Confederate Flag Banned At Grand Junction VA Medical Center

(Courtesy Grand Junction VA)

The long rectangular mural, on the wall in the cafeteria, shows military history from the American Revolution to today.

The Civil War section includes the Confederate battle flag. But complainants about it multiplied after the fatal shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, in June of nine black church members by a white gunman who’d had photos taken with the flag.

“It became far more controversial and somewhat divisive.," Grand Junction VA spokesman Paul Sweeney said Friday. "A lot of people of both sides began to voice their concerns about it, and those concerns made their way up, far above this hospital."

The artist who painted the mural in 2012 has agreed to alter the section of the mural. A banner will hide the Confederate flag until 72-year-old artist Lee Bowerman can alter the image.