Bars and Stars On June 17th, 2015 Dylann Roof walked into Emmanuel African Methodist Church in South Carolina, sat for an hour, then decided to open fire during a prayer service. He violently took the lives of nine innocent and unsuspecting victims, including the pastor and a state senator. Sadly, all of the victims were uncoincidentally African American. Roof’s shooting spree was labeled a hate crime after photos of Roof posing with several white supremacy items surfaced. The majority of the photos included the proud presentation of the Confederate flag (Chuck). The car he drove to the church that night was even proudly donned with a Confederate flag license plate, henceforth sparking the national debate about the racism of the flag and whether
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Those who reside in former Confederate states proudly hang the aforementioned flag on their porches, cars, and state buildings. Following the end of the war, the flag relatively disappeared from popular culture and could be seen most commonly in Confederate graveyards and memorials. However, it made a sinister comeback in the 1950s when several white supremacist groups adopted the flag for more malicious intentions. These groups included the infamous American Neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. Within the 1960’s African American civil rights battle for desegregation, the flag was rooted in more racial upset. Governor George Wallace of Alabama hung the flag from the state capitol in protest of the recent outlawing of segregation by the Supreme Court (Hanson). If it wasn’t before, this is the time when the flag truly became the evil face of modern racism and hate. While the flag itself may not have been created with the intention of evil, it has become so attached to the concepts of slavery and racism that it has become nearly impossible to disassociate the …show more content…
Many argue that the flag doesn 't represent slavery because that wasn’t the main issue the Civil War was fought over.While slavery may not have been the only issue which sparked the war, it remained an integral part of the Confederacy. The Washington Post’s Carlos Lozada cites another historian’s work with making the point that the Civil War was fought over defending states and property; the pertinent detail that is forgotten is that slaves were considered property. To defend the “spirit of the Confederacy” is to defend slavery. Many Neo-Confederates argue that the flag holds no meaning of slavery, however, in Hilary Hanson’s article, “Why The Confederate Battle Flag Is Even More Racist Than You Think,” she cites the declarations of secession of several southern states, quoting many that “explicitly cite threats to slavery as reasons for secession.” There is no way around the cold, hard fact that the Confederacy represented slavery and defended it to death.
The Confederate flag is a constant reminder of slavery and injustice to African Americans. In response to the tragic shooting in Charleston, the Governor of South Carolina made the executive decision to remove the controversial flag from the state building after five decades. She recognized the importance of the flag to residents, but also recognized the much bigger issue at
Those who reside in former Confederate states proudly hang the aforementioned flag on their porches, cars, and state buildings. Following the end of the war, the flag relatively disappeared from popular culture and could be seen most commonly in Confederate graveyards and memorials. However, it made a sinister comeback in the 1950s when several white supremacist groups adopted the flag for more malicious intentions. These groups included the infamous American Neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. Within the 1960’s African American civil rights battle for desegregation, the flag was rooted in more racial upset. Governor George Wallace of Alabama hung the flag from the state capitol in protest of the recent outlawing of segregation by the Supreme Court (Hanson). If it wasn’t before, this is the time when the flag truly became the evil face of modern racism and hate. While the flag itself may not have been created with the intention of evil, it has become so attached to the concepts of slavery and racism that it has become nearly impossible to disassociate the …show more content…
Many argue that the flag doesn 't represent slavery because that wasn’t the main issue the Civil War was fought over.While slavery may not have been the only issue which sparked the war, it remained an integral part of the Confederacy. The Washington Post’s Carlos Lozada cites another historian’s work with making the point that the Civil War was fought over defending states and property; the pertinent detail that is forgotten is that slaves were considered property. To defend the “spirit of the Confederacy” is to defend slavery. Many Neo-Confederates argue that the flag holds no meaning of slavery, however, in Hilary Hanson’s article, “Why The Confederate Battle Flag Is Even More Racist Than You Think,” she cites the declarations of secession of several southern states, quoting many that “explicitly cite threats to slavery as reasons for secession.” There is no way around the cold, hard fact that the Confederacy represented slavery and defended it to death.
The Confederate flag is a constant reminder of slavery and injustice to African Americans. In response to the tragic shooting in Charleston, the Governor of South Carolina made the executive decision to remove the controversial flag from the state building after five decades. She recognized the importance of the flag to residents, but also recognized the much bigger issue at