The Issue

Mickey James was caught between a flag and a boycott.

Myrtle Beach was trying to secure a college baseball tournament that would bring thousands of visitors to the area. It was good news for a town attempting to attract visitors to replace those from two large biker events Myrtle Beach city officials hope are on the way out.

So James, head of the Myrtle Beach branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, wrote a letter welcoming the ACC event.

After the tournament was announced, however, the state NAACP passed a resolution condemning the ACC for breaking an economic boycott in place against the state since 2001, a boycott prompted by the Confederate flag's presence on Statehouse grounds. The National Collegiate Athletic Association has said it would honor the boycott by not allowing NCAA sponsored or sanctioned events to be held in the state, except in special cases.

The Rev. Nelson B. Rivers III, an NAACP executive, was in Myrtle Beach at the time and told The Sun News then that "to be in a place where a flag ... represents disrespect, hatred, enslavement and denigration of a people, the ACC should not want to be in support of that, but they are."

The dustup, just one of many in a fight that has festered for a century and a half, illustrates how sensitive the Confederate battle flag issue remains. That debate has been presented in a hate vs. heritage paradigm. But the flag defies easy boxes, and through the years it has come to symbolize heritage and hate.

'That's our flag'

Some have no qualms about displaying the flag. Joe Payne, the newsletter editor for the S.C. Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, drives around the state with a battle flag on his license plate, speaking at memorial events and placing Southern crosses on the graves of Confederate soldiers.

"That's our flag," the 65-year-old Upstate resident said. "That's the flag of our ancestors, and it's to be treated with the greatest respect that can be shown for it."

Allan Roberson, director of the S.C. Confederate Relic Room in Columbia, said the flag is one symbol of a war that profoundly affected the state and the nation.

"South Carolina was at the center of the most significant historical event in our nation's history," he said.

Not only did the war change history, but our state, he said, was the heart of the conflict.

"The American Civil War is the defining period in American history," Roberson said. "It defines who we are today."

One flag, many meanings

Today, the flag can be found painted on the side of a barn in rural Horry County; on a bikini in the window of an Ocean Boulevard shop in Myrtle Beach; on a flagpole in a front yard on S.C. 15 not far from Myrtle Beach International Airport; on the forehead of a shirtless man walking on Front Street in Georgetown during the Harborwalk; at the Confederate Soldier's monument on Statehouse grounds, where it was placed in 2000 after a compromise to bring it down from above the dome; and on T-shirts, tattoos, bumper stickers and the minds of many native South Carolinians.

Its meaning has become as varied as its displays.

It's about heritage because it was carried into battle by ancestors fighting to protect their homeland - most Confederate soldiers owned no slaves - even while the leaders of the Confederacy said it was about keeping blacks in servitude.

It's about hate because "when [Confederate Gen. Robert E.] Lee marched north to Gettysburg, one of the things that the Army of Northern Virginia did was kidnap free black folk and send them back into slavery - whether they had originally been slaves or not," wrote K. Michael Prince, author of "Rally 'Round The Flag, Boys! South Carolina and the Confederate Flag."

Heidi Beirich of the civil-rights-focused Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., sees it as a symbol of hate in no uncertain terms.

"A concerted effort was made by the institution of segregation and white civil society to push a view of the South that justified the apartheid system then entrenched down here," Beirich said. "The battle flag was its fiery symbol."

But Ken Thrasher, 58, commander of the Litchfield Sons of Confederate Veterans, refuses to accept that interpretation.

"They need to look at the history and see which flag flew over slavery the longest," he said.

A state and its symbols

In fact, the battle flag seen today throughout the South did not fly above South Carolina's capitol during the Civil War and was not the flag that drew the ire of black S.C. legislators in the years after the war.

It was the Palmetto Flag - the one with the Palmetto tree and crescent moon - the black legislators despised. That flag didn't officially become the state's flag until early in 1861 during the Civil War, according to Prince.

"More than any other emblem, this flag represented the state and its citizens during that conflict," Prince wrote. "In 1869 a resolution calling for the display of both an American and a South Carolina banner atop the State House passed the state legislature, but only over the objections of several black state senators. For them, the state flag remained a symbol of the state's defiance against federal authority and of the treachery that had led to war."

Historian Walter Edgar found that more than a dozen different kinds of flags have flown over the Statehouse or been associated with South Carolina since colonial times, but none was the battle flag.

The Confederate flag did not become polarizing until after it became a primary symbol of hate groups such as the KKK - founded by former Confederate veterans - and was used during lynchings and cross burnings.

It was also used several times between 1938 and 1962 by S.C. segregationists to beat back the advance of the Civil Rights Movement.

"The state could have chosen to raise the Confederate banner in 1877, at the end of Reconstruction. But it did not. It could have hoisted one in 1906, when a joint resolution authorized the secretary of state to procure both a state and a U.S. flag for display over the capitol dome. Or it could have added a Confederate flag in 1910, when state law made flying the state flag mandatory," Prince wrote in his book. "But it did not do so in any of these instances. Instead, each Confederate flag went up at a time when the state felt itself besieged by 'outside' forces of change, with established patterns of social order and traditional ways of life under challenge from within."

Pop culture connections

The Confederate flag hasn't always been a divisive symbol for South Carolinians.

It was painted on the roof of a central character in one of the nation's most-watched TV shows, "The Dukes of Hazzard," emblazoned atop the orange 1969 Dodge Charger known as The General Lee, named for Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate military.

The rich power broker in the show's fictional "Hazzard County" was named Jefferson Davis, after the president of the Confederacy, but he was better known as "Boss Hog."

The show was the second-highest rated show at its peak, behind only "Dallas," and black and white Southerners flocked to their TV sets for the Friday night CBS airings.

This is a typical response from someone asked to comment on the show:

"I liked it a lot. It seemed to have a Southern thing to it, with me being Southern. It was comical. But at the same time, Boss Hog was like a tyrant. I used to watch it a lot when I was a kid."

The words of a flag supporter? No. Those came from 45-year-old NAACP leader James. As for the flag emblazoned on General Lee?

"I really didn't even realize it until you said it just now. I never focused on the flag of the car." -Sun News

History

What is usually called "The Confederate Flag" or "The Confederate Battle Flag" (actually the Navy Jack as explained above) is still a widely-recognized symbol. The display of the flag is controversial and a very emotional issue, generally because of disagreement over exactly what it symbolizes. To many in the US South it is simply a symbol of regional pride and heritage. Others see it as a symbol of the institution of slavery which the Confederate government defended, or of the Jim Crow laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern States for decades later. According to Civil War historian and southerner Shelby Foote, the flag traditionally represented the south's resistance to northern political dominance generally; it became racially charged during the Civil Rights Movement, when protecting segregation suddenly became the focal point of that resistance.

On April 12, 2000, the South Carolina state senate finally passed a bill to remove the flag of the former Confederate States of America from on top of the statehouse dome by a majority vote of 36 to 7. Placed there in 1962, according to one local news report the new bill specified that a more traditional version of the battle flag would be flown in front of the Capitol next to a monument honoring fallen Confederate soldiers. The bill then went to the House, where it encountered some difficulty. But on May 18, 2000, after the bill was modified to ensure that the height of the flag's new pole would be 30 feet, it was passed by a majority of 66 to 43, and Governor Jim Hodges signed the bill five days later. On July 1, the flag was removed from the South Carolina statehouse. Current state law prohibits the flag's removal from the statehouse grounds without additional legislation.

In 1955, the Georgia state flag was redesigned to incorporate the Confederate Battle Flag. This caused much controversy, and in January 2001, a new design was adopted intending to recognize the Confederate Battle Flag's historical significance while minimizing its prominence. Voter backlash in 2002 booted the Governor over the issue, giving way for the state's first Republican Governor in 130 years. In 2003, because of the continued controversy, the flag was redesigned yet again, without any image of the Confederate Battle Flag, although it does now strongly resemble the First National Flag of the Confederacy, known as the "Stars and Bars." In March of 2004, another vote was taken giving voters the opportunity to choose between the two most recent designs of the flag, but specifically excluded the Confederate Flag version of 1956.

The Confederate Battle Flag became a part of the Mississippi state flag in 1894, whereupon a strange series of events ensued. In 1906, the flag statutes were omitted by error from the new legal code of the state, leaving Mississippi without an official flag. The omission was not discovered until 1993, when a lawsuit filed by the NAACP regarding the flag was being reviewed by the Mississippi Supreme Court. In 2000, the Governor issued an executive order making the flag official. After continued controversy, the decision was turned over to citizens of the state, who, on April 17, 2001, voted 2-1 to keep the Confederate Battle Flag emblem on the state flag.

The flags of Alabama and Florida still retain the distinctive saltire, while the Arkansas flag uses a design reminiscent of the Confederate Battle Flag. Aside from the controversy over official usage, many southerners--and northerners who identify with the south and its history-- display the flag privately. –WordiQ

My Issue

The problem with political correctness is that sometimes the whole idea just gets down right silly. I don’t mean to be insensitive here, but as fare as the NAACP and its boycott of South Carolina over a freaking Confederate Flag … utterly stupid!

Yes, to some the flag is a symbol of oppression. I get it! To others, a symbol of Southern pride. During the civil war many blacks fought and died under its cloth. Nonetheless, does this justify removing it all together from public view. I don’t think so! After all, for God’s sake, it’s just a piece of cloth! And for the NAACP to get a hair up its butt over a piece of cloth is ridiculous.

A few weeks ago I was down in Columbia and purposely stopped by the Capital grounds to see where the Confederate Flag was located. I have to say that it is appropriately placed … in front of the monument of the fallen Confederate soldiers. The Confederate Flag is part of Southern history and though it may be a symbol of hate to some all I can say is; get over it. I mean, how long do we have to keep apologizing for the past and at what expense do we have to keep paying for it?

So, what’s next for NAACP? Are they going to call for a boycott of America over the U.S. Flag. After all, even under its piece of cloth there has been injustices against blacks. Therefore, are they going to cry tears of boycott because our national flag is a symbol of oppression?

During this time of economic strife, the NAACP not only is cutting its own throat, but the throats of others. What’s more important here ... Financial survival for the unemployed or a boycott? Thousands of individuals in our great state are out of work and need jobs. For the NAACP to expect their silly boycott of South Carolina to continue over this really ridiculous issue is totally reprehensible. And the more they cry boycott the less I see their value in a cause that is hurting the state rather than helping it.

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