Veterans' Day parade to go ahead -- with rebel flag

Tania Valdemoro | Miami Herald

Organizers will go ahead with the popular Veterans' Day parade in Homestead despite the controversy over a group marching for the first time with the Confederate battle flag last November.

They decided at a meeting Thursday that they could not ban the flag as the Miami-Dade chapter of the NAACP had demanded.

The flag is a divisive symbol that reflects Southern heritage to some but deep racial wounds to others.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans marched in the 47-year-old Homestead parade with the rebel flag last November after a Veterans' Day parade in Palm Beach County had been canceled.

That sparked an outcry by the Miami-Dade chapter of the NAACP and others.

Jeffrey Wander, chairman of the military affairs committee of the Homestead/Florida City Chamber of Commerce that plans the parade, said Thursday that his group is hoping controversy will be avoided by the Confederate group keeping the flag away.

Read the complete story at miamiherald.com

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