Confederate Flag in the US Capitol Hill

Why in news?

In the Capitol Hill violence, the image of a protestor carrying the Confederate flag gained attention as this is the first time that the Confederate flag had appeared inside the halls of the Capitol.

Why is it significant?

• The Confederate flag originated during the Civil War of 1861.
• But it emerged as a political symbol only in the 20th century in context of writing a new narrative remembering the war.
• The image is significant because the flag stands for white supremacy and the social and political exclusion of coloured people.

How did the Confederate flag originate?

• The flag represented the seven southern Confederate States of America (CSA).
• These seven states seceded from the union in 1861 after the election of Abraham Lincoln as the President.
• Four more states joined them later.
• Lincoln was in favour of banning slavery in US territories which were not states.
• The southern states are heavily dependent on slave labour.
• So, they saw the move as a grander plan to abolish slavery completely and thereby an attack on their constitutional rights.
• Consequently, a four-year war ensued that lasted from 1861 to 1865 and ended with the defeat of the Confederate states.
  • The Civil War is known to have been the costliest and the deadliest war in America.
  • It led to the death of approximately 620,000 soldiers, and leaving millions more injured, with large parts of the South in ruins.
• In 1862, while the war was on, Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves in Confederate states.
  • He described it as a military measure, and the slaves in the union states were not freed.
  • However, the Emancipation Proclamation played a decisive role in eventually ending slavery in America.

How did the flag emerge as a political symbol after the war?

• For about a decade after the war ended, the US military occupied much of the South to help it rebuild and become part of the Union again.
• The period of reconstruction, as it was called, fuelled resentment among the whites. It continues till date.
• Thereby, the post-Civil War South embraced the Confederate flag as a symbol of their ‘lost cause’.
• By the end of the century, the flag became a symbol of honouring the Confederate dead and also a romanticised version of the cause of the Civil War.
• By the mid-20th century, the Confederate flag had come to symbolise resistance against laws of segregation.
  • In 1948, there was a Southern regional split in the Democratic party.
  • The Dixiecrats, as the new party was called, were against president Harry S Truman’s efforts at addressing the civil rights of African Americans.
  • The Dixiecrats wanted to retain racial segregation.
  • The Confederate flag was very prominent in the Dixiecrat campaign during the 1948 presidential election.
  • It was also used frequently by the white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan.
• In the mid-20th century, as the Civil Rights movement gained pace, the Confederate flag acquired more prominence.

Source: The Indian Express