The flag in Europe

What I have been dealing with so far was the American memory and interpretation of the Confederate battle flag in different decades. However, I feel that not just the American point of view but the European would also be an interesting topic. I decided to write about it too in my essay, and it is worth a mentioning in my blog as well.

First of all, people in Europe treated the flag as another American symbol. It became a craze after the Soviet Union collapsed and the Eastern Block as such vanished. People went to the streets, celebrated, and some of them were waving the battle flag, “which they viewed as an appropriate symbol of their struggle for independence against totalitarian control”.

According to John M. Coski, the presence of the flag in Europe in the 1990’s was undeniable. It was displayed on clothes, motorcycles, in cars. The flag was the part of the picture of Europe about the USA.

“Whether as a symbol of national liberation or of individual expression and rebelliousness, in Europe the Confederate battle flag is associated typically with American values and American culture. From a vantage point beyond our shores, the Confederate flag is an American symbol. While Americans naturally have a greater understanding of the Confederate flag’s more specific and divisive connotations, the Europeans have grasped something that Americans take for granted: the Confederate flag is fundamentally an American flag”. 293

"The NAACP will forever fight"

The fight against and for the flag as a symbol did not end in the 1990’s and after. The most renowned organization that eagerly rejected the use of the Confederate flag and any other symbols of slavery is the  National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). It originates back to The Niagara Movement led by W.E.B. Du Bois. NAACP was founded in 1908 and has been standing up against racism since then. Nowadays they are advocating the rights of students, the youth’s more too.

Of course, Confederate heritage advocates blame NAACP for the misinterpretation of the Confederate flag as they were openly criticizing it decade by decade. “They considered the battle flag and other Confederate symbols ’offensive’ and ’reminders of slavery’. More tangibly, activists regarded flags displayed on public property as symptomatic of attitudes and policies that are potentially threatening to the rights and well-being of African-American citizens.”

Defenders of the flag say that symbols like the flag are part of their history, part of history. “Houston Post editor Lynn Ashby concluded: ‘Taking down a flag, in this instance, is rather like rewriting history, pretending something didn’t happen when we all know it did’.” As the battle flag can be seen displayed throughout the South in restaurants, in cemeteries, on private houses, etc., we might think that NAACP has not reached any of its goals. But NAACP has managed to convince politicians, other organizations to stand by their aims and their work is fruitful.
“The line between individual expression and state approval is not always clear”.

After the 1960's

In the second half of the 20th century, a so-called flag war broke out. Confederate heritage groups were fighting against the negative publicity of the banner, saying that it should only be displayed to express one’s respect to the soldiers who once fought and died under it. However, the flag could not escape stigmatization; moreover, after the CRM, the flag continued to be the symbol of racism, hatred. There are many cases documented in the 1990’s which are about unfortunate shootings and killings generated by the presence of the Confederate flag on a car, on clothes, etc.

In pop culture, the flag became more often used in logos but this differed from the flag fa din the 1950’s. Sports events, vehicles, scout uniforms used the flag in various forms. Due to the anti-flag policies, these illustrations were banned. For example, “In 1993, NASCAR barred a car sponsored by the Sons of Confederate Veterans bearing the organization’s battle flag logo. A year later, Harley-Davison, makers of the popular American motorcycle, forbade the use of logos and the sale of products bearing the Confederate flag; the Milwaukee-based company acted after receiving a protest from a local civil rights activist…Within months, Harley-Davidson reversed its decision, and declared that local motorcycle dealers could decide for themselves whether or not to incorporate the Confederate flag in their logos”. 176

“Confederate heritage groups in recent years have pursued a logical two-track approach to defending the flag: persuade the media not to give coverage to the misuse of the flag by the KKK and other extremists while simultaneously offering models of proper, reverent flag use. Theoretically, it may be possible to teach a critical mass of Americans by word and example to believe that the Confederate flag is a positive or at least a benign historical icon. But as long as hate groups and ordinary people use the flag as a racist or politically charged symbol, and as long as the flag maintains its status as a signal of countercultural rebellion and militant individualism, the education campaign will fail to overcome stiff resistance to the Confederate flag.”177

Turning point

The Civil Rights Movements were milestones in the interpretations and uses of the Confederate flag. The 1950’s and 1960’s have distorted its status what people nourished in their memories. The foundation of the third KKK and their way of representations with the flag brought about changes during the decades. Segregationists also took advantage of any kinds of public events advocating African American civil rights. After the famous Plessy vs Brown decision, thousands of people waved the battle flag in order to express their deep dissatisfaction.  In fact, the Confederate battle flag became a national symbol for white supremacy, moreover, it represented the fight for segregation in the North, West, East, and obviously in the South too. However, its use and connotation were not about the Southern ‘Lost Cause’, or the Southern identity. Wherever people protested against African Americans, the Confederate flag was also waved. As in the previous decade and in the beginning of the 1950’s the popularity of the flag was unfathomable, almost every home had its own flag when the CRM culminated. That also explains the rapid growth in the flag’s reappearance at social gatherings and protests.

The National States Rights Party said: “The Confederate flag is no longer a sectional emblem. It is now the symbol of White race and White supremacy. Fly it on your car and house”.  Of course, for African Americans, the flag was the symbol of aggression, suppression. The flag was there every time when KKK members lynched blacks, when students expressed their resistance to school integrations. “Eyewitness accounts and photographic evidence suggest that the flag was present at most of the notable demonstrations and incidents during the civil rights era from 1954 through the busing crisis of the 1970s”.

I believe this period is much more decisive concerning the memory of the banner and its judgment today than any other. What I am going to try to prove with my research is that what the flag stands for nowadays is much closer in meaning to the pre-CRM era.  But this will be the topic of the following blogs.

Thanks for reading. 

Big Boom

After the Reconstruction until the 1940’s, the Confederate flag as a symbol was not used often. At least, it was not the symbol of rebellion but the ‘South’ and its traditions. “The Confederate veteran generation insured the survival of the battle flag as an official symbol of several southern states”.
However, the 1940’s brought about many changes in several realms.  As Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman “tilted toward the party’s liberal wing at the expense of the conservative south”, the Confederate battle flag became the symbol for defending states’ rights. More and more people carried the flag with them in conventions, during protests. These years served as a rediscovery of the flag with harsh ideological message. “The 1950s fad completed the flag’s transformation into symbol with a myriad contemporary associations”.

Legalized segregation was an essential element of the states’ rights for many.  As the civil rights movements started to evolve, the flag was not a symbol of the south anymore. “The significance of the flag fad was not the flag’s popularity in the South but the enormous, seemingly inexplicable, popularity of the flag in the North. Continuing the trend begun in 1948, Confederate flags outsold U.S. flags in stores all over America, an southern flag dealers received many orders from the –north and the West coast”. It seemed that everybody shared the craze for the banner with or without having deep meanings read into it. Obviously, the 1950’s were about consumerism, trends, and the media, of which all underpinned the spread of the popularity of the flag.

Of course, the 1960’s has changed everything. But since the Confederate flag was so popular and widespread in the previous decade, the further development of the symbol was plausible and inevitable. 

During the Reconstruction

General Horace Porter described the scene of the surrender of the Confederate Army: "We entered, and found General Grant sitting at a marble-topped table in the center of the room, and Lee sitting beside a small oval table near the front window, in the corner opposite to the door by which we entered, and facing General Grant. We walked in softly and ranged ourselves quietly about the sides of the room, very much as people enter a sick-chamber when they expect to find the patient dangerously ill”. [1]

When the soldiers learnt the news about the surrender days after the Meeting at Appomattox , they “did rush to catch their fallen flags and did destroy their flags rather than surrender them”[2].
This behavior romanticized the view of the flag during the Reconstruction Era. Of course, every symbol of the former Southern Army was against the law, they symbolized disunity and rebellion. However, in the South, veterans and their families took care of their relics, and many times, the Confederate banner was displayed in public. There were several incidents during the late 1860’s which led to debates within the Southern states and the US government. Flying the Confederate flag was an “act of treason”.

On the other hand, we should not forget that the KKK was founded during these years too. They used the Confederate flag and other symbols to represent their racist views on African Americans, immigration, etc. In the beginning of the 1870’s, the government passed the so called Force Acts to prosecute KKK members, but later in the 20^th century, the Klan was reborn. The restoration of white supremacy was their main goal by torturing and killing innocents. By the virtue of the fact, that the Confederate flag was displayed many time, therefore became linked to the KKK; the memory, the symbol of the flag were distorted and degenerated. 

I believe these years influence the afterlife of the Confederate flag in the 20^th and 21^st centuries. How it became a symbol with different meanings over the centuries is strongly connected to the fact that during the Reconstruction it was treated with such ambiguity. Nowadays, I would say that the Confederate flag does not evoke such extreme feelings in people within the US and all over the world. It became a romantic symbol of the past, even if that period was among the darkest ones in their history.

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[1] http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/appomatx.htm
[2] http://books.google.hu/books?id=zs0VJTbNwfAC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false---pg29

The Road So Far: Part 1

When the Civil War broke out, the most popular symbol of the South was the so called 'Bonnie Blue Flag'.

However, it could not maintain its position to represent the Southern states. Many states of the Confederacy adopted it as their own flag or/and battle flag; still, the Bonnie Blue was not accepted as the official flag and was defeated by the 'Stars and Bars'.

William Porcher Miles came up with his own design what we call the Confederate Flag today. This soon became the battle flag of Virginia.

There were many variations on the first flag and in 1863. After several debates and discontent, Committee Chairman Alexander Boteler said: "True, the battle flag was endeared to every Confederate heart, but what meant the white field? If any border were adopted, let it be red, symbolizing the bloodshed on our frontiers". But Jefferson Davis signed the bill into law, so the Stainless Banner became the second flag of the Confederacy.  The 'Stainless Banner' (also referred to as the 'white men's flag') was born, although it did not live long. During battles on windless days, it looked like a pure white flag which meant surrender.

The third banner adopted a red bar on the left.

The battle flag remained the same, and it was the one what soldiers followed. They described this in their letters, and their families respected this flag as it was the banner of their fighting soldiers'. According to John M. Coski, the Confederate Flag "preserved and perpetuated the Confederate nationalism, linking the flag to slavery and racism requires only linking the cause to slavery". As veteran Carlton MacCarthy wrote in his Detailed Minutiae of Soldier  Life in the Army of Northern Virginia, that the banner " was not the flag of the Confederacy but simply the banner of....the Confederate soldier. As such it should not share in the condemnation which our cause received, or suffer from its downfall. The whole world can unite in the chorus of praise to the gallantry of the men who followed where this banner led".