The following documentary about the history and controversy surrounding the Confederate flag in South Carolina was released in 2001. Glad to find this as I am putting my Civil War Memory course together for the spring semester. The documentary does a great job exploring the raising of the flag atop the state capital and the influence of both the Civil Rights Movement and Civil War Centennial. John Coski gets a good deal of air time to discuss the popularity and evolution of the Confederate flag as well as the fact that ordinary Americans utilized it as a symbol of “massive resistance” during the 1950s and 60s. He also does a first-rate job of dismantling the black Confederate narrative at the 27:00 min. mark.
Confederacy Theory
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I really like the 10:50 mark with the two former Governors. Refreshing to see politicians express remorse.
It is dangerous for me to follow your links from twitter. I never return quickly to what I was doing before. Interesting video. John Coski is indeed excellent.
In a southern studies class I designed last year, we looked at constituency letters in the South Carolina Political Collections from the 1990s on the Confederate flag and took a field trip to discuss the monuments at the South Carolina State House. In the fall we looked at the Sims monument as well (in the context of slavery and medicine), but in the spring we focused only on the statue, the flag, and the African American monument. I was quite impressed with the way the students handled it.
I see lots of familiar faces and the same old arguments