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".