A car from the 1979 show “The Dukes of Hazzard” with a Confederate flag painted on top will continue to be displayed at an automobile museum in Illinois.
Due to continued protests against racism towards black citizens in the U.S., statues of Confederate leaders have been knocked down across the country. NASCAR has also banned displaying the Confederate flag. The flag has been viewed as a glorification of Civil War, racism, slavery, and white supremacy, while in some areas it is used to celebrate Southern heritage.
“The Dukes of Hazzard” took place in a fictional Georgia county, and the main characters named their car General Lee, a reference to Civil War General Robert E. Lee.
The director of the Volo Auto Museum in Illinois told the Northwest Herald newspaper in Crystal Lake, Ill., That the car will not be removed from the exhibit.
“We feel that the car is part of the story, and people love it. We have people of all races and nationalities who remember the television show and are not offended by it. It is a piece of history and it is in a museum, ”director Brian Grams told the newspaper.
Purchased in 2005, the car is the last remaining 1969 Dodge Charger from the show’s first season, according to the museum.
“Several people have approached us with positive comments about us leaving it on display, congratulating us for leaving it there and not having an instinctive reaction to remove it as many places do,” Grams told the newspaper.
The director said the museum would not remove the vehicle before it knocked down any Nazi souvenirs from World War II military exhibits.
“If we are going to receive complaints about the fact that General Lee is here,” he said, “we have much worse things in our military building.”
