Welcome to Crackertown (formerly Richmond, Virginia)!
Brooks Simpson and Kevin Levin each have posts up this beautiful Sunday on the Virginia Flaggers’ project to put up a big Confederate Battle Flag on I-95, south of Richmond. Both essays are worth your time, and question whether the Flaggers have over-reached in this latest effort. Contra Brooks and Kevin, though, I think the Virginia Flaggers are doing exactly the opposite, making a strategic withdrawal into a well-trodden, clichéd effort that effectively cedes their self-promoted role as leaders in the Confederate Heritage™ movement. Going forward, there will be little reason to view the Virginia Flaggers as much different from any other Confederate heritage group, either in their tactics or their ability to influence broader public opinion.
The I-95 flag project is tacit acknowledgement that the Virginia Flaggers’ two central causes, the Confederate Memorial Chapel in Richmond and the display of flags on city-owned property in Lexington, are not going to have favorable resolutions in the foreseeable future. In Lexington, there were two avenues of challenge, (1) litigation in federal court and (2) electing a new city administration more amenable to the Flaggers’ wishes. As of now, though, the lawsuit is effectively on life support, having been rejected by both district and appeals courts, and back in November the mayor of Lexington was re-elected with a larger share of the vote than she got before. The lease on the chapel comes up for renewal in 2015, but unless I badly misread human nature, the museum administrators who’ve been putting up with years of nasty e-mails, ridicule and name-calling are not going to be inclined to be generous when it’s time to re-negotiate a lease where (as in 2010) they hold all the cards. People just don’t usually react that way.
(Confederate Heritage folks are very proud of their defiance and steadfast resolution in the face of adversity, but never seem to realize that trait exists in others, including those who disagree with them. It was true in 1861 and it’s true today.)
The I-95 project isn’t over-reach, but quite the opposite — it’s grabbing the low-hanging fruit. It’s confirmation that, for all their efforts to promote themselves as being in the vanguard of “restoring the honor” of Confederate veterans, the Virginia Flaggers are no more innovative or successful than a half-dozen SCV camps that have completed (or are working on) similar highway flag projects, from Florida to Texas. The I-95 project doesn’t challenge any institutional or powerful interests. It doesn’t require a successful challenge to authority or overturning any rule or regulation or city ordinance, and doesn’t require winning widespread public support. It doesn’t require voting an elected official out of office, or getting a museum board to fire a director you don’t like. You don’t have to file a lawsuit. There are no great legal, administrative or public opinion obstacles to be overcome if your goal is limited to putting up a big-ass flag on private property — even in Lexington. The I-95 project just requires a relatively small amount of money and some willing supporters, both of which are easily obtained. It’s an easy and highly-visible accomplishment that, among the Flaggers’ supporters, will divert attention away from the resources invested in two high-profile disputes that have consumed thousands of volunteer hours and dollars, and have precious little to show for it – nor are ever likely to.
Brooks is exactly right when he writes that the Virginia Flaggers’
Just so. A giant, automobile-dealership-style Confederate Battle Flag out on the freeway does nothing to “educate” the public about the honor of the Confederate veteran, or any of the other things the Flaggers frequently claim their activities do, one-on-one with the public. The I-95 flag will not change the way visitors to Richmond view that emblem, or encourage people who are now indifferent or hostile to the Flaggers’ view of history to become more sympathetic to it. It will simply reinforce what people already believe about that symbol.
This is not about education or encouraging a dialogue about history; it is not about what Susan Hathaway once referred to as “civil discourse and education.” In this project, the Flaggers have tossed aside such high-minded goals in favor of simply marking their territory, as surely as a dog pissing on the curb. Of all the historic flags associated with the Confederacy and Virginia (e.g., that of the Commonwealth, or the First National), the Virginia Flaggers have chosen the one they know to carry the most ugly historical baggage, the one irrevocably associated over the last three generations with segregation, bigotry, and white nationalism. There are a lot more folks alive today who remember this, than remember this. The I-95 flag in Richmond carries the same meaning and intent that all the other highway flags do – you’re entering unreconstructed territory. For some, that will be a point of Southron Pride. For many others, it will have a much more concrete meaning.
Welcome to Crackertown.
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Dead Confederates, A Civil War Era Blog 
*applause
I think you have hit the nail on the head Andy. I chose not to write about Flag raising in depth, aside from one post, because I am working on other projects. But when I heard about the flag raising along I-95 outside of Richmond, I immediate thought about the flag along side I-75 in my hometown, Ringgold. A local SCV chapter raised the flag not long after the Georgia Legislature took the CBF off of the state flag. An obvious act of defiance, much like the flaggers’ latest project, as you pointed out. I think I might draw some comparisons between the I-95 flags and the flags in my hometown in a future post.
Comment deleted. Bless your heart, you keep forgetting.
— AH
It’ll be nothing more than a huge announcement to the world that the people who put up the big giant Confederate flag support racism, intolerance, and ignorance. Welcome to Crackertown is highly appropriate.
Gonna have to call you on this one, Mr. Dick. Please share here with my good friend Andy and all of us where the Virginia Flaggers support any of what you claim.
Billy, if you can’t figure it out there is no point in explaining the obvious to you. I’m sorry you willingly ignore reality in favor of fantasy. That flag is the symbol of racism and oppression and not a damned thing you say will ever change that.
I’m sure all these white people were just celebrating MLK Day in 1960 with their banners and flags. http://www.africanafrican.com/ebay/segregationn.jpg
Mr. Bearden, Your correct on you request for Mr. Dick to prove his assumptions. However I have a feeling that Mr. Dick’s effort to prove his assumptions will only show his racism, intolerance, and most definitely his ignorance.
Hi Andy, how ya doin ?
Sure is a lot of commotion over a flag, ain’t it ? You guys are killin me !
keep up the good work, every time y’all gripe or snivel about the CBF going up and blog about it you are getting the word out !
Heck we ain’t gonna have to stand by the inner state and explain who, what, when, where, or why. At the rate the news folks and bloggers are goin everyone is gonna know !
Hey I’m makin some commemorative ribbons for the occasion, Ya want me to send you one ?
And if yer ever in the neighborhood swing on by the trailer park and gimme a visit.
Dave Tatum.
You know as well as I do that the Virginia Flaggers want the attention. If not all of it is positive, that goes with the territory.
Nobody loves attention more than blogging hypocrites such as yourself. Thanks for the daily postings of your ignorance let alone bigotry!
You have a nice day, Michael.
In my home town of Nashville, not only did we get the humongous CBF right by I-65, but the homeowner went one better by adding a huge fiberglass equestrian statue of N. B. Forrest. Unfortunately, the sculptor’s near-total lack of talent resulted in a depiction which besides bearing precious little resemblance to the original (or to human/equine anatomy) left both Nathan and his mount with expressions that make them appear to have been simultaneously and violently goosed.
But I guess it’s the thought that counts. As well as the choice of subjects.
The “sculptor” (I use that term only because it’s technically correct was the late Jack Kershaw, unrepentant segregationist and founder of the white nationalist League of the South.
As you say, it’s the thought that counts.