GEORGETOWN, Del. – The controversy surrounding the confederate flag flying at the Georgetown Historical Society’s Marvel Museum continues as the Town of Georgetown gave the GHS $24,000 in funding on Thursday.
The Georgetown Town Council voted at their last council meeting in July to give the historical society $24,000 in funding for renovations to the Marvel Museum. However, this was with an understanding that a committee would be formed to discuss the future of the confederate flag raised on museum grounds and to eventually reach a consensus on a more appropriate place – possibly inside the museum – to put the flag.
The council also agreed that a Memorandum of Understanding would be signed by all parties involved in the matter to guarantee that the committee would be formed and the confederate flag would eventually be taken down. A recent statement released by the Georgetown Historical Society says that in accordance with the Delaware Gray’s Sons of Confederate Veterans, they do not plan to take the flag down:
“The GHS intends to keep its word to SCV, particularly on the choice of flags to adorn the Memorial, and call on all citizens of good character and good faith to commit to the environment of unity, pluralism, and tolerance demonstrated at the unveiling on May 12, 2007, allowing those who chose to honor their dead to do so with respect for their election, all in furtherance of the advancement of education and history that defines the noble object of GHS.”
The Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice – a Sussex County organization dedicated to ending racism – sent Georgetown Mayor William West a letter on Tuesday stating that the town council’s funding approval violated a town ordinance. According to the ordinance, all grant applications must be submitted by April 1, reviewed by town officials, and then submitted to a committee for approval.
“In the past, we’ve not had this problem with April first as a deadline,” said West. “It’s always been what it is, is what it is. But with them bringing it up, yeah, we haven’t followed protocol because we haven’t run into a situation where we’ve had such a conflict as we’ve got here. I could read between the lines that this was going to end up in a lawsuit.”
The Georgetown Historical Society’s statement and the letter from the The Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice prompted West to void the check initially written for the historical society. West says his decision drew pushback from three Georgetown Town Council members, which ultimately led to the council’s decision to deliver a new check – signed by the three council members – to the historical society Thursday.
“I hate it for the people in the town of Georgetown,” West said. “I hate it for our growing community because when people see things like this taking place, it’s a setback.”
The decision also drew outrage from groups like the Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice, who like many in the Georgetown community, and throughout the nation, view the flag as an obvious symbol of racism and disdain towards African-Americans and other racial minorities.
“To fund an institution that is flying a flag and has a memorial that celebrates this racist, horrific state which was the confederacy – these are traitors to America,” said Joseph Lawson, a member and chair within the Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice. “Why are we celebrating them and why are we funding an institution that would celebrate them?
WBOC reached out to the Georgetown Historical Society for a comment and did not hear back from them.