That burden has been met a dozen times over. It was first used by armies that if they prevailed would have enshrined slavery in the South indefinitely - they told us the fight was about slavery.
You have documentation that the South would have "enshrined" slavery in the South indefinitely.
The flag was resurrected out of obscurity in the 1940s as a banner under which defenders of Jim Crow rallied. That is the context in which it was raised atop the SC state house in 1961, etc...................... If you were white and flew that banner during the civil rights battles, you might was well have carried a sign, "Keep My Town White" or "I stand with George Wallace" or "Segregation Now, Segregation Forever."
Somewhat correct but not entirely. No one here that I have seen has supported Jim Crow laws. Though Jim Crow laws in one form or another existed in the South over 30 states had Jim Crow laws on the books, many as recently as the 40s and some later.
Here is where history takes a twist and turn and becomes a bit murky. If you are Southern and about 40 or older and if you grew up in the South you well understand Southern culture. You may have been educated in it as many of us were. If so you are aware of Southern resistance to the continual "encouragement" from the north in manners great and small. To this day it continues. The animosity was there long before the War Between the States.
As you may be well aware Southern people in general identify with State and region before nation. Certainly in international matters Southerners are hugely nationalistic and always among the first to fight and always in greater percentages. Other than that Southern people are fiercely loyal to their state and the Southland. Push them and they will push back. Actually that is how the War Between the States began.
In the 60s many people beyond the South pointed fingers and demanded "those backward rednecks" change their ways - WHILE, many, many states up north had not changed and made no attempt to change. Dixie responded by telling everyone else to kiss it. The battle flag came out again. Yes, African-Americans were adversely affected. It was a story that has
to this day, repeated itself. For the most part it was not about holding black people back as it was a reaction to finger pointing Yankees who had hardly set an example; who know very little about their own history and slavery and racism. And don't want to know.
Northern ignorance and Southern pride and repeated the dance once again recently in South Carolina.
That is a very brief response. Entire books have been written explaining it. Truly you'd have to get deep in the shed with early colonial history to have a more complete perspective. The north and Dixie really were two separate countries united under one flag before the War Between the States. The people, their ancestory, the heritage, their colonial experience, even their accents were different. All that and so much more play a part.
The South never authorized the use of the battle flag by anyone. There is no one to authorize it. No ownership. It can back out because the South was once again being set upon by the north, who didn't have any call to be up on a pedestal finger pointing. Many in the South, as you well know, see even the recent actions as an attack of sorts on the Southland. Some grab the battle flag and say "Forget, hell!"
