![]() South Carolina politician Strom Thurmond ran for president under the newly founded States Rights Democratic Party, also known as the Dixiecrats. So, when did the flag explode into prominence? It was during the struggle for civil rights for black Americans, in the middle of the 20th century. The rebel flag’s resurgence came long after the Civil WarĪfter the Civil War ended, the battle flag turned up here and there only occasionally – at events to commemorate fallen soldiers. Opinion: Taking down Confederate flag is not enough “To call the flag ‘heritage’ is to gloss over the ugly reality of history.” “To put it more simply, South Carolina and the rest of the South only seceded to preserve the violent domination and enslavement of black people, and the Confederate flag only exists because of that secession,” said CNN political commentator Sally Kohn. Georgia named slavery in the second sentence of its declaration. “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery – the greatest material interest of the world.” ![]() The state of Mississippi aligned itself with slavery right off the top of its declaration: “… an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery, has led to a disregard of their obligations …” South Carolina wrote in its declaration. In their declarations of secession from the Union, some Southern states expressly mentioned slavery as a reason for their departure. Slavery was a big part of why the South wanted to secede South Carolina lawmakers weigh in on Confederate flag bill There were no flags flown at his funeral, Confederate or otherwise. “I think it wiser moreover not to keep open the sores of war,” he wrote in a letter, declining an invitation by the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.Īnd even Lee distanced himself from divisive symbols of a Civil War that his side lost. While it wasn’t the Confederate states’ official flag, the battle flag was flown by several Confederate Army units. The third National Flag of the Confederacy was used in 1865. And the white stars formed a circle, much like the original Betsy Ross American flag. It had seven stars to represent the breakaway states: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. ![]() ![]() Like its Union sibling, it had a dark blue field in the upper left corner – or the canton – and only three stripes, two red and one white. The first was the “Stars and Bars,” approved in 1861. The Confederate states went through three official flags during the four-year Civil War, but none of them was the battle flag that’s at the center of the current controversy. We take a look at the flags of the Confederacy to sort out the facts. Its champions have argued it’s a symbol of Southern culture, the historic flag of the South.Ĭritics say it’s a racist symbol that represents a war to uphold slavery and, later, a battle to oppose civil rights advances. The racist massacre in a South Carolina church has tipped the balance in a decades-old tug of war over the meaning of the Confederate battle flag. ![]()
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