South Carolina could spend millions to preserve and display the Confederate battle flag removed from the state house grounds in July, the Charlotte Observer reported this week.
The Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum Commission on Tuesday voted to spent $3.6 million on the flag display, down from the $5.6 million the commission has previously proposed, according to the Charlotte Observer. Under the plan, the museum would open a new room to display the flag, along with the names of all Confederate soldiers from South Carolina killed in the Civil War.
George Dorn, the chair of the Military Museum Commission, told the Charlotte Observer that the museum must expand in order to fulfill the requirements laid out by a resolution passed by the South Carolina legislature that removed the flag from the state house and required that the flag be displayed in a museum.
The Relic Room had to present a plan to the South Carolina General Assembly by January 1. The plan would still have to be approved and funded by the legislature, according to the Charlotte Observer.
State Rep. Chris Corley (R) told the Observer that the Relic Room’s plan costs too much.
“You take the flag down and then all of a sudden you’re going to put this huge amount of money into the Confederate Relic Room,” he said. “This may blow everybody’s mind and throw everybody for a loop, but I am not voting for that much money to go into it.”
The state legislature voted to remove the Confederate battle flag from the state house grounds after nine black churchgoers were shot and killed in Charleston.
