How Jeb Bush and Florida handled its own Confederate flag debate
South Carolina may be dealing with its Confederate flag issue in the heat of the national spotlight, but Florida dealt with it more than a decade ago — and much more quietly.
Then-Gov. Jeb Bush, now running for president, unilaterally ordered the Confederate flag removed from the grounds of the state Capitol to a museum in 2001, “quietly and with no announcement,” according to a story then by the Associated Press.
“My position on how to address the confederate flag issue is clear: In Florida, we acted, moving the flag from the state grounds to a museum where it belonged,” Bush wrote in a statement last week.
This is amid several published reports that South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham (R) will call for removing the state flag from state grounds in a press conference today. Likewise, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is set to address the issue today.
U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, a Jupiter Democrat running for U.S. Senate, joined the chorus.
The Confederate flag had flown at the Florida state Capitol since 1978 until Bush had it moved to the Florida Museum of History a few blocks away in February 2001, during a building remodeling.
http://featured.blog.palmbeachpost.com/2015/06/22/how-jeb-bush-and-florida-handled-its-own-debate-on-the-confederate-flag/
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According to the MyFlorida.com website "During the late 1890s, Governor Francis P. Fleming suggested that a red cross be added, so that the banner did not appear to be a white flag of truce or surrender when hanging still on a flagpole."
Riiiiiiiight....
http://dos.myflorida.com/florida-facts/florida-state-symbols/state-flag/
