Recently the Confederate symbols have once again come under scrutiny as symbols to be rejected. When people talk about the Confederate flag only representing a historical tradition and culture it is important to remember that the Confederacy only lasted 5 years. The flag was resurrected during the 1950s and 1960s to oppose integration.
The same thing is true with the erecting of Confederate statues. The chart above shows the surge in erecting statues that happened in the early 1900s and the 1960s that reflected the racial tensions of both times. The popularity of the statues and the flag are tied to the message that each sends about slavery, white superiority, ownership of other humans and not some genteel way of life. Just remember when you see a statue of a Confederate general that they were fighting for a system that took children from their parents and sold them to other slave owners like any other commodity.
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