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All three statewide-elected politicians in South Carolina have now called from the Confederate Battle Flag to be taken down. The Post and Courier reports:

As the New York Times reports this morning, not a single Republican presidential candidate has the courage to tell South Carolina to stop flying the Confederate battle flag from its state capitol. It is a bit late for that, to be sure; public display of any kind of the symbol of the slaveholders’ rebellion should have been banned after the Union victory in 1865. Removing the Confederate flag from the grounds of South Carolina’s seat of government has become an African-American cause in the wake of last week’s Charleston church massacre. It may be incommensurate with the crime, but black...

<p>During a press conference on Monday, Gov. Nikki Haley will ask that the Confederate flag on the grounds of South Carolina's capitol be removed, according to the Post and Courier. The move from the popular governor (reelected last year by 15 points and with 79 percent approval last April) will almost certainly help encourage the state legislature to vote for removal. As it stands, the legislature needs a two-thirds vote to make that happen -- a high bar.</p>

Whether you think it’s all right for South Carolina to fly a Confederate battle flag over a Confederate memorial on its capitol grounds depends on whether you think that the Confederate war dead should be honored. If you do, then you can, as David French does, see the flag as a symbol of their valor and skill while decrying its use by white supremacists. This strikes me as a whitewash of both the flag and the Confederacy. The Confederacy was a rebellion founded on the incoherent idea that the sovereign authority of the United States might be shucked off at...

From Charleston, South Carolina, to the statehouse steps in Columbia, there is anger over the Confederate flag and all it represents. The mass shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston has reignited the debate over whether officials should remove the Confederate flag from state property. Republican state Rep. Doug Brannon plans to introduce a bill to remove the flag, which he acknowledges will likely cost him re-election, reports CBS News' Adriana Diaz.

Yesterday, in the midst of all the church services and speeches and emotional turmoil welling up in Charleston, South Carolina, protesters defaced a statue in White Point Gardens. The iconic piece, dedicated to the Confederate soldiers from the state, was spray painted with various messages including the now seemingly ubiquitous “Black Lives Matter.” (Or that seems to be the intent, anyway. It actually says, “Black Lives Mater.” A statue near The Battery memorializing Confederate defenders of the city was found vandalized Sunday with the message “Black lives matter.” Another message, “This is the problem #racist,” also was spray-painted on “To...

Bill Clinton signed into law the Flag change for the state of Arkansas to Commerate the Confederacy.Clinton had the change include the main start as a commemoration for the States participation in the... CONFEDERACY! Act 116 of the Regular Session in Arkansas 1987. SB377 "The blue star above "ARKANSAS" represents the Confederate States of America'

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - State offices across South Carolina are closed Monday for Confederate Memorial Day. The holiday itself was Sunday, marking 152 years since Southern Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson died after he was accidentally wounded by his own troops. But since May 10 was on a Sunday, the holiday for state workers is on Monday this year. Several other states in the South also have official holidays to honor the Confederacy, although the dates vary.

One hundred-fifty years after Appomattox, many Southerners still won’t give up. One hundred fifty years ago, on April 9th, 1865, Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House and the Union triumphed in the Civil War. Yet the passage of a century and a half has not dimmed the passion for the Confederacy among many Americans. Just three weeks ago, the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) appeared before the Supreme Court arguing for the right to put a Confederate flag on vanity license plates in Texas. Just why would someone in 2015 want a Confederate flag on their license...

In a speech one month ago, the first black president of the United States challenged millions of white Americans to resist the convenient allure of overlooking the country’s blemished moral record. It was a dual challenge, actually—first to the classical understanding of American exceptionalism, but also to America’s persistent critics, who abjure the concept of exceptionalism altogether. “What greater expression of faith in the American experiment than this?” President Barack Obama said. “What greater form of patriotism is there than the belief that America is not yet finished, that we are strong enough to be self-critical, that each successive generation...

This week, the Supreme Court heard arguments re Texas’s refusal to allow Confederate flags to be stamped on license plates as part of a “Sons of Confederate Veterans” design. I wouldn’t ask sons of Confederate veterans to disown their ancestry; in fact, my mother’s mother’s family was Southern, and four of my great-great-grandfathers fought in the Confederate army. And I know that lots of Americans sincerely see the Confederate flag as a symbol of states’ rights — particularly because virtually no Confederate soldiers actually owned slaves. But, personally, I see the Confederate flag as the symbol of men who, as...

Ladies and Gentlemen, I accept the flowers as a memento of reconciliation between the white and colored races of the Southern states. I accept it more particularly as it comes from a colored lady, for if there is any one on God's earth who loves the ladies I believe it is myself. (Immense applause and laughter.) I came here with the jeers of some white people, who think that I am doing wrong. I believe I can exert some influence, and do much to assist the people in strengthening fraternal relations, and shall do all in my power to elevate...

Uncivil Behavior? Judah P. Benjamin served as the Confederate Secretary of War. The 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the United States — Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment in late January 1865 — comes at an fraught moment in the history of race relations. Considering that black men are being killed by police at the same rate as they were lynched in the era of Jim Crow, it can be depressing to reflect on how many promises of 1865, not to mention 1776, have not yet been fulfilled. But it can also be edifying to probe into some...

Dr. Bryon McClanahan reviews Pryor's work on Lee. He is quite critical and discusses major problems with the book as well as the "trendy" practice by modern historians of "humanizing" (tearing down) American heroes . . .

This is a re-post of an article I wrote last year to celebrate the anniversary of General Lee's birth on January 19, 1807. My concerns for the future remain about the same, although the current threats to freedom of speech and of religion from Islam and its advocates are now higher. We have changed as a nation, often not for the better.We, as a nation, seem to have done with heroes of his type. Yet he inspired a fledgling nation, the Confederate States of America -- young, old, rich and poor alike. Those who reminisce about him do so mainly because of his devotion to...

"Patton's familial ties to Confederate veterans is quite fascinating (Chapter One is titled, "Ghosts of the Confederacy") and had a significant impact on his view of history, as well as his role it it. (An extremely important and influential factor, despite what some think.) Patton's great-grandmother once wrote, "I am crying because I have only seven sons left to fight the Yankees."

An “extremely rare” Civil War-era photograph of the enslaved woman who helped save Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Virginia home has been obtained by the National Park Service after a volunteer spotted the image on eBay. The previously unknown photograph depicts Selina Gray, the head housekeeper to Lee and his family, along with two girls thought to be her daughters. The photograph was unveiled Thursday at the Arlington House plantation overlooking the nation's capital that was home to Lee and dozens of slaves before the Civil War. An inscription on the back of the image reads "Gen Lees Slaves Arlington...

What happened to those days when it was cool for bands to play Dixie at both Northern and Southern schools while students cheered and waved Confederate flags?

First Manassas. In the 90-degree heat, the Union fords Bull Run and then busts through line after line of Confederate troops, aiming for the railroad to Richmond. Under the grassy shield of Henry House Hill’s western slope, the Confederates scramble for reinforcements. Somebody overhears General Bee comparing Colonel Jackson to a “stone wall.” This either compliments Jackson’s steadfastness or jeers the corporal’s languor. No one will ever know for certain, since Bee is shot dead shortly after the quip leaves his lips.

Washington and Lee University expressed regret Tuesday for the school’s past ownership of slaves and promised to remove Confederate flags from the main chamber of its Lee Chapel after a group of black students protested that the historic Virginia school was unwelcoming to minorities. President Kenneth P. Ruscio’s announcement was a surprising move for the small, private liberal arts college in Lexington, which has long celebrated its Southern heritage. Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee served as the university’s president after the Civil War, his crypt is beneath the chapel, and the school has gingerly addressed its ties to the Confederacy...