The Confederate Flag is down but the Battle over it isn’t over
Friday, July 10, 2015 was a
historic moment in the history of the United States of America. On Friday
morning just after 10 a.m., the Confederate flag on South Carolina’s (SC) State
House grounds was removed. It was an event that was surely overdue for
decades. But thanks to the SC politicians, many of whom were overtly racists,
if not covertly, and their supporters within the general population, this flag,
which has been seen as a symbol of intolerance and racism by all
African-Americans, had remained hoisted all these years, until it was brought
down lately.
The Confederacy may have surrendered on the battlefield in 1865, and its divisive flag brought down in South Carolina Statehouse nearly one and a half century later, but the battle over the Confederate flag is not over yet. Not only does Southernomics persist in other parts of the country as a viable economic model that deliberately keeps ordinary workers weak, dependent and scared but many Americans continue to revere the confederate flag as part of their heritage. Supporters embrace the battle flag as a reminder of ancestors who fought for the Confederacy or as an emblem of regional pride. Critics see it as a symbol of a defiant white supremacist society that fought to perpetuate slavery and segregation.
Just days before the flag was brought down in South Carolina, an eight-mile convoy of pickups, motorcycles and cars wound through a central Florida town Ocala for the "Florida Southern Pride Ride". Some 4,500 people rallied in support of flying the Confederate flag. Horns blared and nearly 2,000 vehicles, adorned with the Civil War-era flag, took part in the gathering. The event was being held to back a decision by Marion County in that area of central Florida to return the Confederate flag to a display outside its government complex. The rally also came as Tennessee announced that it will celebrate the birthday of Confederate army general and early Ku Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Shots were fired at the Ocala rally during an argument over the flag, but no one was injured. The Ocala Star-Banner reported participants wore shirts with phrases including "heritage not hate" and talked of defending Southern traditions, WKMG reported.
"This isn't about hatred. This isn't about racism. This isn't about black and white," a participant said. "We are not in hate of anybody. We just don't want our rights taken away to support our Southern heritage." A replica of the General Lee car from "The Dukes of Hazard" TV show led the procession. Another participant defended flying the Confederate flag, saying "It's a history thing. The flag is also a military flag. It's not a race symbol."
Meanwhile, the next big struggle over Old South symbols is shaping up in Mississippi, the only state that includes the Confederate battle emblem in its state flag. The rebel x has been fluttering over the Capitol and other public buildings since 1894 as part of the state flag. In a 2001 statewide election, people voted nearly 2-to-1 to keep the design.
Mississippi NAACP president Derrick Johnson says the Confederate symbol should be erased from the Mississippi banner because it represents racial hatred and exclusion. "It's time to write the next chapter of our history."
Last Saturday, July 18, supporters of the Ku Klux Klan and the Black Panthers clashed outside the South Carolina Capitol in Columbia; five people were arrested and seven were taken to hospital for medical treatment. "The Confederate flag does not represent hate. A lot of Americans died for that flag," one member of the KKK reportedly told news reporters.
So, what made the difference
this time? It was that Charleston shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME)
Church by a white terrorist - Dylann Roof - who
like many other fellow racists revered that confederate flag very dearly. Nine
Black church
members were shot to death by Roof on June 17 when they were having a Bible
Study.
As I noted earlier, the massacre of those African-Americans in Charleston was classified as a
possible hate crime and not as terrorism. This, in spite of the overwhelming
evidence that the killer
himself wanted to ignite a race war. He
reportedly had told friends and neighbors of his plans to kill people,
including a plot to attack the College of Charleston. An online photo showed him
sitting on the hood of his parents' car with an ornamental license plate with a
Confederate flag on it. He also left
a racist manifesto in which he included photographs holding the flag, visiting the
Confederate museum and a Confederate cemetery.
Debates
over displaying the Confederate battle flag became quite familiar in South
Carolina after the shooting. Most Republicans avoided taking a position on the
flag, though Jeb Bush highlighted his role in removing the flag from Florida's
Capitol in 2001. Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton forcefully called on
Americans to discuss racial divisions but avoided talking whether South
Carolina should remove the flag from the Capitol complex. Gov. Nikki Haley, who
said the issue was worth a conversation, was under immense pressure to convene
a special session to take up the flag question. Lawmakers agreed to take down the
flag on the week of July 6, following an impassioned debate at the
House which went on for over 12 hours. Governor Nikki Haley signed the
final legislation to remove the flag on Thursday, July 9, calling for it
to come down in a respectful manner.
The
politics of the flag are complicated in South Carolina. The Confederate flag was first placed on the
dome in the 1960s. In 2000, the flag was moved from the State House dome
to the Confederate memorial, amid protest. A November poll from Winthrop
University found that 73% of whites in the state want the flag to remain where
it is. The same poll reported that 61% of blacks want it taken down.
For
some whites, many of whom can trace their ancestry back to the Civil War, the
flag represents heritage and pride.
"It's
a symbol of family and my ancestors who defended the state from invasion. It
was about standing up to a central government," said Chris Sullivan, who
is a member of the Sons of the Confederacy. "The things that our ancestors
fought for were not novel and they really are the same issues we have
today." "What's the difference between the flag and the
monument," Sullivan asked. "That's what people are upset about now,
but what about later?"
The
flag is just one of several monuments that includes a statue of one-time
segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond and Ben Tillman, who sought to
disenfranchise black citizens while he was governor. A stone marks the site of
the state house before Sherman's troops burned it the ground during the Civil
War.
Southern states of the
United States always has been somewhat different than its northern sister
states, not just in matters of resisting to end slavery but on a plethora of
issues. After
slavery ended, some Southern business leaders moved on to exploiting children.
During
the late 19th and early 20th centuries, millions of children across the country
were forced to work in factories, textile mills and mines. The forced labor
stunted their growth and kept many away from schools. Factory owners preferred
children because they were cheaper, more submissive and less likely to strike.
Southern
industrialists became so invested in child labor that when Congress passed a
law in 1916 banning child labor, a group of Southern textile mill owners went
all the way to the Supreme Court to get the law declared unconstitutional in
Hammer vs. Dagenhart, until child labor was outlawed in U.S. v. Darby in 1941.
Southern
economics (commonly known as Southernomics) also developed a way to exploit
workers through the justice system.
In
his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "Slavery by Another Name," Douglas
A. Blackmon recounts how Southern law enforcement officials routinely arrested
poor blacks on trumped-up charges such as selling cotton after sunset. When
those arrested could not afford to pay their bond, they would be leased out to
private businesses that would work them for free.
After
slavery ended, Southern leaders were content to exploit white tenant farmers
and child laborers. Some even experimented with bringing in indentured servants
or "coolies" from Asia after the Civil War, historian Michael Lind
says.
Though
the Old South may have lost the military battle during the Civil War, Lind is
concerned that it is winning the battle on the economic front. He says more
states outside the South are adopting the region's economic model: passing
"right-to-work" laws, slashing taxes to attract corporations and
pulling back on investing in public services like public schools and
infrastructure.
Every
Southern state is a "right-to-work" state, which means it has laws
that make it more difficult for unions to organize. And though there is a
national movement to raise the federal minimum wage, there are still five states
that have refused to adopt a state minimum wage. All of them -- Alabama,
Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee -- are in the South.
Less
worker power may be one reason the South is often touted as a
"business-friendly climate." The Old South has long pioneered other
ways of exploiting workers besides weakening their bargaining power, Michael
Lind and other historians say. Some Southern governors like former Texas Gov.
Rick Perry have openly boasted about traveling to other states to steal
businesses with promises of low taxes.
The
South has consistently been rated by CEOs as the best region to do business in,
according to Chief Executive Magazine.
In
its 2015 annual survey, the magazine asked CEOs which states were the best and
worst for business. The top five most business-friendly states were all in the
South, the survey revealed. (Texas was No. 1, followed by Florida, North
Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia.)
Supporters
of the Southern economic model say that businesses move to states with a more
stable labor environment and that more business means more jobs with higher
wages. They also say that right-to-work laws actually help unions by forcing
them to work harder to retain members.
Lind
calls this process the "Southernization" of the American economy and
says it's ultimately not about racism. "The ongoing power struggle between
the local elites of the former Confederacy and their allies in other regions
and the rest of the United States is not primarily about personal attitudes. It
is about power and wealth," Lind wrote in an essay for Salon entitled,
"The South is Holding America Hostage."
Studies
of the South, however, suggest that while it may be a good place for business,
it isn't necessarily good for people's health and welfare.
Southern
residents have the lowest healthy life expectancy of any U.S. citizens
regardless of race, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The region
also has the worst child poverty -- 12 of the 15 states with the highest child
poverty rates are in the South. And Southern states have the highest rate of
citizens without health insurance.
On July 10, the flag was on
the Confederate memorial and had previously flown from the State House dome. A
few minutes before it was set to be removed, the crowd began to chant
"Take it down! Take it down!"
The Honor Guard arrived just
after 10 a.m. to take down the flag. Seven members of the guard were present at
the ceremony. They pulled the flag down the flag pole quickly. After it was
removed, there were chants from the ground and some began singing "Na, na,
na, hey, hey, hey, goodbye."
The
flag will be moved into the Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum. A
member of the guard rolled up the flag and presented it to the president of the
museum.
The Confederacy may have surrendered on the battlefield in 1865, and its divisive flag brought down in South Carolina Statehouse nearly one and a half century later, but the battle over the Confederate flag is not over yet. Not only does Southernomics persist in other parts of the country as a viable economic model that deliberately keeps ordinary workers weak, dependent and scared but many Americans continue to revere the confederate flag as part of their heritage. Supporters embrace the battle flag as a reminder of ancestors who fought for the Confederacy or as an emblem of regional pride. Critics see it as a symbol of a defiant white supremacist society that fought to perpetuate slavery and segregation.
Just days before the flag was brought down in South Carolina, an eight-mile convoy of pickups, motorcycles and cars wound through a central Florida town Ocala for the "Florida Southern Pride Ride". Some 4,500 people rallied in support of flying the Confederate flag. Horns blared and nearly 2,000 vehicles, adorned with the Civil War-era flag, took part in the gathering. The event was being held to back a decision by Marion County in that area of central Florida to return the Confederate flag to a display outside its government complex. The rally also came as Tennessee announced that it will celebrate the birthday of Confederate army general and early Ku Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Shots were fired at the Ocala rally during an argument over the flag, but no one was injured. The Ocala Star-Banner reported participants wore shirts with phrases including "heritage not hate" and talked of defending Southern traditions, WKMG reported.
"This isn't about hatred. This isn't about racism. This isn't about black and white," a participant said. "We are not in hate of anybody. We just don't want our rights taken away to support our Southern heritage." A replica of the General Lee car from "The Dukes of Hazard" TV show led the procession. Another participant defended flying the Confederate flag, saying "It's a history thing. The flag is also a military flag. It's not a race symbol."
Meanwhile, the next big struggle over Old South symbols is shaping up in Mississippi, the only state that includes the Confederate battle emblem in its state flag. The rebel x has been fluttering over the Capitol and other public buildings since 1894 as part of the state flag. In a 2001 statewide election, people voted nearly 2-to-1 to keep the design.
Mississippi NAACP president Derrick Johnson says the Confederate symbol should be erased from the Mississippi banner because it represents racial hatred and exclusion. "It's time to write the next chapter of our history."
North
Carolina's Department of Motor Vehicles recently sold out of a series of
specialty license plates featuring the Confederate flag, local media reported.
It has ordered more of the plates, which may be discontinued in the future.
In
Hurley, Virginia, the rebel flag is more visible than ever as residents show
their support for keeping the local high school's logo, which features the
Confederate flag waving from a saber. "A
backlash is beginning," said Ben Jones, a spokesman for the Sons of
Confederate Veterans, which represents 30,000 descendants of Confederate
soldiers. "We are putting flags out. Everyone time one is taken down, we
put five or six of them up."
Last Saturday, July 18, supporters of the Ku Klux Klan and the Black Panthers clashed outside the South Carolina Capitol in Columbia; five people were arrested and seven were taken to hospital for medical treatment. "The Confederate flag does not represent hate. A lot of Americans died for that flag," one member of the KKK reportedly told news reporters.
The
Columbia rally once again shows that the national push to pull the
controversial icon from stores and public displays will continue to be met with
determined resistance in some corners of the United States.
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