Like many of the South’s restless ghosts, the conflict over the Confederate battle flag continues to stalk the region, emerging every so often into the national spotlight.
This time, as in the past, the catalyst is South Carolina, the first state to secede from the Union and the only state where the flag still flies over the Capitol dome. But throughout the South, dozens of controversies over the display of the rebel flag and other Confederate symbols have pitted blacks against whites, Republicans against Democrats and conservatives against liberals, just as the Civil War did more than a century ago.
Recently, the national NAACP announced a boycott against the $14.1 billion tourism industry in South Carolina, popular for its golf courses and pristine beaches.
“The flag stands as a vivid reminder of South Carolina’s past, which involved slavery and secession,” said Dwight James, executive director of the South Carolina Conference of Branches, NAACP. “While it does represent part of South Carolina’s history, it should be relegated to a museum with other relics. It doesn’t represent the South Carolina of today, and it shouldn’t fly over the state Capitol.”
In the 134 years since the Confederate battle flag fell in defeat, it has served as one of the most contentious symbols of the Old South, still dividing those who believe in the values it stood for and those who do not. While it has been used throughout history to observe the sacrifices made in support of the Confederacy, it also has become a widely used symbol of white supremacy.
The latest round of disputes comes as African-Americans struggle to hold on to civil rights gains, such as affirmative action and school desegregation. At the same time, groups of mostly conservative whites have united behind the flag issue, determined to hold on to one of the few remaining symbols of a bygone era.
“What we have is an ethnic cleansing of Confederate symbols in America,” said Kirk Lyons, an attorney for the Southern Legal Resource Center in Black Mountain, N.C. “There’s a problem when the government tries to pick and choose what our symbols can and cannot be.
“This is a symbol for people who want to proclaim their Southern heritage. If some people are offended by that, they have a right to be. But they also have to show toleration for the symbol and respect the rights of those who want to display it. That’s what living in a free and diverse society is all about.”
According to Lyons, who describes the center as the “ACLU for the Confederate flag,” dozens of disputes or lawsuits have sprung up across the South. The Mississippi Supreme Court recently reinstated a lawsuit filed six years ago by the NAACP against the state’s use of the Confederate battle flag in its state banner.
In Georgia, state lawmakers continually have refused to pass a bill to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag, adopted by the Legislature in 1956 as an act of defiance against court-ordered school desegregation. Six years ago, former Gov. Zell Miller attempted to change the state flag but was unable to win broad public support.
At Texas A&M University in College Station, a cadet was removed from the corps for a variety of reasons, including displaying the Confederate flag on a trunk in his dormitory room. A high school in Maryville, Tenn., is phasing out the tradition of flying the Confederate flag at athletic events because of complaints that football games look like a Ku Klux Klan rally. In Richmond, Va., there has been an ongoing dispute over a portrait of Gen. Robert E. Lee hanging in the city’s Canal Walk theme park.
“The cases are falling out of the trees,” said Lyons, whose center receives 10 to 15 complaints a month. “These are good, decent people who are just proud that their great-grandfather carried that flag and fought honorably for his home and constitutional principles.”
For Rev. Jeffrey Lowe, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Riverdale, south of Atlanta, the Confederate battle flag has personal meaning. Through letters written by his great-great grandfather to his wife during the war, Lowe gained great respect for the soldier who served in most of the major campaigns of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and died three days before the South surrendered.
“There is no question that slavery was a major issue in the war . . . but I am not willing to let the incredible sacrifices of my Southern ancestors be forgotten,” said Lowe, who celebrates the state-observed Confederate Memorial Day on April 26 by placing flowers on the graves of Confederate soldiers. “Besides the American Revolution, the War Between the States is the most important event in American history. It shaped the country that we later became.”
While leading an effort in 1986 to remove symbols of the Confederate battle flag in the South, Earl Shinhoster, former Southeast regional director and acting national director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, learned firsthand how much the lost cause of the Confederacy still lives in the hearts and minds of many in the South. He grew weary of the fight, believing that there was not enough support from African- Americans.
“Many African-Americans have long viewed an attack on the Confederate flag as a waste of time and a diversion from more pressing issues such as equal opportunity, affirmative action and violence in the community,” he said.
“While many might say in a referendum that the flag should go, if the question were asked, `how much time, money and resources should we spend on it?’, then I think the significance might pale compared to other issues within our community.”
The reason, according to Shinhoster, who runs an Atlanta consulting firm, is because many blacks see it as a fight that cannot be won. Previous protests and lawsuits by the NAACP had no effect in Georgia, Mississippi or South Carolina. Alabama removed the flag from its Capitol dome in 1993 after a judge ruled it violated state law.
The Confederate battle flag, a star-crossed red and blue banner, was raised over South Carolina’s statehouse in 1962 to commemorate the Civil War’s centennial. It also is displayed in the legislative chambers.
“We live in the past here (in South Carolina), and we like it that way,” said Jane Murray Wells, president general of the 27,000-member United Daughters of the Confederacy. “We still use our dishes, china and silverware from the Confederacy days. We don’t want anything taken from us.”
Gov. Jim Hodges supports a compromise to take down the flag and place it near a Confederate memorial on the Capitol grounds. He is conducting a poll to determine if there is enough support for it in the legislature, a spokeswoman said.
Black lawmakers recently called for reprinting the latest manual for South Carolina legislators, which has a picture of the House chamber, including the Confederate flag, on its cover. This year, the Senate passed a bill providing for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday only after it also included recognition of Confederate Memorial Day. A House committee refused to act on the bill.
It is too early to determine what impact the NAACP boycott will have, though the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the National Urban League canceled conventions planned for South Carolina. The African Methodist Episcopal Church and the National Progressive Baptist Convention canceled meetings planned for next year, according to James.
Regardless of whether the flag comes down, Shinhoster said the attention given to the issue could result in dialogue.
“As long as the Confederate battle flag flies, it gives sustenance to those who look at it as a symbol of defiance, a symbol of secession and all that characterized the war between the states,” said Shinhoster.
“If people really begin to understand why the flag is there and why people support it remaining there, they will see how this Southern chauvinism really plays out.”
