Didn’t it represent their heritage, not just this negative abhorrent slavery attachment. I’m not a USA citizen and don’t pretend to know all southern states political stances in the past on slavery, but to clean sweep confederate flag flyers as rascist slavery condoning people, no! The confederate flag surely stood for more than this and I suspect the majority were proud welcoming people. But guess what there are some awful connections like any state has had in the past. IMO Think you’re wrong on this one and I hope you’re wrong too.
As an actual son of the South, descendent of Confederate soldiers and student of history I do want you to know that, in this particular case, you are quite wrong.
Are there silly people who connote the flag with something other than what it actually represents, sure. The Confederate battle flag and the statues being pulled down in cities all over the South, however, represent these things - rebellion in the cause of slavery and continued political and economic dominion of white people over black people in the South during the Jim Crow era. Any other justification is, respectfully, crap.
There are any number of alternative symbols of the South, its proud welcoming people and unique culture. That specific flag and the statues erected many decades after the conclusion of the war (in the case of General Lee, against his expressed wishes) are not proper symbols to elicit pride. They are shameful.
