The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Defense secretary effectively bans Confederate flags from military bases while rejecting ‘divisive symbols’

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July 17, 2020 at 3:01 p.m. EDT
A Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol honor guard folds the retired Mississippi state flag after it was raised over the Capitol grounds one final time in Jackson on July 1. The banner was the last state flag with the Confederate battle emblem on it. (Rogelio V. Solis/AP)

Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper effectively banned displays of the Confederate battle flag on U.S. military installations, saying in a memo released Friday that the American flag is the “principal flag we are authorized and encouraged to display.”

The memo did not explicitly mention Confederate banners but stated that the “flags we fly must accord with the military imperatives of good order and discipline, treating all our people with dignity and respect, and rejecting divisive symbols.”