The History Behind the Confederate Flag

  The Confederate Battle Flag  at the Confederate Monument in Columbia has been a source of contention since its first placement atop the State House dome in 1962. Perhaps a little history on the flag itself is in order.

  Sad events in Charleston South Carolina have created the impetus to remove the flag once and finally from the State House Grounds   It is ironic that that this  flag was the design of a Charlestonian who worked just three blocks away from Mother Emanuel Church.  William Porcher Miles  (July 4, 1822 – May 11, 1899) was  a tenured  Professor of Mathematics at the College of Charleston from 1843 to 1855. An ardent  States Rights advocate and  supporter of slavery, he is numbered among the notorious  Southern Secessionists who came to be known as the “Fire Eaters”, who considered  any northern efforts to restrict slavery as justification for secession. Elected as mayor of Charleston in 1855 and then serving in the United States House of Representatives from 1857 until South Carolina seceded in December 1860, Miles went on to represent his state in the Confederate House of Representatives

  As a member of the Confederate Congress, he chaired the Badges and Flag Committee which was tasked with creating a national flag for the Confederate States. The battle flag was rejected as the national flag in 1861.Instead, General Robert E. Lee  adopted it as the battle flag for his Army of Northern Virginia.

  For some the flag is a symbol of bravery, sacrifice and defense of hearth and home. It symbolizes the ultimate sacrifice of those who died for Southern Independence in the War Between the States.  For many, this flag is a great symbol of heritage and solemn remembrance. The graves of those who died in the War for Southern Independence are even today decorated with this flag. But for others, it is a dark symbol. It symbolizes the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. It represents racial hatred and terrorism.

  April 9, 1865 was a sad day for the 28,000 strong  Army of Northern Virginia. It was the day that marked the end of the long struggle by southern states for independence. General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to General Grant at Appomattox. Grant’s terms were generous, allowing the men to go home and carry their personal property. Officers were even allowed to keep their swords. Grant wanted to strike a tone of reconciliation. As the surrender was announced, his men commenced firing a salute of a hundred guns in honor of the victory.

 Quoting Grant “. I at once sent word, however, to have it stopped. The Confederates were now our prisoners, and we did not want to exult over their downfall. “

. General Robert E Lee announced the terms of surrender to his vanquished troops. Among his final orders he declared:,

 “Let us furl the banner, never to unfurl it again”

. Robert E Lee became a symbol of national reconciliation. The leader of a Confederate army earned respect and admiration both north and south. Because Robert E Lee was such a great man, and because he set the tone for reconciliation after the War, he was lionized, and rightly so, by vanquished southerners. He aimed to set the tone for healing the wounds of a war torn nation. Shortly after the War he became president of Washington College, later Washington and Lee University. The day he was sworn in as college President, he took an oath to “henceforth” support the U.S. Constitution, his recommendation to all former Confederates. At his funeral in 1870, no flags of the Confederacy were displayed.. Lee did not want such divisive symbols following him to the grave. Former Confederate soldiers marching did not don their old military uniforms, and neither did the body they buried. The flag was folded up and put away, making occasional appearances at funerals and later, Veteran’s reunions.

  The flag is frequently associated with the KKK., but it is inaccurate to claim the KKK took it up during Reconstruction. There is little evidence that the 19th century Klan ever took it up.  Founded in 1866 by ex-Confederate soldiers and other Southerners opposed to Reconstruction, the Klan was primarily a white terrorist organization that carried out hundreds of murders. The Klan waned and disbanded  with the firm establishment of Jim  Crow by the 1890s .

 The desecration of the Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia started with the release of D. W. Griffith's film The Birth of A Nation in 1915.  The film portrayed the Klansmen as great heroes, and Griffith appropriated the Confederate banner for the movie.. This movie was sensational for cinematic excellence, and is even today numbered among the greatest examples of cinematic skill. But it was also sensational for its dark content. The Birth of a Nation played to the deepest and darkest fears of the white population presenting a warped history of Reconstruction. with  the KKK as heroes and Southern blacks as villains and violent rapists and threats to the social order. It held great appeal to white Americans who subscribed to the mythic, romantic view (similar to Sir Walter Scott historical romances) of the Old Plantation South.   The Klan was portrayed as the South's savior from Black tyranny. And these heroes, clad in white robes and pointy white hats. saved the day leading with --- you guessed it---Robert E. Lee’s battle flag. Promotional posters for Birth of A Nation featured the flag, reviving this Confederate symbol as a respectable symbol of White Supremacy.
 

  When President Woodrow Wilson saw the film, he commented: "It is like writing history with lightning, and my only regret is that it is all so terribly true." African-American audiences were horrified and wept in their seats, while white audiences cheered. A frenzy of racial hatred swept the nation as white mobs roamed city streets attacking blacks. there were riots in Boston and Philadelphia.  In Lafayette, Indiana, a white man killed a black teenager after seeing the movie. Consequently, it was denied release in many other places (Chicago, Ohio, Denver, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Minneapolis). The Confederate Flag became the symbol of White Supremacy.

The film inspired "Colonel" William Joseph Simmons to revive the Klan. Setting a cross on fire atop a mountain was his  first official to mark the rebirth of the Klan. The resurrected Klan targeted blacks, Jews and Catholics with its message of hate. The Klan promoted fundamentalism and devout patriotism along with advocating white supremacy. They blasted bootleggers, motion pictures and espoused a return to "clean" living. Appealing to folks uncomfortable with the shifting nature of America from a rural agricultural society to an urban industrial one, the Klan attacked the elite, urbanites and intellectuals.
 

  Their message struck a chord, and membership in the Klan ballooned in the 1920s. By the middle of the decade, estimates for national membership in this secret organization ranged from three million to as high as eight million Klansmen. The Confederate Battle Flag became a national symbol for a powerful national organization. In the 1920s, the Klan moved in many states to dominate local and state politics. Known as the "Invisible Empire," the KKK's presence was felt across the country.

   In 1925 Klan leader David C. Stephenson, was convicted for second-degree murder. Charges of  corruption by other members such as the governor of Indiana and the mayor of Indianapolis brought on a steep decline in membership. By 1944 the national organization was disbanded. Nonetheless, across the nation, pockets persisted that terrorized blacks in the countryside. Lynchings and house burnings were not uncommon. The symbols present at these horrific events were burning crosses and the Confederate Flag. These events etched the flag in the minds of many Blacks as a symbol of domestic terrorism.
 

  The next incarnation of the Confederate Flag came in 1948 when President Harry Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights ordered an immediate desegregation of the Armed Forces. This created a shudder of horror in the Deep South, and the backlash resulted in the formation of the States Rights Democratic Party, popularly called “Dixiecrats”. Their nominee for President was Governor Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. Here is the Party Platform:

"We stand for the segregation of the races and the racial integrity of each race; the constitutional right to choose one's associates; to accept private employment without governmental interference, and to earn one's living in any lawful way. We oppose the elimination of segregation, the repeal of miscegenation statutes, the control of private employment by Federal bureaucrats called for by the misnamed civil rights program. We favor home-rule, local self-government and a minimum interference with individual rights.”

   The flag appeared at Dixiecrat  conventions and rallies as the proud banner of segregation. Desegregation in schools and universities, coupled with the rise of the Civil Rights Movement, prompted leadership in the Deep South to raise the Confederate Flag above their state houses. Many incorporated it into the design of their state flags. It rose above the State House in Columbia in 1961 to supposedly commemorate the Centennial of the Battle of Fort Sumter. But it was also a statement that South Carolina would never bow to desegregation.
General Robert E Lee’s sadly misappropriated flag was removed from the flagstaff atop the Capitol in 2000 and was placed at the Confederate Monument on the State House Grounds. But now, the flag has come down from the State House Grounds. A symbol of heritage to some, a symbol of  terrorism to others. The young man that killed the nine martyrs at Mother Emanuel AME Church in June wrapped himself in that flag, and so now the flag has been furled, never to fly again. At least not on the State House grounds.
General Robert E Lee would be pleased.