|
EPISODE 1.24 -
April 29, 2005
Should the Stars be Barred?
Guest: John Coski
John M. Coski of the Museum of the Confederacy talks about the subject of his book, The Confederate Battle Flag: America's Most Embattled Emblem.
Blake's Review:
Arguably the finest episode of Season 1 so far!
This is a really interesting interview with John Coski dealing with the history of Confederate flags and the role they played in the Civil War and beyond. Coski's expertise and studies in this field are immediately apparent and his views and arguments are spot on. It's interesting that William C. Davis mentions Coski's work in an earlier episode which prompts Gerry to write his name down and say he must check out his book on the Confederate battle flag. Gerry must have been very impressed because here Coski is just two months later on the show.
The conversation begins with the usual chat about Coski's life and education. Coski ends up at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond in 1988 and there are the origins of how his study of the Confederate flag begins. The Museum has over 550 Confederate wartime flags (as of 2005 when this was recorded) and spends a lot of money and time preserving them. Coski says that visitors and the media really began in the early 90s to ask hard questions about why the Confederate flag needed to be displayed on state capitals and on government buildings or state flags. "We decided the greatest service we could render, rather than simply throwing yet more opinions into the cacophony of opinions, is to present historical background and research and perspective. How did it come to have so many diverse, conflicting meanings? What are the historical origins of those? Why is it that so many different people have so many different conflicting opinions about the flag?"
From here Coski discusses the confusion many people have about defining what a Confederate flag really is. To the average person the Stars and Bars St. Andrews Cross is the Confederate flag. In reality, that is simply the Confederate naval flag technically. The actual official Confederate flags are often unrecognizable to people unfamiliar with the war and history. But, generally, when people refer to the Confederate flag, they mean the popular Stars and Bars design we see most often.
He then talks about the very strong emotional and psychological attachment that soldiers, on both sides, placed on their battle flags. In the case of southerners, these flags came to represent a bond with those who fought and died protecting or following the flags. When the war ended the flags were hidden away and preserved when possible as war mementos and later use in commemorations and funerals. Generally, the former Confederates did not display the flags for many years following the war.
Coski states that the Confederate flags remained largely hidden away until the reconciliation of the 1890s in which North and South began to heal old wounds in the wake of the Spanish-American War. The reasons for this reconciliation are complex and Coski mentions David Blight's Race and Reunion as being a great book to learn more about those issues. They then skip ahead further in time to the post-WW2 era where southern fraternities and colleges begin to adopt the Confederate flag for various reasons, from simply celebrating being "southern" to using them as props for football games. They talk about UVA travelling north to play Penn State and bringing thousands of Confederate flags with them for the "third invasion" of the Union. "By this point the flag had a campus presence and had begun to establish one of its meanings today, as a kind of shorthand, immediately recognizable, logo of 'The South.' And the same was true in World War Two where southern-born servicemen wanted to say, 'I'm American but I'm also a southerner' with the battle flags. And I think it was through these mediums that it started entering the popular culture. But it also, at the same time, started entering the political culture." For the south, it became a way to object and resist the efforts of desegregation which began in the post-WW2 era as well (and was used by the Dixiecrats which, Coski noted, were mostly youthful college students across the south). "That's the way they interpreted that symbol, as opposition to federal interference."
The interview continues to be really interesting as they then cut to the chase and discuss whether people should, or shouldn't, be offended by the Confederate flag. Here Coski gives a really good answer. Gerry asks whether Coski is being neutral on a moral issue that he needs to take a stand on. Coski replies, "I think that almost everyone who is involved in this issue over the years has a lot of opinions without a lot of perspective. I'm following the evidence. I am not staking out a neutral position, and wouldn't, if the evidence led inexorably and definitively to one viewpoint or the other. The moral issue here is, of course, whether or not this is a symbol of racism or a symbol of heritage. This issue is often framed as a dichotomy. But the evidence is not unambiguous and it also reflects my personal proclivity about the study of history and going where the evidence takes me and here specifically it is a very complex issue, it isn't black or white. It is a moral issue perhaps but is not a moral issue that can be discussed safely and accurately in dichotomous right or wrong, black and white terms. And to do so is wrong, and in a sense, I suppose, immoral. And it certainly is unproductive most importantly. We tend to want to discuss this in terms of heritage or hate, clearly both are accurate.... if we choose one over the other we are oversimplifying what it a very complex history. We are making something clear which, in reality, is ambiguous and I think that's wrong."
It is a fascinating discussion which Coski continues to make more interesting with very solid and well argued answers again and again. There are too many great quotes here to write them all. Towards the end they discuss a recent court case talking about whether the Confederate flag can be worn in schools. One of the lawyers urged everyone to recognize the flag has multiple meanings and that the issue comes down to those issues which brought on the Civil War of minority and majority rights. "Do we let a majority fly a flag that may offend a minority, or do we let a minority's sensitivities define what the majority can do? Either solution has obvious problems." They have a great talk about symbolism and the power of symbols. Coski also states that many people display prejudice against those flying the flags because they assume the person doing so is prejudice. "If I have a Confederate flag on my shirt and you think it is a racist symbol, I should recognize that you have a reason, and a very good historically grounded reason, for viewing it as a racist symbol. Because, by God, it has been used as a racist symbol. But please don't do me the disservice of automatically assuming that I am racist because that's your opinion. It's not only counterproductive, it's not very polite, or charitable. And I think why this debate is so divisive is that we tend to polarize things that don't need to be polarized and are at times very uncharitable towards each other and we think the worst of each other's motives."
No doubt the most intellectually interesting episode of Season 1. I am going to have to read Coski's book for sure!
_________________ Gen. Blake Strickler
Confederate General-in-Chief
El Presidente 2010 - 2012
|
ACWGC 
ACWGC Memorial
CSA HQ
VMI
Join CSA
Union HQ
Join Union 
Login
FAQ
Search
Members
