RICHMOND, Va. - Virginia will phase out vehicle license plates featuring the Confederate battle flag, the state's governor said on Tuesday, following the fatal shootings of nine black worshipers at a historic South Carolina church, allegedly by a white gunman.
The state, which was part of the pro-slavery Confederacy in the U.S. Civil War, will no longer allow specialty license plates for the Sons of Confederate Veterans group that feature the flag, said Gov. Terry McAuliffe , a Democrat.
Supporters of the flag describe it as a symbol of the South's history and culture as well a memorial to the roughly 480,000 Confederate Civil War casualties, but detractors see it as a symbol of racism.
"Its display on state issued license tags is, in my view, unnecessarily divisive and hurtful to too many of our people," McAuliffe said in a statement.
On Monday, the governor of South Carolina called for the Confederate flag to be removed from the grounds of the capitol after a racist manifesto apparently written by accused gunman Dylann Roof , 21, emerged online, accompanied by photos of Roof posing with the flag.
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McAuliffe noted that a 1999 state law required the state to issue Sons of Confederate Veterans license plates, but that following a 2014 U.S. Supreme Court decision it was no longer required to issue plates featuring the flag.
