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.