Protesters Drape Museum Lawn Jockeys With Confederate Flags

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (AP) — Police are searching for five people who draped Confederate flags on more than a dozen lawn jockeys in front of an upstate New York horse racing museum.

Authorities say surveillance video captured people hanging flags on jockeys at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, New York, at about 2 a.m. Tuesday. None of the jockeys were damaged. Museum staff removed the flags that morning.

People who claim to have placed the flags have told news outlets they were protesting against symbols of slavery. They want the museum to remove the current pale-skinned statues and replace them with historically accurate black jockeys.

The museum says the statues do not carry racial overtones and instead represent historic racing stables.