Today, Harlem Representatives Adriano Espaillat and Dwight Evans reintroduced the No Funding for Confederate Symbols Act.
The legislation would prohibit federal funds from being used to create maintain, or display, as applicable, any Confederate symbol on Federal public land, including any highway, park, subway, Federal building, military base, street, or other Federal property.
“The Confederate Battle Flag remains one of the most intractable symbols from the darkest chapter in U.S. history representing racism, slavery, the oppression of African Americans. Today, as we mark the fourth year since the violence and death that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia, and as we witnessed the attack at the U.S. Capitol earlier this year, we reaffirm our commitment to combating white supremacist ideologies and efforts to memorialize white-nationalist screed. These sentiments are manifest in Confederate symbols that remain present to this day and their continued presence only further inflame our country as inspiration to stoke division, fear and hate,” said Rep. Espaillat.
“After the cold-blooded racist murders in a Charleston church in 2015 and at a Charlottesville rally in 2017, followed by the Capitol riot in 2021, there should be no question that the Confederate flag is strongly associated with hate and violence stoked by racists and white supremacists. It is an insult to African Americans – and all Americans – to have our tax dollars used to create, maintain or display Confederate symbols on federal property. It’s been over 150 years since the end of the Civil War — these symbols belong in museums, not in places of honor on federal property,” said Rep. Evans.
Representative Espaillat is the first Dominican American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives and his congressional district includes Harlem, East Harlem, West Harlem, Hamilton Heights, Washington Heights, Inwood, Marble Hill and the northwest Bronx.
First elected to Congress in 2016, Representative Espaillat is serving his third term in Congress. Representative Espaillat currently serves as a member of the influential U.S. House Committee on Appropriations responsible for funding the federal government’s vital activities.
He is also a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), where he serves as the Second Vice Chair and is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, where he serves as Deputy Whip.
Representative Espaillat also currently serves as a Senior Whip of the Democratic Caucus. To find out more about Rep. Espaillat, visit online at https://espaillat.house.gov/.
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