Truth & the Confederate flag

So it turns out that the ACC -- the once-upon-a-time Tobacco Road conference that now stretches from Miami to Boston -- has ditched Myrtle Beach for its 2010 baseball tournament because of the Confederate flag that still flies on the Statehouse grounds. 

Let's be realistic up front. Nobody cares about the ACC baseball tournament. As big league college sports goes, this is about as small as it gets. And let's be clear: South Carolina's fringe passion for the "heritage" of a Confederate flag that didn't fly above its Statehouse until 1963 is about as dumb as a box of rocks. 

But here's the part of this story you wouldn't get if you were just dropping in from another part of the country, South Carolina is an equal opportunity state when it comes to stupid politicians of any race. We didn't suddenly invent idiot politicos like Mark Sanford and Andre Bauer. They're a tradition.

Here's the short version of our flag story: About 100 years after the Civil War began here, dumb-ass white men in our State Legislature voted to raise a Confederate battle flag above our Statehouse, ostensibly as a centennial observance. But the real purpose, stated or otherwise, was obvious: South Carolina's white power structure was protesting the Civil Rights movement. 

That flag of defiance and protest stayed up -- until the state's black politicians forced its removal onto the legistative agenda in the 1990s. Flag backers declared it was "Heritage Not Hate" that explained their passionate support for the flag of a hostile nation flying above our seat of government, but never mind that: Hate was always part of the equation for many Confederate flag-flyers, and no amount of self-righteous denial was ever satisfactory. 

In 1998, South Carolina elected a Democrat, Jim Hodges, as its governor. Considering the fact that South Carolina is an absurdly Republican state (how else can you explain Andre Bauer as lieutenant governor and Jim DeMint as a U.S. Senator?) with Republicans solidly in charge of both the House and Senate, Hodges' victory should have been viewed by Democrats as a gift from God. This, of course, never occurred to any of them.. 

After taking office, Hodges approached the state's black legislative leadership with a deal to remove the Confederate flag from atop the Statehouse. Hodges proposed to attract the needed Republican votes by placing the flag at the Wade Hampton memorial on the Statehouse grounds, and he asked the Black Legislative Caucus to support his compromise. 

For those of you who've never walked the Statehouse grounds, the memorial to Wade Hampton (a Civil War general who became a Reconstruction terrorist and later the state's populist governor) is located on a pedestrian mall between the neo-classical Statehouse and some 20th century legislative office buildings. It isn't hidden, but on the other hand, it isn't  visible from a public street unless you're really, really looking for it. 

Moving the flag to the Wade Hampton memorial was absolutely a best-case scenario for the "take-down-the-flag" coalition, which happened to include multiple white politicians, including some Republicans who quietly balanced membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans with the knowledge that flying the flag into the 21st century was an utterly backwards embarrassment. Those GOP moderates were sure to catch Hell for supporting a move to Wade Hampton, but they were likely to do it under the cover provided by Hodges' leadership. 

Only there was one problem. Sen. Darrelll Jackson. Jackson, one of the state's top black political leaders at the time (he lost some of his significance when he hired himself out as a Hillary supporter at $15,000 a month in 2008), wanted the flag moved off the Statehouse grounds entirely -- even though there was no possible way that this could ever happen with Republicans controlling the Legislature. Hodges' staff cajoled, but Jackson and his allies stood firm. 

Consequently, Hodges basically ceded control of the move-the-flag agenda to the Statehouse, where Republicans who would have likely backed the Wade Hampton option instead proposed taking the flag to the Confederate Soldiers Memorial. And as anyone who has ever driven past the Statehouse on Gervais Street will tell you, the Confederate Soldiers Memorial puts that goddamn ante bellum eyesore right in your face whenever you're going about your business downtown. 

In the end, Democrats (both black and white) backed the Gervais option, simultaneously ending and perpetuating the flag controversy down to today... and the ACC baseball tournament decision. 

This post isn't intended to defend the Confederate flag. Nor am I trying to suggest that black South Carolinians have no reason to distrust whites or push for matters of principle. They've got good reason to be suspicious. 

But for the NAACP and black political leaders to act as if there were no middle path between the position of sovereignty atop the Statehouse dome and the position of prominence on Gervais Street is nothing but Grade-A bullshit. Gov. Hodges gift-wrapped a better solution for them, but our pandering, dumb-ass black leadership fumbled the opportunity to settle this in 1999-2000, thereby giving our dumb-ass white leadership the opportunity to pander to THEIR base and turn this into a perpetually divisive issue. 

The politics of race in South Carolina reward both ends of this supremely stupid balance of ignorance, while punishing anyone who steps up and calls it what it is. As a 15-year citizen of this state, I'm sick and tired of this stupid status quo.

Comments

[Michael Rodgers]

Dan,

Thanks for this post. I recommend to all who are interested in this issue a wonderful book about it, Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys by K. Michael Prince.

On pages 218-219, here's part of the story you're talking about in your post.
http://tinyurl.com/rallyroundwadehampton

• "The governor's [Hodges'] plan would have removed the flag from the dome and replaced it with a square ANV [(Confederate) Army of Northern Virginia -- Gen. Robert E. Lee's army] flag at the Wade Hampton Monument (erected in 1906). His proposal also incorporated those parts of the 1994 Heritage Act protecting Confederate monuments and street names around the state -- and made Confederate Memroial Day and Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday state holidays."
• "[Sen. Glenn F.] McConnell called the governor's proposed site 'down in the gully.'"
• "'Dead on arrival,' Senator Jackson declared -- and the NAACP agreed."

For me, the solution is H-3588, a wonderful bill that should make everyone happy. It completes the compromise with clarity. How do we get it passed?
http://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess117_2007-2008/bills/3588.htm

Unfortunately, in 2000, the legislation had a 2/3 hurdle put on it -- The laws cannot be changed without a 2/3 vote. However, this is merely procedural -- a normal 1/2 vote can remove the 2/3 hurdle, and then a normal 1/2 vote can change the law.

Perhaps a statewide referendum would be good, but I don't know how to make it binding. I suggest the following:

Which flag would you rather fly out in front of the State House, from the flagpole in the area adjacent to the Confederate Soldier Monument?
(a) Our State Flag of South Carolina
(b) The Confederate Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia

Perhaps we can get the Winthrop/ETV poll people to ask that question in their next poll. Then we can go from there.

It's certainly time for we the people of this state to solve this problem.

Regards,

Michael Rodgers

[Andre Pope]

I am aware that this is not what your post is about but your statement "Nobody cares about the ACC baseball tournament," is off base. The people in Myrtle Beach care(d) about the tournament. It was a way to help replace the dollars lost due to our great political leaders push out of bike week.

[Dan]

Andre, you're absolutely right. This is what comes of writing after a night at a bar. Of course many people care about the ACC baseball tournament. I wildly overstated that point.

Michael, I haven't kept up with the flag issue, because like so many of us I figured the best thing we could do after all that controversy would be to put it aside and get on to other things.

My disgust that we squandered the opportunity to put this behind us in 2000 is what animated this post. I guess I'm still angry about it.

But as a practical matter, I don't think there's going to be another opportunity to remove the flag for another generation. Republicans can't lead on it, and the knowledge of how the black leadership fumbled this in 1999-2000 makes it really difficult for anyone to build a case for revisiting it now.

The NAACP is a significant organization, but I don't think it has the clout to force this onto the agenda. It can punish the state in little ways, but that's all.

So 20 years from now, someone will say, "You know, we've got plenty of memorials here honoring the Confederacy and all those politicians from 30 years ago are gone. Let's just take that flag down already." And everyone will say "Sure." Because 20 years from now, that flag over Gervais Street is going to look pretty silly.

[Paul]

I have the Stars and Bars on my arm - so I never did need it flying above the state capital. My flag honors the memory of the mass of Southerners (anonymous in a lot of cases) who fought fot that "lost cause". I abhor slavery on moral grounds. That being said, I still have a genetic link to my Graet Great Grand Father who fought under that flag.

[Dan]

Yep. People should fly whatever flags they please on their own property and wear whatever tattoos have meaning to them. But putting it on the Statehouse to protest the Civil Rights movement was dumb (and mean), and making it a test case about "heritage" as if there was nothing else legitimately involved was dumb, and refusing to compromise and put it at Wade Hampton was dumb. Bi-partisan, multi-racial idiocy.

Dumb, dumb, dumb. You can be proud of the flag on your arm, but I'm not proud of the series of pigheaded flag follies that brought our state to this pointless point.