After attacks, many Southerners fly different flag

Until recently, if you saw a red, white and blue flag sticker on a Southern pickup truck, odds were good that it was a Confederate flag.

In the wake of the terrorist attacks, the once-prominent symbol beloved by both unreconstructed Southern partisans and Civil War buffs has been swamped in a wave of national unity.

American flags are popping up on cars, outside homes and businesses - and even on horse-drawn carriages in the city where the Civil War started.

In Charleston, unlike New York or California, the Stars and Stripes can often be seen displayed beside the controversial Confederate battle flag.

One local bumper sticker even has a message for Osama Bin Laden's terrorist network, "Terrorists: Your soul is the devil's and your butt's America's."

Another depicts both the U.S. and the Confederate battle flag and says "red-blooded American."

Area flag merchants say sales of Confederate flags have remained steady even as sales of U.S flags have increased.

"My American flag sales have increased 100-fold," Gary Shelton, president of 1abcstore.com in St. Simons, Ga., said. His Confederate flag sales are about the same.While it might strike some as inconsistent to fly the flag created by people who wanted to dissolve the United States next to the American flag during a time of national crisis, many in the region do not see it that way, says political science Professor Bill Moore of the College of Charleston.

"In general, I don't feel Southerners see it as inconsistent. You do have a few ultra-nationalists who would still like to secede from the Union. However, most of those who maintain a strong identity with the Confederate flag incorporate it into a historical context," he said.

In the Southerner's view, loyalty to the historical South is not necessarily incompatible with contemporary values as Americans, Moore said.

"Collectively, Southerners do tend to be stronger supporters of the military than their non-Southern counterparts and value a military career more," he said.

Also, because of limited immigration into the region and less exposure to different cultures, Southerners can be more parochial and suspicious of foreign populations than other Americans, and are thus more likely to support action on behalf of American interests abroad, he said.

Sen. Glenn McConnell is one of the brokers of the compromise that brought the Confederate flag down from the Statehouse dome to a monument on the Capitol grounds in 2000, and owns a Confederate memorabilia shop in North Charleston.

McConnell's sales of Confederate flags have continued and are unaffected by the terrorist attacks. He says he flies both an American flag and a Confederate flag and sees no inconsistency in his actions.

"We see it as a patriotic emblem of our ancestors, but the nation's moved on since then. We think our ancestors stood up for a Constitutional principle that was still considered an option back then - the issue of whether states can secede from the Union - and the issue was resolved on the battlefield. We had an unpleasant disagreement amongst ourselves, and it was settled. So now, if you punch at the United States, you've struck at all of us," he said.

Some Confederate flag supporters do embrace the flag as a separatist symbol. Before the attacks, neo-Confederate messages, like Southern independence, were said to be gaining traction, especially in the angry wake of several regional controversies. Debates about the removal of the flag from the South Carolina Statehouse, the changing of the Georgia state flag and a contentious vote on the Mississippi state flag riled Southern partisans and fans of Southern history alike.

In 1997, Michael Hill, president of the League of the South, wrote in one of his publications that "the American flag has, in fits and starts, come to stand for a corrupt central regime that increasingly visits upon its citizen-subjects expropriations that would have driven our ancestors to active resistance."

Hill said he considers himself an American, and he claims that Southerners are more American than people from other regions. He said the Confederate flag is the flag that truly represents states' rights and a Constitutional government.

On the other hand, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a group that also has been on the forefront in the battles over the public display of the Confederate flag, took a much different position.

After the attacks, the SCV's national commander-in-chief, Ed Deason, immediately issued a statement on behalf of its 30,000 members expressing sympathy and support of President Bush, Congress and the government and affirmed its intentions to "join all patriotic Americans."

That move is harmonious with the organization's mission, spokeswoman Lynda Moreau said.

"We were chartered over 100 years ago as a patriotic and benevolent organization. Our mission is to defend the good name of the Confederate soldier. The SCV does not advocate secession," she said.

Many of its current members are veterans who fought in the armed forces during wartime.

"They fought for this country, and they stand behind it. That doesn't mean they honor the Confederate flag any less. They honor both," she said.

The Rev. Joe Darby of the Morris Avenue Missionary Baptist Church in Charleston, who is first vice president of the state National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, views the issue differently. The NAACP continues its efforts to boycott the state because of the location of the flag on the Statehouse grounds and will raise it, as well as other issues, again in the next legislative session.

To Darby, the Confederate flag is a symbol of disunity in a time when the nation's citizens should come together.

"We need to be unified at a time like this. While I don't think everyone who flies it (the battle flag) is a member of a hate group, I would not fly it. When I see it, I see a symbol of white, antebellum unity. That leaves me out of the picture," he said.

Darby acknowledges that there are South Carolinians who see no conflict in flying both flags.

"What do I think when I see both flags flying together? I guess I rejoice that we live in a country where people can hold strange views," he said.

Since the Civil War, major events such as the terrorist attacks have moved Southerners toward a stronger view of themselves as Americans first and Southerners second, even if they created some subconscious tugs between regional and national loyalties along the way, writes Charles Reagan Wilson in his 1980 book "Baptized in Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause, 1865-1920."

"The Spanish American War and World War II provided the perfect backdrop for Southern ministers to identify again with the values of the American nation," he writes.

"In 1917 the raising of Old Glory on Jefferson Davis Parkway in New Orleans became a symbolic event marking renewed patriotism. Ministers even wrote poems praising the flag, although acceptance of the prime symbol of national unity created a tension with continuing adoration for the equally potent Confederate battle flag," Wilson writes.

One Southern writer of the time, according to Wilson, suggested "that Southerners should still 'consecrate in our hearts our old battle flag of the Southern Cross'," but that it should be honored not as '"a political symbol, but as the consecrated emblem of a heroic epoch.'"

Until May, the Old South Carriage Company downtown displayed three flags, the United States flag, the state flag and the Confederate flag. However, the flags were stolen on Mother's Day weekend and have not yet been replaced, manager Kay Motley said. When they are replaced, one flag will still represent the Confederacy, but it will be another, less controversial flag, she said.

The company currently displays an American flag inside its barn and quickly put American flags on its carriages after the terrorist attacks.

"We're proud of our Southern heritage. Our company is named Old South, but we are patriotic enough to add American flags to our carriages at a time like this," Motley said.

Since the Civil War, major events such as the terrorist attacks have moved Southerners toward a stronger view of themselves as Americans first and Southerners second

Nothing brings Americans together quicker than a cowardly sneak attack.

I fly both flags .... Stars and Stripes because I AM an American FIRST ... I fly the stars and Bars cause I believe in states rights tempered with a SMALL federal government

"Collectively, Southerners do tend to be stronger supporters of the military than their non-Southern counterparts and value a military career more," he said

Seems as if the rest of the country is finally coming around to our grand way of thinking.

Thanks for the ping!

To Darby, the Confederate flag is a symbol of disunity in a time when the nation's citizens should come together.

How generous of Darby not to think all of us are members of a hate group. Silly boy.

And I love the city of New York as well. BTW, the city of New York at the beginning of the WONA was willing and prepared to secede with the South.

May God bless Dixie and FWIW the flag of freedom flies over my house and not the flag of EMPIRE. Although I do say the Pledge of Allegiance in public, I do omit the one word

Until recently, if you saw a red, white and blue flag sticker on a Southern pickup truck, odds were good that it was a Confederate flag...Well maybe on SOUTHERN pickups, but the ones I see on most of the ones you "SANDLAPPERS" drive are either a stupid garnet chicken proclaiming "Go Cocks" or an ugly ornage and white polecat paw heralding 'Tigers"! You folks need to get yourselves a real good Southern football (Gators, Bulldogs, Vols, Bama, Rebel, 'Noles, Tarheels, Jackets, Hokies, etc.) team!

BTW, the city of New York at the beginning of the WONA was willing and prepared to secede with the South.

Really? Got any details on that?

Yes, I've got a couple articles out of the New York papers and some of the leaders of the time. Will post them this evening. It had to do with the outrageous tax levels the federal government was looking for not only in Southern ports but in the city of New York as well

"..."Collectively, Southerners do tend to be stronger supporters of the military than their non-Southern counterparts and value a military career more..."

"...Our Way of Thinking..."

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YEP !!!

You know, this is news only if you held the mistaken belief that the Confederate flags were displayed as symbols of hate. To me, this article provides proof that it is used as a symbol of heritage. An attack on buildings in New York would NOT cause a Southerner filled with hate to suddenly begin supporting America. That shows that it has never been about hate and that we do love our country. What we don't like is people looking down on us and telling us how to live our lives or run our states.

..."Confederate flags were displayed as symbols of hate."

Those people need to take a look at pictures taken I have seen of KKK rallies when they were at their apex (early 20th century).

Can you guess what flag they were flying?

Hint: NOT the Confederate battle flag... or any other CSA flag.

Gee, I got this picture off of the American Knights of the KKK website. It's a tee shirt that they sell. So what is that pictured in the background? Behind the guys with the pillowcases on their heads?

And here is a link to a Texas Klan chapter. What's that flying proudly in the upper right hand corner? Why it's the confederate battle flag.

Here's another link to the National Knights of the KKK. Same flag, different location

Like it or not your banner has been appropriated by some pretty crummy organizations and I don't hear y'all complaining about it much

Then shame on them for mis-using our flag. You know that flag doesn't stand for hate---its heritage. I get angered by them co-opting that flag to their petty cause. Sometimes I think its a danged conspiracy. ;)

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