Confederate flag hung in old N.C. State Capitol

Posted March 29th, 2013 by James DeWolf Perry
Category: Public History Tags: American South, Confederate battle flag, North Carolina, Sesquicentennial of the U.S. Civil War

Update: The A.P. is reporting, several hours after its story was first published, that the Confederate flag will be taken down this weekend.

The Associated Press is reporting this afternoon that a Confederate battle flag has been hanging in the House chamber in the old North Carolina State Capitol since last week.

The flag is hanging as part of an historical display, according to State Historic Sites Director Keith Hardison, and should be viewed in that context. Hardison, who is also a Civil War re-enactor, has close ties to the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which has led efforts throughout the South to rehabilitate the image of the Confederate flag as a symbol of southern heritage.

The Confederate flag is controversial because it invokes the horrors of slavery and Jim Crow for some, while others believe it symbolizes their southern heritage. Historian David Goldfield, author of Still Fighting the Civil War: The American South and Southern History (2002), acknowledges both perspectives but argues that the flag cannot be divorced from its racist past:

The history of the Confederate battle flag, how it was designed and formulated, how it has been used through the years, clearly states that it is a flag of white supremacy.

I know current Sons of Confederate Veterans would dispute that, saying ‘Hey, I’m not a racist.’ But the fact remains that the battle flag was used by a country that had as its foundation the protection and extension of human bondage.

Rev. William Barber, the NAACP state president, was approached by the Associated Press and expressed outrage that the flag is being flown in a government building, near the office of the governor, rather than at a history museum. His reasoning is that in this case, the historical context isn’t neutral:

What is that history? The history of racism. The history of lynchings. The history of death. The history of slavery. If you say that shouldn’t be offensive, then either you don’t know the history, or you are denying the history.

Interestingly, the Confederate battle flag is scheduled to remain hanging at the old State Capitol until April 2015, when it is to be replaced with the Stars and Stripes to mark the 150th anniversary of the arrival of Union troops at the end of the war.