That’s what U.S. history professor Spencer Crew argued recently at a talk titled “The Confederate Flag and the Legacy of Slavery.”
“I think you need to push back,” Crew said when an audience member asked about the view that the Confederate flag represents an important part of history that should not be diminished.
Even though proponents of the Confederate flag claim it is a symbol of Southern pride, history and heritage, Crew said the flag emanates from Southern states’ efforts to maintain African slavery on American soil and therefore represents a “slap in the face” to African-Americans.
His comments come at a time of heightened controversy over the Confederate flag that ensued in the wake of mass murder at a South Carolina church this past June in which a 21-year-old White supremacist — seen holding a Confederate flag in various photographs — allegedly shot and killed nine Black parishioners.
The South Carolina Legislature — acting in response to public outrage over the continued flying of the Confederate flag on the South Carolina Statehouse grounds — ordered the flag removed in the wake of the church killing.
Crew said those series of events represented a shift in perception of the hurt that the Confederate flag continues to cause.
