ATLANTA — The state of Georgia reached a deal this week with the Sons of Confederate Veterans over license plates that bear the Confederate battle emblem.
Georgia’s Department of Revenue said it reached a positive outcome with the group to redesign the plate.
After the Charleston church shootings, Gov. Nathan Deal ordered a halt to the license plates calling for a revamp.
“The Sons of Confederate Veterans’ logo has been our logo since 1896, that’s 119 years,” said the group’s spokesman, Dan Coleman.
Coleman says the logo will remain on the Sons of Confederate Veterans license tags in Georgia, but the faded flag in the background is being removed.
Coleman says as long as their logo is on the plate, they're satisfied.
“The logo has remained and we can live with that. The governor has removed the battle flag as a backdrop so I think you can call it a compromise or whatever, it's something we can live with,” he said.
Critics of the Confederate battle emblem are already voicing concerns. The leader of the group, Better Georgia, which collected more than 4,500 signatures on a petition to remove the symbol, said, “State-sanctioned bigotry is simply unacceptable and anything short of removing the Confederate flag entirely from license plates is not a step forward for Georgia.”
Coleman says politicians are over reacting, but stopped short of calling this a victory.
“This thing with political correctness where people are afraid to speak today, it's just something I’m not in favor of,” he said.
Coleman says the new plates could be ready as early as next week.
He says people who have one of the 3,500 original plates will be able to keep them.
WSBTV
