These days, the Confederate battle flag is retreating faster than the Army of Northern Virginia in 1865.
The long-festering debate over the flag resurfaced in the wake of the recent massacre of nine people at a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina. There were calls for the removal of the “Rebel flag” from in front of the South Carolina Statehouse out of respect for the victims.
The Republican governor of South Carolina said the flag needs to be removed. That action is reverberating around the South, even in Mississippi.
Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn, Democratic state Attorney General Jim Hood and both of the state’s Republican U.S. senators, Roger Wicker and Thad Cochran, said this week that the state should change its flag to a design that would unify people.
But this is Mississippi, so some cling to the past, namely Republican Gov. Phil Bryant and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, who said they respect the results of the 2001 election in which voters decided by a 2-to-1 margin to keep the flag. They said if the issue is revisited, it should be decided by voters.
Of course the Mississippi Legislature won’t show leadership and vote to change the flag. The last thing most of our representatives want to do is go on record as saying that Mississippi should join the 21st century, especially during an election year.
More signs that old Dixie is being driven down: Alabama’s governor, by executive order, removed four flags from a Capitol monument in Montgomery and compared the Confederate battle emblem to the swastika used by Nazi Germany. Walmart and Amazon.com announced that they won’t sell merchandise bearing the emblem any more. Even NASCAR appears to be trying to leave Dixie’s banner behind.
My position on Mississippi’s state flag hasn’t changed since I voted on it in 2001. My thinking has changed, though.
In 2001, I voted to change the design of the flag. That in spite of the fact that the new design — 20 stars in place of the Rebel flag — is ugly. It’s still ugly. Hopefully, something better can be found.
I didn’t vote then to change the flag because I was trying to salve anybody’s feelings or correct historical injustices.
I voted to change the flag because I think it hurts Mississippi in many ways, including economically. The flag makes Mississippi look reactionary and backward, as if the entire state is still clinging to its Jim Crow past.
Fourteen years later, I have also become more sensitive to other people’s feelings. The present state flag is hurtful to many people, including many black residents of Mississippi. It matters to me now that at least a third of our state’s residents don’t want to see a symbol of oppression on a flag that’s supposed to represent all of us.
I fully expect to hear from the Old South apologists who will say the Confederate battle flag “is about heritage, not hate.” It could be worse. Rick Cleveland, a former colleague at the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, says he received death threats after writing a column in favor of changing the state flag in 2001.
I’m waiting to hear the argument that the Civil War was about states’ rights and not slavery. My advice to those who claim this: Read a history book.
Slavery was the reason the leaders of the states that became the Confederacy seceded from the United States, sparking the deadliest war in American history.
Mississippi’s Declaration of Secession in 1861 says this: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery — the greatest material interest of the world. ... and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization.”
I believe most Confederate soldiers, the majority of whom didn’t own slaves, were fighting for self-determination of their home states. Others were determined to resist an invasion of their home states.
They were brave men, and they endured hardships we can barely imagine. Unfortunately, their sacrifice was wasted because they were fighting for an evil cause: slavery.
The Confederate battle flag isn’t the symbol of pride it was for those soldiers. It was long ago hijacked by white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and turned into a symbol of racism and repression.
However, I don’t agree with those who say that we should tear down all of the monuments associated with the Confederacy and rename the places that bear the names of Confederate leaders. That kind of cultural cleansing has no place in America. And where does it end?
I support your right to display the Confederate battle flag. Drape it on your house, paint it on your car, put it on your T-shirt, wear it on your lapel pin and run it up a flagpole on your property. You can even wave it at your favorite school’s football games, for all I care.
But it’s time — long past time — to take that emblem off of our state flag.
• Contact Charles Corder at 581-7241 or ccorder@gwcommonwealth.com.
