What does the Confederate flag represent to Southerners?

But in the end, Reconstruction perpetuated systemic racism by whatever means were still possible and added a century to the South's recovery from the war. read more

Equally, there are many black Southerners that see the Confederate Flag as a symbol of racism, oppression, slavery, exclusion, and most recently as representing a heinous hate crime against nine innocent black Southerners. read more

The history of the flag since 1865 is marked by the accumulation of additional meanings based on additional uses. Within a decade of the end of the war (even before the end of Reconstruction in 1877), white Southerners began using the Confederate flag as a memorial symbol for fallen heroes. read more

The "Confederate flag," as it is colloquially referred to, was the flag used in battle by the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War. The actual flag of the Confederate States of America featured red and white stripes offset by a blue canton (a term that usually describes a rectangular block in the upper-left corner of a flag) and white stars. read more