate to display on state property due to its offensive potential.
As the court decision in the matter of the North Carolina Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans v. Faulkner holds that the group must be recognized as a civic organization, its members will remain entitled to a specialty license plate. It just can’t bear the Confederate flag on it now.
Nonetheless, this decision drew the ire of the group’s leader Larry McCluney Jr., who saw it as an attempt to erase history.
As he told The New York Times , “What we see here is just an attack on American history. We live in an era where all it takes is for one or a couple of people to say, ‘I’m offended by it,’ yet the majority has to kowtow to it.”
Although the state has tried to work with the group to come up with an alternate design, these efforts have been unsuccessful so far.
But while the Sons of Confederate Veterans may not want to budge on associating themselves with the Confederate battle flag, that doesn’t mean any state they operate in has to put up with the idea.
According to The New York Times , the group had already lost a 5-4 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015 after the State of Texas refused to put the flag on a specialty license plate intended for the group’s members.
In this ruling, the court decided that a license plate constitutes speech by the government so refusing to put a Confederate flag on one does not violate the First Amendment of the Constitution.
This likely came as good news to the state governments of Maryland and Virginia, who have also rejected similar designs by the group.
A bill was also recently introduced in South Carolina’s state legislature that would see the Palmetto State follow the examples of its neighbors and disallow Confederate flag license plates if it passes.
The Supreme Court decision has empowered North Carolina’s DMV to stand by its policy even when challenged by a group the state must recognize as a civic organization.
That’s because this classification does not give the Sons of Confederate Veterans the right to dictate government speech.
Representatives from the DMV told ABC11 that they remain open to pursuing alternative artwork for the group’s specialty plates. If an agreement on a design can’t be reached, they will issue standard plates and refund all specialty plate fees until an acceptable design is proposed.
h/t: ABC11 , The New York Times
