(AP) – Illinois has canceled a state fair appearance by the Southern rock group Confederate Railroad because of its use of the Confederate flag.
A spokeswoman for Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Emily Bittner, said Tuesday that the administration prohibits using state resources “to promote symbols of racism.”
The group was scheduled to play the DuQuoin State Fair Aug. 27.
The band’s logo features a steam locomotive flying Confederate flags. The flag has been criticized as a racist emblem of slavery and segregation, but supporters say it represents history.
“(The name) Confederate Railroad worked well for us,” lead singer Danny Shirley told radio station DUKE-FM in Green Bay. “Some people see it totally different than what it’s meant to be. And you can’t change that. Just like you’re not going to change me as far as being proud to be from the South.”
“There’s all this other Southern stuff and ‘Dixie’ this and ‘Dixie’ that, but nobody had used the word ‘Confederate,'” Shirley said. “We were a little bit rebellious. Those year with (David Allen) Coe and Johnny Paycheck, how are you not going to be? We had are own way of doing things. We were a little hard-headed and stubborn sometimes.”
Shirley said the band is disappointed, but thanked their fans.
Confederate Railroad was to appear with Shenandoah and Restless Heart. Shenandoah says it will still play but that “this ‘political correctness’ has to stop. It’s tearing our country apart.”
