So
the grid below are the actual flags that represented the Confederacy (1861–65) as a secessionist state:
Included are almost a dozen flown by their Navy. Additional flags are on the Wiki page.
This is the Confederate flag we know today:
“Despite never having historically represented the Confederate States of America as a country, nor having been officially recognized as one of its national flags, the rectangular Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia and its variants are now flag types commonly referred to as the Confederate Flag. This design has become a widely recognized symbol of the Southern United States and is also known as the rebel flag, Dixie flag, and Southern cross. It is sometimes incorrectly referred to as the Stars and Bars, the name of the first national Confederate flag.”
—Wiki
So
why is it we see the ‘elongated’ battle flag everywhere representing the Confederacy and not the others?
In 1948, Strom Thurmond (if you don’t know who that is, take a moment to read about him and his very long political career – he’s the 💢FUCKING WORST💢) and the Dixiecrats chose to display this flag as they stormed out of the Democratic National Convention when President Harry S. Truman was calling for Civil Rights and the repeal of Jim Crow laws.
They then wholly adopted this battle flag as the representative symbol of their cause.
Thurmond also conducted the longest filibuster in Senate history to try to stop the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
Fuck Strom Thurmond.
And fuck John Stennis. He was in office for so fucking long too. So many people don’t seem to do the math that the most ardent opponents of the CRA (both), VRA, etc. were still in office for decades afterwards.
They may not have won those particular legislative battles but they def kept passing laws to oppress Black Americans.
Also while we’re here, I’m going to take a moment to say fuck Trent Lott too.
The Confederate flag we know is not a flag of “Southern Pride” or whatever fucking bullshit people are arguing, it is the symbolic flag chosen in the mid-Twentieth Century to represent the Dixiecrats, segregationists, the KKK, and all others who opposed the repeal of Jim Crow Laws.
It is the flag chosen by and representing White Supremacists. Full stop.
—natalie michelle
Flommist Natalie Michelle doesn’t have a bio. She just rants. Copyright © 2020 Natalie Michelle.
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