In the wake of the Charleston massacre of 9 blacks, several activists are calling for the Confederate flag to be removed from South Carolina's state capital; as if that flag was the cause of what happened and its removal would prevent anything like that happening again.
I can understand that the Confederate flag is a symbol of some of the darkest days in America. But, perhaps changing the way it is displayed can serve as a positive reminder of what the country went through to end black slavery; the bloody war that primarily pitted white Americans against each other.
Let's not fly it in front of the
Capital. Encase it in plastic in the guest rotunda with a plaque that
tells the sad history of how that flag came to be and how it was brought
down by war so that slavery could be ended in this country
"completely".
To me personally, it symbolizes something that doesn't square with modern day politics and the relationship of blacks and the Democratic Party. The Confederacy was primarily born out of white Democrats whose party was founded by Andrew Jackson. It was those Jacksonian Democrats who vehemently defended slavery prior to the Civil War. Following the war, it was those same Democrats who helped enact Jim Crow laws that were designed to segregate black society and bar them from voting. Then, in 1964, it was the very descendents of those white Southern Democrats who attempted to block civil rights bills in Congress. Maybe this is why, today, Democrats are so eager to remove that flag from sight.
References:
After Charleston killings, SC debates taking down Confederate flag: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/06/22/south-carolina-confederate-flag/29109939/
Southern Democrats: After the election of Abraham Lincoln, Southern Democrats led the charge to secede from the Union and form the Confederate States of America.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Democrats
Jim Crow Laws: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws]
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