There were many disturbing images from the January 6th assault on the U.S. Capitol Building, including pictures of the Confederate flag (the “Stars and Bars”) being carried through the Ohio Clock corridor and past a portrait of abolitionist, Senator Charles Sumner, victim of the last violence seen on the Senate floor in 1856.
According to dictionary.com, a “symbol” is “a mark or character used as a conventional representation of an object, function, or process 2. a thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract.” So what does the Confederate flag symbolize? Some like to argue that displaying the Confederate flag is about history. And they are right.
In 1861, seven southern states seceded from the Union. Four more states joined later and formed the Confederate States of America. While the Civil War had multiple causes, it was primarily about the right of White people to own Black people. The four year war that ensued cost over 620,000 lives (including over 450 soldiers from Wood County) and ended at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865.
The Confederate flag was not seen widely again until the early 1950s, when southern states added the Stars and Bars to their state flags as a symbol of White resistance to ending state sanctioned segregation, a system in which Black citizens could not vote, not stay in hotels, not eat in restaurants, not shop in stores, and not attend most schools. In Birmingham Alabama, Black and White people were even forbidden from playing cards together, just in case the Black man won a game of chance. Seventy years later, after the murder of George Floyd and international outrage, Mississippi became the last state to remove the Stars and Bars from their flag.
Indeed, the Confederate flag is about history, the part of our history associated with bigotry, oppression, and racism. It is time to put this symbol where it belongs — in history books and museums with other painful reminders of our collective past.
NIOT-BG joins recent calls to ban the sale and display of the Confederate flag during the Wood County Fair, or any other public event. If you do not understand why this symbol is so hurtful, we encourage you to talk with people of color and allies. The Confederate flag does not belong in our community, not in our town.
