Eastern Market Bans Confederate Flag Displays

The incident that sparked concern was a bumper sticker displaying the Confederate flag on a vendor's vehicle at Eastern Market.

Now, the nonprofit Eastern Market Corporation, which operates the farmers market, is effectively banning employees and vendors from displaying Confederate flags on its property.

The new policy began Tuesday.

Dan Carmody, president of Eastern Market Corporation, posts on Facebook:

Eastern Market Corporation, the nonprofit manager of Eastern Market, stresses to both vendors and employees that a core value of the market is being a place where all people are welcome.

Until yesterday [July 29], we had not received any complaints regarding vendors displaying the confederate flag during the 10+ years EMC has managed the market.

While our current vendor handbook prohibits discrimination and the use of obscene language or discourtesy towards customers, it does not explicitly deal with offensive language or hate signs.

To prevent any further incidents of this kind we will be revising our vendor handbook to specifically prohibit offensive language and signs consistent with that in our Petitioning and Solicitation Policy. Those guidelines were revised when a protest group used a swastika in signage during a protest a few years ago.

We will notify vendors of this policy change via the weekly emails that go to all vendors in the Tuesday, Saturday, and Sunday Markets and will begin implementing this new policy with our Tuesday August 1, 2017 market.

We don’t yet know whether this was a case of willfulness or insensitivity though neither is acceptable behavior. We do know that all vendors must understand the deep and painful meanings black customers associate with the confederate flag.

We live in times of increasing racial tensions. Racism in any form is not acceptable by anyone associated with Eastern Market. We are a place where urban meets suburban meets rural, and a wide range of people, perspectives, and opinions engage every market day. Never more than now has there been a need for this mostly joyful engagement to continue.