ATLANTA, March 15 (UPI) -- Georgia would establish April as Confederate History and Heritage Month under a bill approved Thursday by a state Senate committee.
The bill's sponsor, state Sen. Jeff Mullis -- a Republican who represents Chickamauga, site of a major Civil War battle -- says its goal is to encourage tourism and preservation of history, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
"I'm not doing this for controversial reasons, but to commemorate a struggle that happened," Mullis said.
While there was no opposition on the Senate Rules Committee, the state chapter of the NAACP does not like the bill. The organization has called on Georgia officials to apologize for the state's slave-holding era.
"At the same time that the proponents of this bill want to deny any responsibility for state-sanctioned and -sponsored slavery from 1755 to the end of the Civil War, they still feel the responsibility to honor the treasonous conduct of the Confederacy," said Francys Johnson, the organization's southeast region director.
