When you only use part of the quote, "which was created in 1961", it looks as if the county of Amherst (in which my husband's ancestors lived) used the controversial symbol to push segregation. However, seeing that the seal was redone as part of the county's bicentennial, that assumption loses credibility.
I'm sorry, but there was a decision taken not just to design a new emblem or to celebrate the anniversary, but to ADD a visual of the Confederate Battle Flag at a time when other jurisdictions throughout the South were doing the same thing to protest the civil rights movement and desegregation. And Amherst County was right in the thick of it, because the South had delayed integration for years after Brown v. Board of Education and the issue was coming to a head.
http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=LNA%2FMGArticle%2FLNA_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031775482320&path=
1959 was the year when the Prince Edward County government shuttered its schools rather than integrate--a closure that lasted until 1964. Important cases were argued through 1961 and 1962 in which black student appealed for the right to attend integrated schools in Virginia. As late as 1968, Amherst County's Commonwealth's Attorney was STILL arguing that Brown v. Board of Education was not constitutional and they should not be required to integrate their schools.
So when they decide, in the middle of this fight, to add the Confederate battle flag to their county emblem, at the same time that Georgia and South Carolina raised the flag over the state capitol or incorporated it into their state flag as a gesture of defiance against desegregation, you simply can not ignore the historical context.