South Carolina Confederate Flag
Commenting on the flag's removal, this Morning's "Today Show" (07/09/2015), said that it had been raised on April 11, 1961, in defiance of the Civil Rights movement that was gaining strength in the United States.
Curious as always, I did a little searching, and discovered that April 11, 1961, was the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the War Between the State, April 11, 1861, at Fort Sumpter in Charleston, N.C.
This was done as part of a national Civil War Centennial, commissioned by president Dwight Eisenhower.
So in a way, this would seem to have been an act of honoring history and heritage. But there's more to the story.
Originally, the plan was for it to fly for just one year. Instead, it remained until today. Why?
I suspect a lot had to do with state senator Strom Thurmond and people like him at the time. Thurmond, who was elected senator in 1956, had run for president in 1948, on a strict segregationist platform.
Speaking at the 1961 flag raising, Thrumond said that nowhere in the U.S. Constitution "does it hint a purpose to insure equality of man or things."
Civl War historian, Daniel Hollis, who was appointed to the 1959 South Carolina Centennial Commission, said he doesn't recall any racist or political overtones within the commission regarding the hoisting of the flag. However, he did state the following:
"They would argue that the war wasn't fought over slavery but states' rights. That's ridiculous. Without the slavery issue South Carolina would not have seceded."
"The ruling elite that ran this state all owned slaves. They denied the war was over slavery, insisting that it was over states' rights. But it was over the states' right to own slaves and enforce white supremacy" - Daniel Hollis
Hollis also reported that at the ceremony, the other state senator, John D. Long, said that the defeated South suffered until, "the prostrate South staggered to her knees assisted by the original Ku Klux Klan and the Red Shirts who redeemed the South and restored her to her own."
Also, several of the delegations had blacks, who were refused entrance to the segregated Francis Marion Hotel, where the events were to be held. The South Carolina hosts refused to allow the black delegates to participate.
From, "The Day The Flag Went Up" by Brett Bursey, South Carolina Progressive Network -
http://www.scpronet.com/point/9909/p04.html
Curious as always, I did a little searching, and discovered that April 11, 1961, was the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the War Between the State, April 11, 1861, at Fort Sumpter in Charleston, N.C.
This was done as part of a national Civil War Centennial, commissioned by president Dwight Eisenhower.
So in a way, this would seem to have been an act of honoring history and heritage. But there's more to the story.
Originally, the plan was for it to fly for just one year. Instead, it remained until today. Why?
I suspect a lot had to do with state senator Strom Thurmond and people like him at the time. Thurmond, who was elected senator in 1956, had run for president in 1948, on a strict segregationist platform.
Speaking at the 1961 flag raising, Thrumond said that nowhere in the U.S. Constitution "does it hint a purpose to insure equality of man or things."
Civl War historian, Daniel Hollis, who was appointed to the 1959 South Carolina Centennial Commission, said he doesn't recall any racist or political overtones within the commission regarding the hoisting of the flag. However, he did state the following:
"They would argue that the war wasn't fought over slavery but states' rights. That's ridiculous. Without the slavery issue South Carolina would not have seceded."
"The ruling elite that ran this state all owned slaves. They denied the war was over slavery, insisting that it was over states' rights. But it was over the states' right to own slaves and enforce white supremacy" - Daniel Hollis
Hollis also reported that at the ceremony, the other state senator, John D. Long, said that the defeated South suffered until, "the prostrate South staggered to her knees assisted by the original Ku Klux Klan and the Red Shirts who redeemed the South and restored her to her own."
Also, several of the delegations had blacks, who were refused entrance to the segregated Francis Marion Hotel, where the events were to be held. The South Carolina hosts refused to allow the black delegates to participate.
From, "The Day The Flag Went Up" by Brett Bursey, South Carolina Progressive Network -
http://www.scpronet.com/point/9909/p04.html