Confederate Flag and Monuments
When I was a little girl, I only saw the confederate flag on television programs or in movies. It caused me to think that maybe the North and the South sat down at a negotiating table and decided on conditions to end the Civil War. Why else would there be a flag flown in addition to the stars and stripes, right? Why else would a nation have statutes of generals that fought for the South, right?
Through grammar, high school and college, nothing was taught regarding why the United States honors people and a flag that lost America’s Civil War.
In the following video, ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jeffrey Robinson addresses the history of the monuments that the current U.S. President does not want removed. It’s informative and a real eye-opener.
Posted on 06/27/2020, in civil rights, politics, Uncategorized and tagged confederate, monuments, statutes, White Supremacy. Bookmark the permalink. 42 Comments.
We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident 
Awesome video, Xena, and a great resource for educators. Thank you for posting it! I plan to share this with colleagues.
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Carol,
Thank you. Thanks fr planning to share the video. In less than 8 minutes, it packs loads of information.
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Thank you for this.
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You are most welcomed.
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Thanks. I grew up in the Midwest and so was exposed to the Civil War in a limited way until my family took a whirlwind trip to D.C. when I was 10 in May1963 (saw Robert Kennedy addressing Congress – unforgettable.)
Along the way, we stopped at some Civil War sites / museums as well as some souvenir stands. Both Union and Confederate soldier caps were often displayed and my cousin insisted he had to have the Confederate cap. My aunt tried to reason with about the Union winning the war but he liked that gray hat and that battle flag. I vaguely wondered at the time why both sides were celebrated, especially as we were also seeing Whites Only signs in restaurants. It was pretty shocking and eye-opening for a ten-year-old brought up in a moew integrated environment, but it took my some years to fully understand the hidden racism around me.
I was a lucky to attend a high school in my birthplace that had a black history program years before it was fashionable. Many if not all my friends couldn’t understand why I’d be interested in black history. I eventually earned a BA in Anthropology and was always interested in the widest possible view of history and humanity, I eventually also studied SW Native American cultures and literature and Asian humanities with a concentration in Museum Studies. I ended up living in the Southwest and have absorbed quite a bit about Latino culture and literature living near the border for decades. I just think people everywhere are fascinating!
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Two sides,
Thanks so much for sharing about your young experience and your interests in diversity. You’re so right that people everywhere are fascinating.
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damn. I wanna see the whole lecture. I’m crying watching it because I’m a history teacher by training, and it physically hurts to see that damn flag. I hate it. I’ve hated it since I was a little kid, even before I knew what the Civil War was about. Probably because the folks who waved it around always looked mean and angry for some reason when i saw pictures. And then the Klan hoods with that flag. I knew it couldn’t mean anything good.
And I’m pissed that the Civil War in American History classes was very unremarkable in my Texas learning. I mean, it was in the curriculum, but it was told with as little elaboration as possible. It was kinda just glossed over. Mention of slavery and defeat, and precious little on reconstruction. I think that’s the worst thing that came about in my education. Sure, Reconstruction didn’t sound like a glamorous topic, just a bunch of laws passed in the textbook… but the violence that emanated from it, the white supremacy surges… that was all glossed over. I’m of the opinion that we’re in a second Reconstruction period now. I hope like hell we get it right and don’t need a third.
And then this video, after watching this one from Vox last night, just made me ill. I’ll watch it again, but was wondering if you saw this one. The whole thing made me ill:
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Oh, wait–I think I just found the whole lecture. ACLU. For free. Glad I went looking, because I can’t wait to listen to it:
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GREAT! Doing a happy dance. I’ll watch it. Thank you so much.
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Like you, I find it very disappointing that schools are not teaching the entire history about the Civil War and its implications in today’s society. Thanks for sharing the VOX video. It goes to show how one element of society uses propaganda, particularly at a time with others are deprived of the right to respond.
I would also like to see more written and shared about how the Republican party changed when JFK ran for office, turning red states blue. I’m really tired of some folks trying to take advantage of ignorance now by saying the Republican party is the party of Lincoln.
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I like the point you’re making, I’m not American, but I have often wondered how the confederacy is still visibly present.
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It would be likened to Great Britain putting up monuments of George Washington and honoring the colonies that fought for their independence.
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Yes, indeed. Here in Australia there are few statues that would be of concern, and those that are have since been protected. But a couple were targeted.
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Reblogged this on Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News.
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I’m assuming from the comments no one here grew up or spent much time in the deep South. It’s taught in many schools of the deep South ‘why’ these monuments exist. Never mind they are telling black kids about these slave owners. These men are viewed as heroes. Blessed for me, the school I attended when my parents send me South didn’t teach about these people but many schools in the South still taught about them and I’m not talking seventy or eighty years ago. It’s going on to this day. To understand this mentally you must understand the north won the war but the south won the soul of this nation. There were many influential southern sympatherizers in the north before and after the Civil War. The north has always supported the south in it’s deeds. Their families have always intermarried and done business. It wasn’t uncommon at all for a rich northerner to come South for the type of wife he wanted to represent him in the business world. I know it sounds new and people want to believe otherwise. All of this have kept those monuments in public for years. Never mind they were slavers who caused the death of untold number of slave. Never mind they seceded from the Union causing the death of thousands. Their genial ways are still admired.
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You’re right, at least about me. I did not grow up nor spend much in the deep South. I do know many families, however, whose parents or grandparents made the exodus from the deep south to the north. They have plenty of experience to share, but nothing to say about anything related to the confederacy. I suppose it would be the same as living in another country and accepting whatever that country displayed in way of flag and monuments. In other words, there was nothing they could do about it.
Thanks for the info.
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My grandparents were southerners and I used to spend the summers down there as a child. And a few years, I attended school. It was hot enough to cause you to nearly pass out. LOL! The Confederacy wasn’t anything people talked about in a general conversation. If discussed at all, it’s discussed in an academic setting about the Civil War. Explaining what the flag meant and why it was drawn up the way it was. I still thought it was racist no matter what they said. But actually, as an adult, I’ve lived all over the country and have seen more overt racism and sexism in areas ‘supposedly’ more progressive than the deep south. That’s why it’s so surprising to see it. Some of the racist attitudes Ive seen openly presented in other parts of the country would get your butt kicked down south for disrespecting someone. However, I don’t think the creed of the Confederacy is confined to one part of the country anymore as it appeared to be in the 1960s. I think it’s everywhere nowadays and needs to be dealt with. In truth, the creed of the Confederacy has always been nationwide. If not, systematic racism wouldn’t exist.
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In reading your comment, I thought about a scene in the movie “Amistad”. It’s a dinner scene where a man from the South says that without slavery, the South loses everything; its culture, its money.
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I studied the case of Amistad in high school and college. It set a precedent for the abolitionists to work from. On February 24, 1841, former President John Quincy Adams begins to argue the Amistad case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.
The planters’ culture and money of the South was based fully upon slavery and later upon Jim Crow. The same applies all over the country. It was just given a different name. The rest of the country was where the products the slave produced were sold to So, if no one brought the cotton or sugar cane then the planters wouldn’t have had slaves.
I believe the false and dangerous assumption that overt racism only exist in the South maybe why some parts of the nation is still blind to what’s going on in their communities. That racism is still a major problem. There’s a mentality in some parts of the country that racism only happens in the South when some parts of the country that are supposedly more progressive than the deep South, are in truth, presently more racist than modern day Mississippi. Awareness that a situation exist is vital for staying safe. Awareness wasn’t keep one safe in situations like Breonna Taylor, George Pryor or Sandra Bland.
The African Americans carried over the teaching from the Bush Habor churches and Hush Habors meeting place and created a new culture after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed Jan. 1, 1863. One that gave the world people like ML King, W. E. B. DuBois, Ida B. Wells, John Lewis and millions of other notable African Americans. There were many who never left the South. Those who stayed and fought back rather than leave the area their ancestors had spent nearly three centuries toiling the lands. I don’t blame anyone for leaving an area that refuse to allow them to prosper. But there were some who stayed and fought back rather than leave and moved to the North and West or even the Midwest.
I’m sorry the post is a little long, but from living in so many different parts of the country I got to see and experience a lot and can easily compare overt and introvert racist behaviors in different sections of the country and can easily recognize racist behaviors for what they are.
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Xena, this is what happens when a good cop turns in bad cops:
Joliet Police Sgt. Stripped Of Powers After Blowing Whistle On Video Of Man Who Died In Custody
https://www.yahoo.com/news/joliet-police-sgt-stripped-powers-231645533.html
BTW I hope all is well in your world especially your health.
Take care.
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Thanks for that tip, Roderick. I found an extensive report and the video on the CBS local. It deserves a post. It’s enough to make me sick to the stomach.
All is well. Thanks for asking and thinking about me. I saw my oncologist on July 1st and although there are still some chemo side affects, I’m still NEC (No evidence of cancer). Hallelujah!
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Thanks for the update. I will continue to speak positive words into the universe for your continued health.
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There are no words to describe how much I appreciate your positive words. They work. Thank you so much.
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Reading about that which happened in Joliet, It sent a chill down my spine. About fifteen years ago I was traveling through this area enroute to another designation. What we encountered was so creepy I used a fictional version as a prop in a book. It was late and I was exhausted from driving all day into the night and was looking for hotel room that didn’t cost an arm and a leg. When I turned off the interstate to follow the directions to a motel in Joliet, a cop immediately pulled in behind me. I didn’t stop until I got to a well-lit area. I was asked where were I going so late? Or rather so early. I told them I was looking for a motel. They led me to it but it was mega creepy motel, creepy cops, the whole event was creepy and when I left later that morning the cop was still out there in the parking lot. Sitting in the car watching my door. I got the hell out of there.
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Hello A. White. Thanks for sharing your story. That was a strange experience and I bet you’ll never forget it. Maybe Joliet is creepy because it used to be a site for a prison. Portions of the movie, “Blues Brother” were filmed there.
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I didn’t know about the prison and all but it has a feel to it and that cop wasn’t exactly helping the feeling. I learned in traveling a lot; Do not to ignore your intuition about a place.
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Great post. I never realized how many of those statues let alone places were named after generals or soldiers were in the whole country (not just the South). It’s been amazing seeing people ready to take down these statues. Of course, it does infuriate me when people are more offended about Confederate statues being taken down than people getting killed unjustly. I also have to give props to the Black Belgium community for taking down the King Leopold II statues in that country.
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Ospreyshire,
Regarding Confederate statutes, think of it like this. As a child, your parents went through a nasty divorce. The parent you live with decides to display the photos of the attorney who represented the parent so you will grow up believing that the other parent was wrong during the marriage and the attorney is the hero for trying to win the divorce against the low-down, dirty scum spouse. Today, people call that “culture”.
I need to research King Leopold II, now that you mention it.
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That is a very good analogy with the statues.
Yes, I was so angry not learning about him at school. As much as people talk about genocidal maniacs such as Hitler, Pol Pot, or Stalin (as people should learn about their atrocities, so they don’t happen again), Leopold is never in the same conversation which is a shame and Belgium never got punished for what they did to the Congo.
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Ospreshire,
School curriculum doesn’t include subjects that are controversial. I’m chuckling now because this reminds me of a question on Jeopardy. I watched the actual program and seeing that the contestant did not know the difference between a woman entertainer and a male Zulu warrior made me fall off my chair.
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That is certainly true. I just watched the Jeopardy clip.
WOOOOOOOOOOOW! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! XD
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Ospreyshire,
It’s a hoot! There are several categories that come up on Jeopardy when my son says, “That will be the last category.” One is Black History and another is the Bible.
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It truly is! Wow, that quote is accurate about Jeopardy contestants. Your son has such hilariously accurate insight. Hahahaha!
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Yeah, Ospreyshire, my son keeps me laughing and amazed.
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That’s awesome. It’s good to have that kind of laughter and wonderment even in less-than-stellar times. I’m still laughing about the Chaka Khan clip. Haha!
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Ospreyshire,
Since my diagnosis, he moved in permanently. It’s been more than a year since I’ve been “No Evidence of Cancer” but he still spoils me rotten when he’s not at work. Yeah — Chaka Khan instead of Chaka Zula — I’m still laughing too.
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I see. I do hope you’re doing alright. It’s good that you have a son willing to care for you and making sure you’re well. That Chaka Khan/Zulu moment was something that made me smile so much. Ain’t nobody could make a Jeopardy moment like that funnier. :3
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Ospreyshire,
All things considered, I’m dong very well. Thanks for asking.
Jeopardy has had other moments of head slapping, but the Chaka Khan answer is one I will never forget.
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That’s good to hear. I’m sure there’s been other cases, but that example has to be in a top 3 list.
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Xena I live in the Deep South and try to find a way to let people know we are not all that ate up with the confederacy……just a couple you might appreciate…..https://gulfsouthfreepress.wordpress.com/2020/07/07/monument-for-traitors/
Keep up the good work chuq
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Lobotero,
Thanks for the links. I’ll check them out.
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Xena…you are welcome….hopefully they are helpful….chuq
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