The national flags for the Confederate States of America:
First national flag for the Confederate States of America: "The Stars and Bars" (1861–1863) (also pictured, the Confederate Battle Flag)
Photo courtesy of Ron Cogswell Flickr page - Confederate Flags -- Boonsboro (MD) Civil War Reenactment September 8, 2012: https://www.flickr.com/photos/22711505@N05/7989597328
Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
Second national flag for the Confederate States of America: "The Stainless Banner" (1863–1865)
Photo courtesy of Naval History & Heritage Command's Flickr page - 2011-95-1 Confederate Second National Flag: https://www.flickr.com/photos/navalhistory/5669542154
Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
Third national flag for the Confederate States of America: "The Blood-Stained Banner" (1865)
Photo courtesy of Bart Everson Flickr page - Confederate Flag Shreveport, 2002: https://www.flickr.com/photos/editor/2710861556
Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
The controversy surrounding the Confederate Flag flying not just on state buildings, but being flown and reverenced in general, has been heating up tremendously since last week's church shootings in Charleston, South Carolina.
The debate is about what the Confederate flag actually represents. Those who want it to stop being flown and displayed view it as a symbol of some of the most painful crimes in the nation's history, and that it was the banner under which the South went to war to fight to keep the system of slavery legal and later, after it had lost the war, it came to represent the strict official and social Jim Crow racial segregation that lasted right up until the 1960's. Hardly ancient history.
Those who defend the Confederate flag say that it represent Southern heritage, and many Southerners have suggested that the flag does not represent racism.
However, there is an aspect to racism about flying the flag that supporters are disingenuous about when they suggest otherwise. Many racists specifically fly the flag as a de facto sign of white supremacy, a kind of longing for the old Dixiecrat days of Jim Crow segregation. Again, we are not talking about ancient history here.
Think about it: when was the last time that you saw a black person flying that particular banner?
It was not like this was some minor issue in the days leading up to the Civil War, or the days after, leading up to the establishment of the Jim Crow laws. The Confederate battle flag (and that is what is flying, and what most people seem to associate with the Confederate, or Rebel, cause during the Civil War) was a show of support for the preservation of segregation laws and practices.
Since the passing of important Civil Rights legislation in the 1960's, it has traditionally been used by rednecks, longing fondly for the good ol' days when blacks knew their place, and when the white man reigned supreme.
That might sound harsh, but I suspect there is more than just a small grain of truth to that.
Which is why this has become such a hot-button issue today. It is about hearts and minds, and if there is still a relic of the Old South, the South of Jim Crow racism and bigotry that not only existed, but dominated not so long ago, it has representation in that flag in particular.
The fact that this flag is not the actual official flag of the Confederate States of America, but the battle flag, is perhaps even more telling and, frankly, damning, than if it were the real flag.
I recently saw one post by an angry supporter of the flag that suggested that opposition was based on ignorance. He pointed out that what most people assume is the Confederate flag is actually not the flag at all. It was the Confederate Battle flag.
Indeed, that much is true. The original flag looked quite reminiscent of the American flag, and was apparently often confused with it in battle. It had stripes running across, but they were much larger. Two red stripes, with a white stripe running in between. Also like the American flag, the "heart" of the flag in the corner, if you will, had a blue field with white stars imposed on it. That was the first official flag of the Confederate States of America. It was the flag known as the "Stars and Bars."
The second flag had what is often mistaken for the Confederate flag in the corner, replacing the blue field and white stars. This was the red background with the blue X going across with white outlining. The stars shined white through (or perhaps, despite) the blue (which I believed represented the unwanted authority of the Federal government). The rest of the flag was a field of white, which is the reason that it likely was replaced, since it too closely resembled the white flag of surrender. It was known as the "Stainless Banner." It was designed by William T. Thompson, editor of the Savannah Morning News, and he referred to it as the "White Man's Flag."
Here is one thing that he wrote, which reveals just how closely linked the flag representing the Confederacy is to racism:
"As a people, we are fighting to maintain the Heaven-ordained supremacy of the Whiteman over the inferior or colored race; a white flag would thus be emblematic of our cause...Such a flag would take rank among the proudest ensigns of the nations and be hailed by the civilized world as the 'Whiteman's Flag.'" ( —William T. Thompson (April 23, 1863), Daily Morning News)
Finally, the third and final flag of the Confederate States of America was very similar to the last one, only it had red in the far right end. It was known as the "Blood-Stained Banner."
Now, a lot of supporters of the Confederate flag, or the Battle Flag of the Confederacy, have been arguing lately that it represents their heritage, and has nothing to do with racism.
Nothing to do with racism? The Confederate States of America formed because they were trying to circumvent the strong opposition to slavery up North. So much did they want to keep the system of slavery based on race, that they were willing to secede from the Union and fight a long and bloody war to preserve it. After being defeated, it took only a few years for the Southern states to re-establish white supremacy officially (it would only later officially get the dubious distinction of "Separate but Equal" even though the original designers of these Jim Crow laws hardly disguised their attempt at establishing white supremacy).
I once had an argument with a man (a black man, no less!) who kept insisting that the South fought the Civil War not because of racism, but because it was trying to preserve an economic system.
Yes, but again, it is not a minor point that that economic system was based on a slavery system that was based on an artificially imposed, racial caste system.
Again and again, racism played the most important part of the history of the Civil War, and it simply cannot be discounted as some minor or irrelevant point.
But just in case there are still some lingering doubts left about that, let us hear from yet more prominent figures of the Confederate States of America in their own words:
“Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery – the greatest material interest in the world.”
~ A Declaration of Secession in Mississippi, 1861
“The people of the slave-holding States are bound together by the same necessity and determination to preserve African slavery.”
~ Commissioner of the State of Louisiana George Williamson, 1861
“White men have an equality resulting from a presence of a lower caste, which cannot exist where white men fill the position here occupied by the servile race.”
~ President of the Confederate States, Jefferson Davis, 1858
Finally, this is not the first time that the controversy over this Confederate flag has existed. It has come and gone over time, although it never quite made so many headlines in my own lifetime as since the Charleston shooting. Still, the image of the Battle Flag of the Confederacy was removed from all but one Southern state flag years ago, although it remains on the official flag of only one state these days. That state is Mississippi, although some people in that state are beginning to reconsider just how appropriate it is to still have this there.
Photo courtesy of GUNNER's Flickr page - 2000px-Flag_of_Mississippi_svg: https://www.flickr.com/photos/97236907@N05/9019118205
Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/
Sources:
Southern Changes The Journal of the Southern Regional Council, 1978-2003 Flag Waving Down South: Searching History for Solutions By Michael L. Thurmond Vol. 11, No. 1, 1989, pp. 14-15:
10 Facts About The Confederate Flag That Prove Racism Is Worse Than You Think By M Fly Smith on June 19, 2015:
Wikepedia page - Flags of the Confederate States of America:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_Confederate_States_of_America
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_Confederate_States_of_America
Some related articles:
Confederate flag debate sweeps South: South Carolina, Mississippi By Jeremy Diamond and Eugene Scott, CNN, June 24, 2015
Confederate Flag Meaning Around The World: Rebels, Racism And Americana By Ethan Lascity | Wed, 2015-06-24
Here’s who is still defending the Confederate flag (and the many reasons they give) Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Google Plus Share via Email More Options Resize Text Print Article Comments 198 By Janell Ross June 25
A Georgetown law professor just perfectly captured the absurdity of Confederate pride Business Insider By Chris Weller, June 24, 2015:
Meet the South’s biggest idiot: “I feel very much like the Jews must have felt in the very beginning of the Nazi Germany takeover” A pro-Confederate flag rally in Alabama is the worst of the worst ASSOCIATED PRESS, June 28, 2015:
And in the meantime, while the American media has been obsessing over the largely symbolic and inconsequential issue of the Confederate flag, and whether or not it is appropriate to be displayed or flown, here is a top ten list of major stories that the major American media missed in the meantime. I think number 7 was particularly huge (the earth entering the sixth major extinction phase), as is number 10 (the passage of the TPP). Take a look:
10 Stories the Media Missed While Obsessing Over the Confederate Flag by Naji Dahi June 25, 2015:
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