Gettysburg group plans for Confederate Flag Day
Some may see the Confederate Flag as a symbol of hate, but the Sons of Confederate Veterans believe celebrating it can help shed light on a misrepresented past, said Gary Casteel, Gettysburg commander for the nationwide group.
An inaugural Confederate Flag Day, scheduled for March 5, will try to break down the negative stigma connected to the southern symbol. Casteel hopes Sons of Confederate Veterans groups around the country will participate.
"The Confederate flag is nothing more than a piece of cloth that represented a nation of its day, that's it," he said. "We hope to enlighten those who attend. If they're not aware of the flag and its history and what it accomplished, we can teach them."
Sons of Confederate Veterans will host a free Confederate Flag Day event in Gettysburg from 2 to 4 p.m., but members have not yet determined a location for the celebration, Casteel said.
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Whether the flag is worth celebrating, though, depends on how you view its history.
Members of Sons of Confederate Veterans view the flag as a representation of a proud southern heritage. The group believes the soldiers who fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War "personified the best qualities of America" in their fight for "rights guaranteed by the Constitution," according to the organization's website.
Casteel believes events like Confederate Flag Day help honor an often-unappreciated part of America's past. But he understands not everyone feels the same way.
"You just don't know how everyone will react, but I will say, if there were people who are angry or voice their displeasure, it's those individuals that need to understand what's occurring and why," he said.
National criticism of the flag grew over the summer after 21-year-old Dylann Roof was accused of shooting nine black people at a South Carolina church in June. Roof appeared in photos holding the Confederate flag, according to news reports.
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After the June shooting, politicians in South Carolina voted to remove the flag from the grounds of the state Capitol, citing it as a symbol of hate and discrimination. National Park Service gift shops, Hanover-area flag manufacturer Quinn Flags and national retailers like Sears, Walmart and Amazon all discontinued the sale of the flag. The Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg also banned the display of the flag at re-enactment events as part of a policy against hate speech and racism.
These groups and others have argued that the flag's modern-day association with racism outweighs any connections with southern pride.
Scott Hancock, an associate professor of history and Africana studies at Gettysburg College, is among the people who believe the history cited by Confederate flag enthusiasts like Casteel is a revised, skewed version, he said.
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"I think the Sons of Confederate Veterans that fly flags are making a statement about what they think that flag represents and what the Confederacy in the Civil War was about," Hancock said. "I think there's another perspective to that, which is based on far better history and is more accurate."
The Confederacy was fighting to save their way of life, he said. That included slavery, which was interwoven with Southern existence, he said.
To separate this connection with slavery from modern-day interpretations of the flag's meaning is to completely ignore a crucial part of its history, said Rita Smith-Wade-El, vice president of the Lancaster chapter of the NAACP. Smith-Wade-El is also a professor at Millersville University, specializing in racism, diversity and African American studies.
"The trouble is we are stuck with a flag that sought to uphold the right to own other people," she said. "I understand they may think it represents this wonderful culture, but the culture they are talking about rebuilding was a plantation culture. You didn't have a plantation without slavery."
Smith-Wade-El made note that the name of the group, Sons of Confederate Veterans, is evidence of a form of Confederate nationalism, a perspective in which a person identifies with Southern states.
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"We are one country," Smith-Wade-El said. "I don't understand a nationalism for part of the country."
Hancock has personally theorized that the Confederate flag's appeal is really a desire for a deeper connection with a unique identity in a world that has become increasingly uniform.
"Everyone wants some kind of rootedness," he said. "There are parts of that Southern culture that are appealing. I think the problem for me is that it's reclaiming that with a symbol or falsified collective history that allows us to ignore a lot of injustice."
Casteel disagrees. His group, he said, shines a light on a part of history few have enough opportunity to learn about in school. Growing up in West Virginia, he could trace his heritage to family members who fought on both sides of the war, he said. But in school, he was only taught about the Union.
"You'll never change history. It'll always be there to haunt you," he said. "We all have skeletons in our closet, but if we can accept that and move on, it'll allow yourself to become more aware and educated by looking into what the issues were."
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He hopes Confederate Flag Day will encourage more people to engage with the history of the Confederacy and maybe even join the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The Gettysburg branch, which hosts about 50 members, meets once a month and assists in community projects like clean-ups at Gettysburg National Military Park, food drives and performing home repairs for locals in-need.
The group offers full memberships to men who can trace their heritage back to a Confederate soldier, as well as association memberships for those who might not have Confederate ancestors but are still interested in learning about history, he said.
Smith-Wade-El hopes the group and its Confederate Flag Day will be largely ignored, she said.
Hancock, on the other hand, plans to protest the event with his own homemade sign if he is not teaching a course that day, he said.
"I'm just tired of seeing it everywhere," Hancock said of the rebel banner. "I think they should have the right to do it. The issue isn't trying to deny them the right; it's can we speak back to that. I'll be out there."