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Legislation Concerning Confederate Flags (U.S.)

Legislation concerning confederate flags
State usage
Pro change
Anti change
Legal actions
Lexington, South Carolina

See also:

Legislation concerning the confederate flags

Due to the constitutional rights of freedom of speech (oral and otherwise) there are no laws forbidding the display of any of the confederate flags. An American president attempted to return the captured battle flags to the Southern states in the 1800's but due to opposition from the Grand Army of the Republic, a veterans organization of the federals, the federals did not return them until the twentieth century.
William M. Grimes-Wyatt, 23 January 1996

State usage

Several Southern states use various of the confederate flags as the basis of their state flags and in addition fly the confederate battle flag along with the state flag. There is a movement afoot to cease this practice.

In 1879, the state of Georgia adopted a state flag based upon the first national flag, (the Stars and Bars), with the stars removed and a more narrow blue union extended to the bottom of the flag. In 1956, during the integration problems in the South, some citizens, believing slavery to be the main cause of the War for Southern Independence / The War between the States / Civil War called for the flag's replacement. The Georgia state flag, based upon the official flag of the confederacy, was replaced with a flag based upon the Naval Jack.
William M. Grimes-Wyatt, 23 January 1996

Pro change

It is widely believed that the only reason for the civil war was slavery. As a symbol of abuse of blacks by whites, this emblem of hate must be destroyed. Every usage must be forbidden. As an aside, three men were recently convicted of murder for killing a boy, who had a confederate naval jack on his pick-up truck.
William M. Grimes-Wyatt, 23 January 1996

Anti change

There are several reasons for people to retain the use of southern emblems:

Hatred of the North - The civil war was the first modern war waged upon civilian population. In an attempt to destroy the ability of the South to resist, their countryside was laid waste. The period of reconstruction (or occupation) lasted in one form or another for up to one hundred years. There are those that believe that the industrial North with many diverse immigrants still lords it over the rural south with its traditional values.
Anti-black sentiment - Just as blacks have rallied against the Southern symbols, whites have resisted just as fiercely.
Pride in the efforts of their forefathers to secure independence.
The South has a heritage that is distinct from that of the North and reveres the past.
There are those that believe that the Celtic ancestry of many Southerners leads them to glorify lost causes. Just as followers of Bonnie Prince Charlie survived for several generations, (indeed, some Scots still harbor hopes of independence today), there are those who insist that forgive Hell. It is quite an affront for a Frenchman or Brit for example to call a Redneck, a Yankee.

William M. Grimes-Wyatt, 23 January 1996

Legal Actions

The only national legislative action ever taken, to the best of my knowledge, was the recent refusal of congress to extend the copyright of the Daughters Of the Confederacy's insignia, which included the Stars and Bars, due to political pressure by members of congress.
William M. Grimes-Wyatt, 24 January 1996