The Confederacy Today:Organizational Interpretations of Confederate Symbols and Diffusion of Southern Heritage

By: Dave Melsness

Literature Review George Schedler, “Southern Minorities, Popular Culture, and the Old South,” in Confederate Symbols in the Contemporary South, ed. J. Michael Martinez, William D. Richardson, and Ron McNinch-Su (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000).

George Shedler explored the rise of Confederate symbols in popular culture and their diffusion through college and sporting events. He also examined the implications for minorities in the popular representation of Confederate symbols and positive reflection on the ideas and culture of the Old South.

John M. Coski, “The Confederate Battle Flag in Historical Perspective,” in Confederate Symbols in the Contemporary South, ed. J. Michael Martinez, William D. Richardson, and Ron McNinch-Su (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000).

John M. Coski is a historian at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia. In his essay he examined the different meanings attached to the Confederate battle flag and the historical reasoning that these interpretations have been attached, whether it served as the soldiers flag, served as a symbol of racial bigotry or as an accessory in popular culture.

Tony Horwitz, Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War (New York: Pantheon Books, 1998).

Tony Horwitz took a journalistic approach in his book. Throughout the book he describes people he met while tracing the Civil War to find out how people reflect on the war in contemporary times. The title is very fitting for the book because he meets an array of colorful characters that even today, are fighting the unfinished Civil War in their own, nonviolent ways.

J. Michael Martinez and Robert M. Harris, “Graves, Worms, Epitaphs: Confederate Monuments in the Southern Landscape,” Confederate Symbols in the Contemporary South, ed. J. Michael Martinez, William D. Richardson, and Ron McNinch-Su (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000). Martinez and Harris examined the meanings of Confederate space markers over time. They examined the historical significance as well as modern

implications of confederate monuments and the meanings associated with their placement, from graveyards to public squares.

J. Michael Martinez, “Traditionalist Perspectives on Confederate Symbols,” Confederate Symbols in the Contemporary South, ed. J. Michael Martinez, William D. Richardson, and Ron McNinch-Su (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000).

In this essay Martinez explored the traditionalist (ie SCV, UDC, MOSB, CofC and OCR) perspective on Confederate symbols. It further concluded that their interpretations are based in historical fact, but often do not see the racial implications of the symbols. Nonetheless he also concluded these groups are all strictly against the use of Confederate symbols for non-historical purposes.

Gerald R. Webster and Jonathan I. Leib, “Fighting for the Lost Cause, The Confederate Battle Flag and Neo-Confederacy,” in Neo-Confederacy, ed. Euan Hague, Heidi

Beirich, Edward H. Sebesta (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2008).

Webster and Leib focused on the meaning of the Confederate battle flag in the racial context. Further, they looked at how modern hate groups use the battle flag to support messages of racial intolerance. In a sense, the essay concluded Confederate-associated hate groups often see themselves fighting for the Lost Cause in a sense where Whites are superior to all other races.

Elizabeth Paul. “The Monuments.” http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/INCORP/monuments/monuments2/mons.html (accessed April 20, 2010).

Elizabeth Paul offered an exemplary examination of the meanings attached to Confederate Monuments. In particular, she examined the role of the solitary soldier monument, and the significance of its anonymity. She concluded the monuments represented more than individual soldiers, yet at the same time represented all soldiers and the cause they fought, and in many cases died for. She further concluded that monuments were a way for the local Southern communities to object to Reconstruction and Industrialization by forcing Northerners, and future generations to remember the war was concluded by defeat, and not negotiations.

Methodology

Research Confederate-associated groups to examine which aspects of the Confederacy they were established to preserve.

Use geographic analysis to locate Confederate groups and demographic information to determine spatial/ demographic distribution of Heritage vs. Hate groups.

Confederate Heritage

Sons of Confederate Veterans Goal: Focus on the role of the individual soldier in

the war, and bring justice to the reasons that animated the Southern Cause.

Military order of the Stars and Bars Goal: Record the significance of the great military

and civil leadership in the Confederacy.

United Daughters of the Confederacy Goal: Record the role of Southern women to the war

effort/reconstruction.

Children of the Confederacy Goal: Like FFA for the Confederate Heritage Groups

Confederate Hate

Ku Klux Klan Founded by Confederate soldiers. Dressed in

white sheets to represent ghosts of confederate soldiers and harass fee blacks- Original Klan never used Confederate battle flag.

Used militant tactics to intimidate and keep blacks in a position of inferiority.

Council Of Conservative Citizens “Uptown Klan” Founded to oppose integration in

the 1950s. Embraced racism to defend the Southern way of

life, used economic pressure to achieve goals. League of the South

Southern Nationalist organization Seeks to “de-legitimize the American Empire”

and create “parallel institutions to which people can attach their loyalties.” Ex. Encourages homeschooling or enrolment in LOS sponsored academy

Results

Results

Counties

Monuments

-Background:- Post Civil War Reconstruction- Southerners were locked in a culture

war with their Northern counterparts. One of the goals of the Civil War was to destroy the Southern Heritage, and their cause.

-Significance: The Solitary soldier monuments are meant to reflect ANY confederate. -Many have the same characteristics: Wide Brimmed Hat, Canteen, Bedroll, rifle etc-So common it is not meant to inflict deep thought or emotion. Instead, it is force the viewer to confront the causes that animated the average Confederate solider. It is meant to display the widespread involvement.-These monuments create a “scar” of the Old South in an otherwise “Northernized” landscape. -These monuments were constructed by hundereds of independent, local organizations all over the south. Adding to the “Confederate” organization, based at the small levels of government.