Two Flags  
By: Michael T. McPhearson
April / May / June 2001

I have heard people say, "I never talk God, sex, or politics in mixed company." Symbols should be added to that list. So much emotion is wrapped up in symbols. And, in this country few symbols stir passions more than the Confederate Battle Flag and the Flag of the United States of America.

Recently the citizens of the state of Mississippi voted 494,323 to 273,359 to keep the Confederate battle flag as part of their state flag. While hurtful to me as an African-American, it was far from surprising. Last year the Confederate battle flag issue dominated South Carolina politics and headlines. The flag had officially flown over the capitol building since 1962 when raised in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Civil War. State legislators, under pressure from an anti-Confederate flag coalition forged by the NAACP, decided to lower the flag. The Senate voted 36-7 while the House voted 63-56. But this victory came with a caveat; both legislative bodies proposed compromise locations for the flag. The Senate voted for a smaller Confederate Flag on a 20-foot pole at the Confederate soldiers’ monument in the front of the Statehouse. The House voted for a 30-foot pole surrounded by a decorative iron fence and illumination of the flag at night.

Many opponents of the flag want it to go away altogether. Most people just wish the issue would go away. Neither is about to happen. South Carolina and Mississippi are only the latest campaigns in the flags wars. The Alabama, Florida, and Georgia State flags have elements of the Confederate Battle Flag in their designs. Any of these states could be the next target of anti-flag groups.

The removal of the flag from the dome of the South Carolina Legislative building is due in part to the success of the anti-flag coalition as well as a swell of inclusive community building efforts taking place across the country. The standard language of diversity, tolerance, and acceptance describes the character of the movement. Unfortunately, the South Carolina legislators’ wish to continue to fly the flag and the majority of Mississippi’s voters’ disregard for fellow citizens’ feelings of alienation characterize the traditional and consistent mood of the nation when it comes to talking about American slavery. Let bygones be bygones. Let’s not talk about the past, look towards the future. South Carolina’s actions gave me hope that the states that still have Confederate emblems on their flags could have new designs by 2010. But the recent Mississippi vote dashed that expectation. One thing is for certain. If there is a turn in events and Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and Georgia decided that a state flag should represent the freedom, hopes and expectations all of its citizens, and not fly as a reminder of documented state sponsored oppression, and remove the Confederate symbol from their state flags, it would not end the controversy. The Confederate Battle Flag is embedded in United States history and its image is here to stay.

While taking a walk last year on Memorial Day I discovered I live near an Annin factory, a company that makes United States’ flags. A sign reading "Annin, Flag Makers to the World Sine 1847" sent me through a stream of conflicting emotions. I laughed and wondered when did the first Confederate Battle Flag fly? I thought about all the smiling, flesh-pressing members of the United States Senate that fell only 4 votes short of passing an amendment to the constitution to make it a criminal offense to desecrate the United States Flag. I thought about the blood irrigated hot southern fields, the sinews chained to help take a country, and the lives damned to bondage. How dare they try to legislate respect? The arrogance of it alone is an act of tyranny. Then I looked around and saw that it was a beautiful Memorial Day 2000 in the neighborhood, and Old Glory replicas of all shapes and sizes flew proud and true. It made me feel good to be surrounded by the Stars and Stripes. If I were home, there would surely be a few Confederate flags mixed in too.

One History

I have a familiar relationship with both the Confederate Battle Flag and the Flag of the United States. They have been highly visible symbols in my life from birth. The Confederate Battle Flag reminds me of home, the U.S. South. It reminds me of the history of hate in the South. Hate is the reason the battle flag was originally brought to my attention. When you are a person of non-white skin and live in close proximity to racist and bigots, you must pay close attention to such things like the rebel flag. It is the perpetual banner of the Klu Klux Klan, an organization born in hate. It was the flag flown into battle by the Confederate States of America, a nation formed to defend the State’s right to preserve the institution of slavery. It is hard for me to think of the battle flag and not think of hate. But that is not all I think about. In fact it is not always the first thing that comes to mind. It kind of depends on where I see it. If I see it on the cover of a book, I usually guess it's text is about the Civil War or the South in general. When I was younger and I saw it on a belt buckle, cap, mud flaps, license plate, or T-shirt I would think Redneck. Today I think of America trying to ignore its history of slavery and deny the legacy of racism that is alive in our minds today.

When I go to a flag store or souvenir shop in a state outside the South and I see the Confederate battle flag, I think of my home state of North Carolina. I think of my southern heritage. A lot of wonderful things have come out of the South. I call the region the Soul of the nation. Being friendly and neighborly is not called Northern or Mid Western hospitality. Southern food, well let’s just say there’s nothing better. The best pork or BBQ, the best collard greens, the best mustard greens, the best yams, the best catfish, the best peach cobbler, the best cornbread, the best baked ham, the best ice tea, and the coldest lemonade is in the South. Can’t forget fried chicken. And the grits, I have actually gone to some parts of the country and they did not have grits on the menu for breakfast. And they think Southerners are ignorant?

The hymns sung along the Mississippi Delta spawned American popular music from the Blues and Jazz to Rock and Roll, R & B, Hip Hop, and anything in between. The Civil Rights Movement did not begin in the North or the West. It sprung from the pain and suffering of Southern people. The South led the nation in a wave of protest igniting the Student Movement, the Second Wave of the Women’s Movement, the Peace Movement, and the Lesbian and Gay Rights Movement. We have yet to see the full impact of the Civil Rights Movement on world history. Although it has done little to change the condition of the poor, it has raised our expectation of civil liberties and the level of interpersonal respect we have for each other. The U.S. South saw the birth of a paradigm that will help lead the emerging global society towards inclusive community building in the new century. The Civil Rights Movement in the United States raised the human rights bar for the world.

Yet with all of these positive visions, before I can dismiss the thought of the Confederate Battle Flag, the hate bleeds through.

I pondered a bit during the last few years about this comfortable, uncomfortable relationship I have developed with the Confederate battle flag. I could not intellectually reconcile my emotional acceptance of the symbol. How could I see so much of myself in a flag that has come to personify the oppression of my family, my ancestors, and myself?

Then it hit me. I have a similar but more deeply felt anxiety about a symbol I hold most dear, the Flag of the United States of America.