The History of the Confederate Flag and What It Represents

During the Civil War, the Confederacy had three official iterations of its flag — none of which resembled the flag we now think of as the Confederate flag. The flag — a red background with a blue St. Andrew's Cross and 13 white stars that represent the states of the Confederacy — was the battle flag flown by several Confederate armies. One of those armies was led by General Robert E. Lee — an often romanticized figure in U.S. history, who led an army whose soldiers kidnapped free Black farmers and sold them into slavery, encouraged the beating of slaves who tried to escape, and fought to protect the institution of slavery. With his surrender at Appomattox Court House, the Civil War came to an end. Though Lee later distanced himself from the flag — requesting that it not be displayed at his funeral during a time in which the flag was used to commemorate Confederate soldiers — after his death, the flag became widely used by various groups and organizations that opposed civil rights.

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In June 2015, when 21-year-old Dylann Roof shot and killed nine Black people in a Charleston church after joining them for prayer, the Confederate flag was flying outside the South Carolina statehouse, where it was installed in 2000. In a manifesto Roof published online, he’d expressed wanting to start a “race war” and was photographed stomping and burning the American flag and waving the Confederate flag. Roof’s brutal act renewed debate about the flag’s meaning and use in public spaces. Activist Bree Newsome ripped down the flag at South Carolina’s statehouse before it was permanently taken down weeks after the shootings.

The following year, in May 2016, the U.S. House banned Confederate flags from being flown at cemeteries run by the Veterans Administration. In addition, major retailers, including Wal-Mart, eBay, and Sears stopped selling it, and various flag manufacturers have also ceased production of it.

Despite these changes, there are still Confederate flag defenders who insist that it isn’t a racist symbol. In December 2019, Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina Governor and United Nations ambassador (who actually ordered the flag removed from the Charleston statehouse), was criticized after saying Roof “hijacked” the Confederate flag, and that to the people of South Carolina, the flag represented “service and sacrifice and heritage.”

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Zoii said:

The problem with those who fly flags, is that the flag does not symbolise national unity, it is flown with an intent to indicate exclusivity. And the group flying the flag have clear ideology regarding who the flag represents, and who it doesn't.

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