DETROIT (WWJ) - The Bandit won't be making an appearance at this year's Autorama car show in downtown Detroit.
The Detroit City Council on Tuesday voted 7-1 to ban a stunt jump that was scheduled to take place outside Cobo Center before the show opened Friday because some of the participating vehicles have carried Confederate imagery.
The jump was set to feature a replica Pontiac Firebird Trans Am from the 1977 movie "Smokey and the Bandit" starring Michigan native Burt Reynolds, who died last year at age 82. In the movie, the car has a front license plate with a Georgia state flag bearing the Confederate battle emblem.
In denying Autorama's request, Councilman Scott Benson said the council could not support "imagery and symbols of racism, oppression and white supremacy as well as American, home-bred terrorism," The Detroit News reported. He called the request a "slap in the face" to residents of a predominantly black city.
The group scheduled to perform the jump, Northeast Ohio Dukes, said the council "jumped to conclusions" because the vehicle they use in stunts doesn't even feature the Confederate flag license plate as in the movie.
"We're just children of the 70s and 80s that want to jump a car to honor a great man and now politics and racist people have taken that away from all of us," the group said in a post on Facebook. "We have always strongly and publicly denounced any white supremacy or hate groups and any type of misrepresentation of the battle flag."
Northeast Ohio Dukes also performed a stunt jump at Autorama in 2017 in a replica Dodge Charger from the "Dukes of Hazzard." A Confederate flag was painted on the roof of the car. Benson said organizers "expressly said" the flag wouldn't be displayed during the jump -- even though it was. For their part, the stunt group says "that is a downright lie" and they were never told to take the flag off of the car.
Autorama is in it's 67th year. It runs from March 1-3 at Cobo Center.