Rep. Juanita Brent offers amendment to ban Confederate memorabilia at county, local fairs

COLUMBUS—Rep. Juanita Brent (D-Cleveland) offered an amendment to prohibit the sale, display, possession or distribution of Confederate memorabilia at local and county fairs. Brent offered the amendment to House Bill 665 during today’s House Agriculture and Rural Development Committee meeting. Republicans rejected the measure. 

“The Confederate flag is a banner of white supremacy and a reminder of our nation’s original sin of slavery,” said Rep. Brent. ‘That Republicans in the Ohio House cannot bring themselves to vote to condemn and prohibit these displays of white supremacy and outright racism at our local and county exhibitions—the places where we go to celebrate the best of Ohio—is a real shame, and a black eye on this institution. If we don’t stand up to white supremacists, we stand with them.”

The amendment comes amid continued demonstrations in dozens of cities and towns across Ohio where protestors have called for an end to police brutality, white supremacy and racism in the United States following the police-involved death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The Ohio State Fair instituted a similar ban in 2015.

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