Senator Seeks to Bar Renewal of Confederate Women’s Logo

WASHINGTON —  Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun (D-Ill.) is asking her colleagues to deny the United Daughters of the Confederacy a patent renewal for an insignia that features the Confederate flag.

Moseley-Braun, the first black woman elected to the Senate, said members of the group have every right to honor their Civil War ancestors and to use the flag in the insignia.

But since the group seeks a congressional imprimatur, she said, “then those of us whose ancestors fought on a different side of the conflict or were held as human chattel under the flag of the Confederacy have no choice but to honor our ancestors by asking whether such action is appropriate.”

She expressed her views in a letter to fellow members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is considering legislation to renew design patents for a variety of organizations.

Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), a sponsor of the patent bill, praised the Daughters of the Confederacy for its philanthropic work and said there is no reason why Congress should not extend the patent.