Black leaders want Confederate flags removed from monument in Atlanta cemetery
By Associated Press, Published: August 10
ATLANTA — Black leaders have called for removing Confederate flags from a monument at an Atlanta cemetery where they recently buried the late president of a civil rights group co-founded by Martin Luther King Jr.
The flags at the Westview Cemetery fly over a sculpture of a Southern soldier that memorializes the 400 Confederate veterans buried in the cemetery.
WAGA-TV reports mourners noticed the flags Saturday while burying the Rev. Howard Creecy Jr., who died July 28. He took the helm in January of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which King helped found.
Cemetery officials say they understand the complaints, but added they cannot take down the flags since the cemetery years ago sold the rights to erect and maintain the monument to Confederate veterans groups. The Sons of Confederate Veterans says the flags will remain.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.