Why the Confederate Flag is Racist
In this article, we’ll talk about the historical, analytical, and societal reasons as to why the Confederate Flag is racist.
I’m from the south. Born and raised in West Texas, I’ve experienced southern culture in its many forms. I have a deep appreciation for biscuits and gravy, I’ve non-ironically attended rodeos, and even pledged allegiance to the Texas flag in elementary school. However, I am also painfully aware of the real and underlying racism and denial that lives in southern culture.
More on this in a bit…
Symbols play a huge roll in the South. They define the team you root for, the church you attend, and the causes you support. However, one symbol has caused more division than even the dreaded University of Texas Longhorn symbol... I'm talking about the Confederate flag.
So if you find yourself curious about the history of the flag and why it has always stood as a racist symbol in America, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s get to it.
Video Documentary: Why the Confederate Flag is Racist
Are you more of a watcher instead of a reader? No problem. We created a quick video with most of the points outlined in this article in a short animated documentary.
Editor’s Note:
This article isn’t designed to declare what you are allowed to believe about the Confederate Flag. You have the freedom to believe anything you want, just like you have the freedom to believe in Santa Claus, but belief doesn't ground an issue in truth.
Also, I recognize that to some individuals the Confederate Flag is primarily a symbol of heritage and southern pride. To these folks, the flag does not stand predominantly for racism, but rather a connection to ideals, community, and beliefs that have been passed throughout generations. They have been raised (like me) to believe that the Civil War was the war of 'Northern Aggression' fought over state's rights and not slavery (which is historically false, more on that below).
If that is you, I am super grateful you are reading this article today. Thankfully, we no longer have to accept generational myths rooted in strategic racist ideologies (outlined below). We can now look at historical patterns and events to help us unearth what is true about this divisive symbol.
The Confederate Flag: A Historical Perspective
The history of the Confederate Flag is weird, quirky, and complex. Quite frankly, it’s a masterclass in bad flag design.
The Civil War (1861 - 1865)
The Civil War started with a Confederate attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861 and concluded with the surrender of Robert E. Lee at the Appomattox Court House in Virginia on April 9, 1865.
The Civil War was fought primarily over the South's right to own black slaves. According to Alexander H. Stephens the Vice President of the Confederacy:
[The Confederacy's] foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition.
- Alexander H. Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy, 1861
Lost Cause ideologies formed during the restoration period after the Civil War tried to change the recognition of the slavery-focused roots of the Confederacy. Many believe Lost Cause interpretations of the Civil War are used as a coping mechanism to help southern society deal with the horrendous atrocities associated with their support of slavery and protect the legacy of white southerners who supported the Confederacy.
Legacy preservation at the expense of historical truth continues to be a reoccurring pattern throughout southern culture, most notably seen in communal support of both Confederate monuments and the Confederate flag itself.
The National Flags of the Confederacy: A Masterclass in Poor Flag Design
Stars and Bars (March 4, 1861 - April 30, 1863)
The first flag adopted by the Confederacy is what is known as the 'Stars and Bars' design. The design started with 7 stars, adding new stars as southern states joined the Confederacy, resulting in a grand total of 13 stars.
This flag was problematic on the battlefield because it looked too similar to the 'Stars and Stripes' design of the Union. Various ideas were thrown around to solve the confusion, including having two flags, one for peace and one for war, but ultimately these initial ideas were rejected by the Confederate government.
The Stainless Banner (May 1, 1863 - March 3, 1865)
In the wake of the confusion, the South rebranded their flag in 1863 to the Stainless Banner design also known as ‘The White Man’s Flag’. One advocate of the flag said:
As a people we are fighting to maintain the Heaven-ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race; a white flag would thus be emblematical of our cause.
- William Tappan Thompson, Stainless Banner Advocate & Editor of Savannah Morning News
However, this design proved to be problematic because the predominatntly white design made it look like a 'truce' flag of surrender, especially if the wind was still.
Woops…
This flag was also difficult to keep clean in the midst of dirty battlefields, leading to complaints from military commanders.
The Blood-Stained Banner (March 4, 1865 - April 12, 1865)
The final flag of the Confederacy came just a month before the surrender of Robert E. Lee. This final design added a short red stripe to the end to avoid the 'no-wind surrender' problem mentioned above. However, very few of these flags were ever manufacturers and many Confederate soldiers never even saw the design in combat.
The Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia
The traditional ‘X’ design associated with modern Confederate flags is actually the regimental flag for the Northern Army of Virginia. There were many different regimental flags across the entire Confederate army.
Many regimental flags were variants of US, British, and French flag designs. However, due to early success and large enlistment numbers, the Northern Army of Virginia became known as the primary military force for the Confederacy. This lead to increased symbolic correlation between the battle flag and the South's cause to defend slavery.
A stretched out version of the Battle Flag was adopted by the Navy of the Army of Tennessee, this flag would later be dubbed the 'Naval Jack'. This is the flag that most people think of when they envision a Confederate Flag.
Reconstruction Confusion
In the years following the Civil War, veterans of the Confederacy began dying off. Memorial services for these veterans would often feature their Confederate regimental flag including the Battle Flag of Northern Virginia.
However, around this time there was still confusion about which flag best symbolized the Confederate cause. Many organizations including the United Daughters of the Confederacy were often seen with both flags.
This confusion continued until 1915.
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
In 1915 'The Birth of a Nation', a film created by D. W. Griffith, took America by storm. The film featured African-American men acting sexually aggressive towards white women who are saved by the Ku Klux Klan. To say that Birth of a Nation was a blockbuster would be an understatement. It was the biggest film of all time; The equivalent to a modern Avengers movie.
The Confederate Battle Flag was extensively used throughout the film, and excitement towards the White Supremacist ideals promoted in the film spread throughout the United States.
The result was the reformation of the Ku Klux Klan (which had died off 44 years earlier), and the adoption of the Confederate Battle Flag as the national symbol of White Supremecy. The flag would be present at lynchings, cross and church burnings, and hung as a symbol to create fear in black people throughout the South.
Wars: World War II, Vietnam, & Beyond
In WWII some southern soldiers brought and displayed the battle flag after military victories, but General Simon B. Buckner, Jr (son of a Confederate General) ordered the flag to be removed and replaced with the US flag because "Americans from all over are involved in this battle".
The flag would go on to be used unofficially by southern soldiers in multiple wars including the Vietnam War, to the dismay of fellow black soldiers. Specifically, when Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in April 1968, American bases in South Vietnam lowered their regular US flags to half mast, but in places like the Cam Hanh Naval Base the tragedy was met with the raising of the Confederate Flag and cross burnings.
The Civil Rights Era
In an effort to protect racial segregation and white supremacy ideals, the Dixiecrat party was formed in 1948. Dixiecrats adopted the Confederate Battle Flag as their party flag, hoping to use sentiment towards the flag's ideals to perpetuate their ideology. Storm Thurmond, the Dixiecrat presidential candidate in 1948, won Louisiana, Mississippi, and Georgia, but upon the presidential loss, the Dixiecrat party was abandoned. However, the effort of the party helped to repopularize the flag in public sentiment as a symbol for segregation and white supremacy.
As the Civil Rights Movement was gaining traction throughout the United States, many southern states fought school integration brought by Brown vs the Board of Education (1954). Georgia, for example, changed from a simple design that was reminiscent of the traditional Confederate Stars and Bars design, to the Battle Flag design that was used by white supremacist groups around the United States. The flag design was a form of protest against desegregation.
As time progressed, the Southern Baptist Convention (which was founded in support of slavery) passed a resolution calling for Southern Baptist churches to stop displaying the Confederate flag, as a "sign of solidarity of the whole Body of Christ."
As of 2020, all but one of the state flags featuring the Confederate Battle flag have been replaced, with a redesign of Mississippi's flag in the works.
The best summary of the history of the flag can be found from Southern political scientists James Michael Martinez, William Donald Richardson, and Ron McNinch-Su:
The battle flag was never adopted by the Confederate Congress, never flew over any state capitols during the Confederacy, and was never officially used by Confederate veterans' groups. The flag probably would have been relegated to Civil War museums if it had not been resurrected by the resurgent KKK and used by Southern Dixiecrats during the 1948 presidential election.
In short, if it wasn't for racist white supremacy groups, the Battle Flag wouldn't be the dominant symbol for 'southern pride' or the Confederacy. As a result, from a historical perspective it is impossible to separate racist ideology from public displays of the flag.
The Confederate Flag: A Sociological Perspective
Most arguments about the ethics of flying the Confederate Flag aren't rooted in historical facts. Rather those who actively support the public display of the flag often talk about an individual interpretation of meaning.
Most interpretations of the Confederate flag representing something other than slavery usually stem from a propaganda campaign called 'The Lost Cause' movement which finds its roots in the wake of the Civil War as a way for Southerners to justify the horrendous support of slavery.
However, the data about what American's actually believe about the Confederate Flag is very telling...
The Data: What People Think About the Confederate Flag
The best survey conducted on what American's believe about the Confederate Flag was conducted in 2020 by YouGov, an international research data and analytics group. Their research featured the largest sample size of any such survey ever recorded. Here are their findings:
The plurality of American's believe the Confederate Flag represents racism.
The majority of Southern states believe that the Confederate flag stands for racism. The only exception being Arkansas, Louisiana, and Alabama.
The only group that predominantly believes the flag doesn't stand for racism is non college-educated Whites.
American's who are 55+ are more likely to think that the flag stands for heritage.
The data is clear and overwhelming. As a result, it is safe to say that if you support or fly a Confederate flag you are knowingly standing for something that the plurality of America views as racist.
The Confederate Flag: An Ethical Perspective
So history and society tells us that the flag is racist, but what about our conscience? Let’s spend this last section talking about a few practical views on the ethics of the Confederate flag.
The Flag Stood for A Nation Who Enslaved Other People
Whether we are talking about the Battle Flag or the Blood-Stained Banner, the flag of the Confederacy stood for a nation that supported the enslavement of a group of people on the basis of their skin color. This is (obviously) morally and ethically wrong.
The Flag is Certainly Un-Christian
There is no ethical grounds for a Christian, knowledgable of the facts presented in this article, to fly a Confederate flag. The bible is abundantly clear on the problems associated with ignoring those who are hurt or marginalized:
Galatians 6:2 "Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ."
2 Corinthians 8:13-15 “Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, as it is written: “The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.”
Zechariah 7:9 “This is what the LORD Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.”
Pslams 82:3 "Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and oppressed."
Proverbs 29:7 “The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.
From a biblical perspective it is a Christian's job to stand up for the needy. It is a mandate to uphold the cause of the oppressed. There is an explicit command to carry each other's burdens. As such, Christ's love desires to remove racial division from his people.
Respecting Veterans
The Confederate Flag also poses a huge problem for those who wish to respect veterans of the United States military as the Confederacy killed 360,222 active members of the United States military. Any memorial to such organization on American soil is an insult to their sacrifice and legacy.
Life is Short: The Reality of Your Legacy
I recently watched a video which stated that you have a 1 in 400,000,000,000,000 chance of being alive today. Against all of those odds, you now sit here reading this sentence… Wow.
In the wake of these impossible odds, I'd like to simply ask 'What do you want to be remembered for?' Time has shown us that those who stand in opposition to the oppressed leave a tarnished legacy.
Those who aligned with the Confederate Flag in the Civil War are now viewed as slave supporters.
Those who aligned with the Confederate Flag in the early 1915s are now viewed as sympathizers to White Supremacy.
Those who aligned with the Confederate Flag in the Civil Rights Era are now viewed as people who supported segregation.
Those who align with the Confederate Flag in the Black Lives Matter era will be viewed as those who support systemic racism.
Rights vs Opportunities
As Americans you have the right to do almost anything you want. From joining a White Supremacist organization to flying a Confederate flag, you have the right to metaphorically plant your flag wherever you want. However, I would implore those who focus on rights to ask themselves these questions:
Is it right to symbolically isolate Black Americans?
Is it right to align with a pro-slavery nation?
Is it right to ignore present pain of others on behalf of a defunct nation?
With that in mind, let’s summarize what we’ve learned...
Why the Confederate Flag is Racist: A Short Summary
Despite individual and communal interpretations of meaning, according to data, historical facts, and societal views, the Confederate Flag stands for racism in the United States. From White Supremacist movements in the early 1900's to segregation support in the Civil Rights Era, the Confederate Battle Flag has always stood as a rallying symbol for those who wish to oppress and harm Black Americans.
