Over on the Startlegram, columnist Bud Kennedy has a piece outlining what is shaping up to be a very interesting flag day in Granbury.
In summary, the Sons of Confederate Veterans are planning to march around the Hood County Courthouse with Confederate battle flags at noon Saturday during the annual Confederate Gen. Hiram Granbury’s Birthday parade. Marching with the flags in the Granbury Birthday parade isn’t unusual for the group, but it’s their reason for this year’s marching location that is.
Seems this remark Granbury Mayor David Southern made about the Confederate battle flag has the group all hot and bothered:
It’s a shame that some people see that as a sign of hatred.
Southern’s comment sparked a serious game of telephone that got Bruce Wilson of the SCV whipped into a web frenzy. According to Kennedy, Wilson wasn’t present when Southern made the remark and only heard the “sign of hatred” portion via a third party. Now, Wilson and the SCV are marching to protest the fact that some people view the Confederate flag as a sign of hate.
To me this all seems like an unfortunate misunderstanding. It’s clear that Southern’s comments weren’t meant to incite the SCV. But, it does bring up an interesting point: why do some groups feel the need to champion a symbol that is seen by many as representing slavery, Jim Crow laws, and segregation?
Having been born in Louisiana and raised in Missouri, Iowa, and finally Texas I’ve heard both sides of the argument as to what the flag stands for. Groups like the SCV have a first amendment right to wave whatever flag they want, but at what point do we as a society quit trying to reopen open old wounds?
10 comments
I’m really enjoying watching the race to the bottom amongst the right wing racist no-nothings. Who can offend the political center in the most creative and absurd ways? Who can dream up the most ridiculous re-writing of history?
360,000 Americans died under Old Glory while fighting against those flying the CSA battle flag. You can’t be loyal to both.
When people stop being racists or when hell freezes over, whichever comes first.
Shall we purge or airbrush our history?
Steve called somebody a “no-nothing”. That is great work. Clearly Steve knows nothing about “grammer”.
I think its funny people on both sides of the issue get all bent out of shape about the Stars and Bars, the War Between the States…whatever.
@Steve,
How can one not be loyal to both the heritage of the Confederacy and the United States too? Many of the founding fathers of Dallas fought under the Texas Republic, United States and Confederate flags. I would bet if you read the DMN this morning you would have read a Confederate soldier’s name 50 times. 3/4’s of the streets in Uptown Dallas are named for famous Dallas Confederate war heroes. Many of the counties/cities in North Texas are named for famous Confederate officers.
Dallas and North Texas suffered heavily after the war, during Reconstruction. The citizens here were punished heavily with restrictions on food and commerce. So heavy handed was the menace of federal control in Dallas that it can easily be compared to the Nazi occupation of Poland. Summary executions, theft of crops and livestock, corruption. That part of local history is swept under the rug and not discussed.
History is a two way street. In Dallas, literally.
Bill, you make some very astute points. I personally believe however, that the symbols have been repeatedly co-opted by racists and segregationists. The flags are symbols, but I think for most they are not symbols of the things you are describing. If I’m not mistaken the confederate flag starting waving over the Alabama Capitol during the segregation wars of the 50’s.
I grew up in Alabama, I have Minié balls I dug up in the trenches outside of my hometown. I had ancestors fight in the Confederate Army. I couldn’t in good conscience display that flag any longer.
The Nazi occupation of Poland? Really? At what point did U.S. soldiers corral all the Jews -er, southern whites – into ghettos and summarily execute them?
I’m not saying that everyone who flies the confederate flag is racist, but it does seem a bit odd to me to embrace the heritage of a war fought not just over states rights, but the legality of enslaving an entire race. Whether you want it to or not, that’s what the confederate flag stands for to many.
I guess our streets are already named, but it’s a bit like saying we need to remember European history by having Hitler Avenue or re-popularizing the swastika… I just don’t get it.
It has, though, historically been used as a discouragement, something to keep one set of people from going or participating in something.
For instance, throughout the south (my hometown included) there are high schools that, come desegregation, chose mascots centered around the Civil War – a Johnny Reb with a Confederate flag being the most popular. It wasn’t a sudden love of culture that propelled it, but rather a desire to make it uncomfortable and unwelcoming for black students.
Hi Bill H! I got me one of those letters of allowance, prouder’n a two tailed puppy.
Bill Bill, Here’s a quote for the official letter of seccession explaining why Texas aligned with the south instead of the Union.
“We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable.
That in this free government all white men are and of right ought to be entitled to equal civil and political rights; that the servitude of the African race, as existing in these States, is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and is abundantly authorized and justified by the experience of mankind, and the revealed will of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian nations; while the destruction of the existing relations between the two races, as advocated by our sectional enemies, would bring inevitable calamities upon both and desolation upon the fifteen slave-holding States. By the secession of six of the slave-holding States, and the certainty that others will speedily do likewise, Texas has no alternative but to remain in an isolated connection with the North, or unite her destinies with the South.”
Keep in mind this wonderful piece of Texana passed 166 to 8 February 1, 1861.
So Bill Bill (not to be confused with my dear friend Bill H.) as you think about all the horrific things that happened to those who believed blacks were designed by God to be the slaves of whites consider all the horrific things that happened before and during the War between the states.
You might also stir into the mix all the lynchings that happened in places like Greenvile, Texas after the War and into the twentieth century, usually on Sundays after church, people of God and all that.
What’s interesting about this flag is that it was never even an official flag of the Confederacy. It was merely one of many different battle flags flown by various regiments during the war. The reason it is so controversial is that it was co-opted by the nasty Southern resistence to the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. If the Sons are really so interested in merely honoring the history of its founder it would avoid controversy and adopt the actual flag of the Confederacy. But lets face it, these are middle-aged to old white guys. They think the Southern slave owners were on the righteous side.