Adam Wightman

Professor Beatty
English1010
November 27

Is the Confederate Flag Racist?

The confederate flag is a symbol that represents the old south and the 11 confederate
states during the civil war which include South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia,
Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee. The Confederate states
believed in white supremacy, and that black people should be owned by white people as slaves.
The South wanted to separate from the United States. This opposition is what started the Civil
War from 1861-1865. Even nowadays the flag is common among southerners. For years it has
been a debate on whether the flag is a symbol of racism, or a symbol of pride. Many African
Americans want the flag banned because the whole reason why the south opposed the north
during the civil war is because the south wanted to keep slavery, while the north wanted to
abolish slavery. President Obama commented that he thinks that the only place that confederate
flag belongs is in a museum. I think that the people who want the flag should be able to keep it,
but it should only be allowed in a persons house or a museum and not in a public setting.
What has made the confederate flag so controversial lately, is the Charleston Church
Shooting. Dyllan Roof walked into a historical black church in Charleston, South Carolina and
shot 9 black people during a bible study. Pictures were later found of Roof holding the
confederate flag. In response to the shooting, South Carolina voted to take the confederate flag

off of their state building. Many southerners were upset about the flag getting taken down, even
the Ku Klux Klan had a rally to protest it. Since then, many of the other confederate states of
considered taking the flag off of their state building, but it has been very controversial because
many people in the south still want to keep the flag.
On one side, people that are from the south dont want the flag banned because they
consider part of southern heritage, and they claim that it isnt racist. It hits close to home because
many of the people living in the south had ancestors who were part of the confederacy, and died
for that flag. According to people that are for the flag, they dont necessarily wish that the
confederacy wouldve won the war and whites still owned slaves when waving the flag, but
rather they wave it as a piece of history. While it may be a piece of history, people shouldnt be
so proud of the flag. It should be a part of history that we look back on as a bad thing instead of
romanticizing it.
According to a CNN poll 57% of Americans see the flag as a symbol of southern pride,
rather than a symbol of racism. The percentage has only gone down by 2% since the year 2000.
Among blacks 75% see it as a symbol of racism and only 11% see it as a symbol of pride. The
majority of the United States thinks that it should be removed from government property except
for museums. I can understand why people want to keep the flag because of their southern
ancestors, but if you believe that the flag isnt a symbol of racism, then youre misinformed.
When I read this information I was really surprised that so many Americans dont think of the
flag as racist. I was also surprised that only 75% of blacks living in the U.S think that the flag is
a symbol of hate.

Slavery in America began during the 17th century. Slaves became a foundation of the
Southern economy. During the late 18th century the northern and southern states started to divide
over the issue of slavery. Then in 1820 The Missouri Compromise banned slaves from all new
western territories. Slaves started escaping to the western territories to become free up until 1857
when the Supreme Court ruled that African Americans are not citizens, nor do they have citizens
rights, and that they must return to their owners. This angered the Northern states.
In 1860 Abraham Lincoln, who was anti-slavery, was elected president. He declared that
slavery wouldnt ever be permitted in the new western territory, and that eventually it will overall
be abolished. The south then seceded from The Union which sparked the civil war. In 1861 the
confederacy designed a flag called the stars and bars but was later replaced by the confederate
flag we know of today because the original flag closely resembled the American flag and often
confused soldiers. The Confederate flag was used from 1862 up until the end of the war in 1865.
After the war the flag had dropped out of the public eye. More laws came about giving human
rights to black people, such as giving them the right to vote, but the south were opposed to these
laws. The south enacted its own laws after called the Jim Crow Laws which lasted up until the
end of the civil rights movement. The Jim Crow Laws started in 1890 and were laws to segregate
white people. These included the whites only signs. Its what made blacks have to sit in the back
of the bus, go to separate schools, and even have separate drinking fountains.
The confederate flag actually wasnt very common up until the late 1940s during the
time that President Truman started anti-discrimination laws as well as making it illegal to lynch
black people. People in the south werent happy with the new laws, and so they starting waving
the flag as a sort of protest. These people wanted to stay segregated from black people. This is
why people think of it as a symbol of racism. The more rights that black people were given, the

more common the flag became in the south. It wasnt until 1961 at the height of the civil rights
movement that South Carolina put up the confederate flag on the state building. South Carolina
claimed that it was to commemorate the civil wars 100th anniversary, but many people know that
it was in fact race related. So it turns out that the flag has and always will be a symbol of racism.
I personally thought that the flag was a symbol of racism before I started doing research
on the flag. Then I flip flopped after reading about how southerners claim that they dont use the
flag because they still want blacks as slaves, but rather use it as a symbol of their southern
heritage because their ancestors fought and died for the south in the civil war. I was for the flag
momentarily until I did further research and found that the flag wasnt common until the civil
rights movement. People in the south used it to show that they didnt want to integrate with
blacks; they still wanted to go to separate schools, have separate drinking fountains etc. So the
flag was originally used during the civil war to promote slavery, and again during the civil rights
movement as a symbol of pro segregation.
I by all means do believe that the flag is a symbol of racism and hate and the only reason
why I dont think the U.S should ban it completely is because that seems like it would be
unconstitutional. This is why I think that the flag should be banned everywhere except for
museums and inside houses, this way people can still keep the flag in their house and still keep a
symbol of what they consider as pride, also if its only in their house, they wont be offending
anyone . I also believe that it should be kept in museums because while the flag was around to
promote racism and slavery during the civil war and white supremacy currently, its still a part of
history.