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The Confederate battle flag, which protesters raised within the US Capitol, has long been a symbol of the white uprising
A historic debut: the Confederate battle flag inside the US Capitol. Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty ImagesThe Confederacy soldiers never made it to the Capitol during the Civil War. But the Confederacy’s battle flag was raised by rioters in the U.S. Capitol building for the first time on January 6. The prominence of the flag in the Capitol riot comes as no surprise to those who, like me, know its history: since its debut during the Civil War, the Confederate battle flag has been flown regularly by white rebels and reactionaries fighting the waves of newly won black political power. An 1897 lithograph shows changes in the design of the Confederate flag. The design of the ‘Cruzeiro do Sul’, chosen to visually distinguish the Confederates from Union soldiers in battle, became a symbol of the white insurrection. Library of Congress via National Geographic The infamous diagonal blue cross with white stars on a red background has never been the official symbol of the Confederation. The original design of the “stars and bars” of the Confederation was very similar to the flag of the United States, which created confusion on the battlefields, where the positions of the troops were marked by flags. The official flag underwent a series of changes in an attempt to distinguish Confederate troops from those of the Union. The Confederation would eventually adopt the “Cruzeiro do Sul” as its battle flag – cementing it as a symbol of the white insurrection. Although it is technically the battle flag, it has been the most widely used and therefore has become better known as the Confederacy flag. The Confederate battle flag is featured prominently in this depiction of the 1864 battle of Franklin, Tennessee. Kurz and Allison, restoration by Adam Cuerden, via Wikimedia Commons The original emblem Six decades before the Nazi swastika became an instantly recognizable symbol of white supremacists , the Confederate battle flag flew over the forces of the insurgent Confederate States of America – military troops organized in revolt against the idea that the federal government could ban slavery. The Confederation’s founding documents make its objectives of white supremacy and preservation of slavery explicitly clear. In March 1861, Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens declared of the Confederation, “its foundations were laid, its cornerstone rests on the great truth that blacks are not equal to white men; that the subordination of slavery to the superior race is its natural and normal condition. ”The documents written by separatist states point to the same. Mississippi’s statement, for example, was very specific: “Our position is fully identified with the institution of slavery – the greatest material interest in the world.” White rebel students at the University of Mississippi raise a Confederate battle flag in a reaction against the presence of James Meredith as the first black student in 1962. Bettman via Getty Images Reaction against racial integration After the Civil War, groups of Confederate veterans they used the flag at their meetings to commemorate the dead soldiers, but other than that, the flag almost disappeared from public life. After World War II, however, the flag appeared as part of a reaction against racial integration. Black soldiers who fought discrimination abroad suffered discrimination when they returned home. Racist violence against black veterans who returned from the battle led President Harry Truman to issue an executive order disaggregating the military and banning discrimination in federal hiring. Truman also asked Congress to approve the federal ban on lynching, one of almost 200 unsuccessful attempts to do so. In 1948, retaliation for Truman’s integration efforts came, and the Confederacy’s battle flag reappeared as a symbol of public intimidation of white supremacy. That year, US Senator Strom Thurmond, a Democrat from South Carolina, ran for president as the leader of a new political party of southern Democratic segregationists, dubbed “Dixiecrats”. In their rallies and riots, they opposed Truman’s integration under the banner of the Confederate battle flag. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, white Southerners raised the Confederacy’s battle flag in disturbances – including violent ones – to oppose racial integration, especially in schools. For example, in 1962, white students at the University of Mississippi raised him in a tumult challenging the enrollment of James Meredith as the university’s first black student. It took 30,000 American soldiers, federal marshals and national guards to deploy Meredith to classes after the violent racial riot left two dead. Historian William Doyle called the riot – the flag of the Confederate battle at the center – called “American insurrection”. Charleston, Charlottesville and the Capitol More recently, the Black Lives Matter era saw an increase in violent incidents involving the Confederate battle flag. It has featured prominently in at least three major recent violent events held by people on the far right. In 2015, a white supremacist who posed with the Confederate battle flag online killed nine black parishioners during a prayer meeting at his church. In 2017, neo-Nazis and other white supremacists carried the battle flag when they marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, seeking to prevent the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. A white supremacist drove his car through a crowd of anti-racist counter-protesters, killing Heather Heyer. [Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.] In the Capitol riot on January 6, the image of a rebel carrying the Confederacy battle flag inside the Capitol building distills the dark historical context of the siege. At the bottom of the photo are portraits of two American senators from the Civil War era – one an ardent advocate of slavery and the other an abolitionist who has been beaten to death by his views in the Senate floor. A man carries the Confederate battle flag to the US Capitol on January 6, amid portraits of senators who opposed and supported slavery. Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images The flag has always represented white resistance to the rise of black power. It may be a coincidence of the exact moment, but certainly not of the context, that the mutiny happened the day after Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff won seats in the US Senate representing Georgia. Respectively, they are the first black senators and the first Jews from the former Confederate state. Warnock will only be the second black senator under the Mason-Dixon Line since Reconstruction. His historic victories – and those of President-elect Joe Biden – in Georgia came about through large-scale organization and the participation of people of color, especially blacks. Since 2014, nearly 2 million voters have been added to the lists in Georgia, signaling a new black voting power bloc. It should come as no surprise, then, that today’s white rebels, who oppose changes in the tides of power, identify with the Confederate battle flag. This article was republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Jordan Brasher, Columbus State University. Read more: The siege of the Capitol raises questions about the extent of infiltration of white supremacy in the US police. A second impeachment is just the beginning of Trump’s legal problems. Jordan Brasher does not work for, consult, own shares or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article and has not disclosed relevant affiliations other than his academic appointment.