State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

Confederate Flag Ban Relaxed in California

Governing: California prohibits its government agencies from selling or displaying the Confederate flag. But in a settlement of a lawsuit by an artist, who had to wait a year before his Civil War painting that included the Stars and Bars could be shown at a state-sponsored fair, the state has agreed that the ban doesn't apply to private citizens on state property.

The Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown approved the flag ban in 2014, saying the Confederate battle emblem symbolized slavery and oppression. A year later, the ban was invoked by officials at the Big Fresno Fair, an annual event on state property, to prevent Timothy Desmond from entering his painting "The Attack," an 1864 battle scene, in the fair's art competition because it showed the Confederate flag.

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