A little history on the Confederate flag
By Staff Reports
Published in News on June 28, 2015 1:50 AM
What is commonly considered to be the Confederate flag is actually just one version used by the South during the Civil War.
The familiar Stars and Bars that has caused so much controversy over the years was only used as a battle flag. It was designed by William Porcher Miles, a native of South Carolina.
Miles chaired the committee that decided what should be the flag and seal of the Confederate States of America. He called for something radically different from the United States flag, but not everyone living in secessionist states wanted that.
So two flags were created.
The one that is most often thought of is the battle flag, with a red background emblazoned with a blue "X" studded with stars.
The flag that actually represented the entirety of the Confederacy had a background of three horizontal stripes of equal height, alternating red and white, with a blue square two-thirds the height of the flag as the canton, or upper left corner. Inside the canton were white five-pointed stars of equal size, arranged in a circle.
When Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as president of the Confederate States on March 4, 1861, the latter flag was flown.
But regardless of what is historically accurate, the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia -- the Stars and Bars -- is what eventually came to be considered the Southern flag. It became a symbol of racism and white supremacy after it was appropriated by the Ku Klux Klan in the years following he war.
The Klan is a group that has existed since the late 1800s and has violently enforced its beliefs of white supremacy.