CULTURE
11:08 AM PDT 7/5/2020
by
The Associated Press
A northern Illinois auto museum has no plans to stop displaying a Dodge Charger from the TV show with the Confederate battle flag painted on top of the vehicle: “We feel the car is part of history, and people love it.” .
A northern Illinois auto museum has no plans to stop displaying a Dodge Charger from the Dukes of Hazzard TV show with the Confederate battle flag painted on top of the vehicle.
Statues of Confederate generals and soldiers are being toppled across the country, NASCAR has banned the flag of their races, and the Confederate emblem is being removed from the Mississippi state flag.
But the Volo Auto Museum, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Chicago, says the famous “General Lee” from the first season of the television show will not go anywhere, according to a weekend report in Crystal. Lake. Northwest Herald.
“We feel like the car is part of the story, and people love it,” museum director Brian Grams told the newspaper. “We have people of all races and nationalities who remember the television show and are not offended at all. It is a story and it is in a museum.”
Since the museum acquired what it says is the last 1969 surviving Charger from the first season of the television show in 2005, Grams said no one has complained. And the museum has continued to listen to people who support the decision to keep the car as an impulse to rid the landscape of what is increasingly seen as a symbol of racism, Grams said.
“Several people have come up with positive comments about us leaving it on display,” said Grams, “congratulating us on leaving it there and not having an knee jerk reaction to remove it like many places do.”
Grams says General Lee is a piece of history and that the museum would not remove it any more than would be thought of removing Nazi memorabilia displayed in parts of the museum’s military section.
“If we are going to receive complaints about General Lee’s presence here, we have much worse elements in our military building,” he said.
