What thoughts go thru your head when you see the Confederate flag?

[Ax]

This page is part of The Confederate Infantry Private Website

http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Bunker/1163/black.html#intro

There were Black Confederate soldiers. This is a fact, not fiction. Conservative estimates state that over 50,000 African-Confederates served in the Confederate Army. Many of these men saw combat and participated in it. Some died.

Although the Confederate Congress did not authorize Colored Units in the Confederate Army until 1865, when it was too late, there were many unofficial soldiers overlooked by officers who were desperate to fill the ranks so quickly dwindling. Also, many individual Southern states authorized colored militia units. For example, Alabama in 1862.

For more info, click on the link.

Some more links.

http://www.37thtexas.org/html/BlkHist.html

http://www.scvcamp469-nbf.com/theblackconfederatesoldier.htm

http://www.lizmichael.com/blkconfd.htm

[MaddogCT]

There seems to be a theme, in this thread, that because the flag was used by the South in the Civil War and the South was pro slavery, the Confederate Flag is associated with slavery, by default.

And that the people who see it as a symbol of racism do so because of this relationship.

That is completely false.

The reason a lot of people feel the Confederate Flag is a racist symbol is because the Confederate Flag was thrust upon them as one, by racists.

Before someone asks:

A teenaged girl with unfurled Confederate flags runs past the Civil Rights Memorial during the League of the South demonstration on Oct. 22, 2004.

(AP/Wide World Photo)

http://www.splcenter.org/news/item.jsp?aid=78

:logo:

[Thanos]

thats really sad.

[Xameil]

Dukes of Hazzard definitely.

[Xameil]

I see more Confederate flags than US at the NASCAR races I've attended.

so? what does that prove?

[riggins44]

When I see the Confederate flag, I see history, the Civil War, and my

ancestors. I had a family (from both sides) that fought for the Confederacy.

One deserted and came home to announce the war was over, because Stonewall had been shot. No one in my family ever owned slaves. They fought for their rights and land.

[ashburnskinsfan]

As a non-US citizen and thus an outsider to this debate, I see that the Confederate Battle Flag/Southern Cross has strong associations with the neo-Nazis, skinheads etc., as well as having a legitimate place in history of the South. You can argue that the fascists stole the flag from the South, but to most Americans and worldwide it has become, along with the swastika, a fascist symbol.

Unfortunately, nowadays when those politicians in the South who promote the flag and talk about its legitimate history they neglect to disassociate themselves from the fascists who have adopted it. Unless they do that, it's not clear whether their actions are racially motivated.