monday history moment

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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