Democratic Florida State Representative Darryl Rouson is helping lead the charge for a statewide ban on displaying the confederate flag on publicly owned or leased property.
The St. Petersburg lawmaker, who is black, says the stars and bars and like symbols of the confederacy are symbols of hate, oppression and discrimination that he finds “painful.”
Rouson will try to get the bill passed in the state house, while Senator Geraldine Thompson, a Democrat from Orlando, will attempt to shepard the measure through the senate.
The proposal would not affect confederate symbols on private property.
