US Marines Ban Confederate Flags in all public places

US Marines Ban Confederate Flags in all public places. The flag has been seen as the symbol of racism

After the death of George Floyd, the US Marines ban all confederate flags and symbols. The flag symbolizes centuries of slavery, racism and oppression towards African Americans.

From 1860–61, 11 slave-holding states seceded from the US, forming the Confederate States of America, or the Confederacy, triggering the Civil War. In 1861, the Confederacy adopted its first of three national flags, known as the Stars and Bars. The Stars and Bars had a blue canton, or upper corner, with white stars, symbolizing the seceded states, and red and white stripes.

Its similarity to the US flag made it unpopular with some Confederates. One, named William Porcher Miles, had suggested an alternative design to the Confederate Congress, a red flag with two thick blue diagonal lines and 13 white stars, standing for the 11 seceded states plus Kentucky and Missouri. This design became what we know as the Confederate flag today.

The resemblance of the Stars and Bars to the US flag led to confusion at the 1861 Battle of Bull Run, one of the first major battles of the Civil War. Afterward, Confederate General Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard adopted Miles’s flag as a battle flag for his troops.

In 1863, the Confederate States adopted a new national flag, with the battle flag in the upper corner and the rest of the flag in white. Two years later, a vertical red stripe was added to the Confederate national flag, but this flag was short lived, as the Confederacy surrendered only a month later.

Following the end of the Civil War, Confederate veteran groups used the battle flag in memorials to fallen soldiers. In 1894, the state of Mississippi adopted a flag using the Confederate battle flag as its canton, with blue, white, and red horizontal stripes.

The Confederate flag began to be used more prominently in the 1940s. In 1948, student groups flew the Confederate flag at the Southern States Rights Party (also known as the “Dixiecrat” party) convention. The Dixiecrats opposed civil rights measures in the Democratic Party’s platform. The United Daughters of the Confederacy issued a statement at the time opposing use of the flag “in certain demonstrations of college groups and some political groups.”

Many in the South consider the Confederate flag a symbol of regional pride, though others associate the flag with racism. As the Anti-Defamation League notes: “While a number of non-extremists still use the flag as a symbol of Southern heritage or pride, there is growing recognition, especially outside the South, that the symbol is offensive to many Americans.” Dictionary.com

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