The confederate flag – key questions

Following the shootings in Charleston, pictures have been published of the alleged gunman Dylann Roof holding the flag – and a campaign is under way to have it removed from the grounds in the state capital.

Have there been similar debates in the past?

Yes, in 2013 there was a row over proposals to fly the flag outside the Virginia state capital. Its use on car number plates in southern states also attracts regular controversy.

What is the history of the confederate flag?

The confederate flag – also known as the southern cross, the Dixie and the rebel flag – is associated with the army of the southern states in the American civil war in the 1860s.

It was the battle flag of General Robert E Lee’s Northern Virginia army, but only became associated with the wider Confederacy after the war (the flag’s stars represent the number of states in the Confederacy).

The southern states wanted to secede from the rest of the US and stop the abolition of black slavery, an issue that still arouses strong emotions across America.

After the war, it was used to commemorate fallen soldiers, but in the late 1940s was adopted by the segregationist Dixiecrat party, with the racist Ku Klux Klan also proudly flying it. The confederate flag was also adopted by some southern American servicemen during the second world war.

Why is the flag criticised?

Its detractors say it is a symbol of white supremacy, slavery, segregation and a past the US needs to escape from. This is not a new argument: critics made the same point during the black civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

For years, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has led an economic boycott of South Carolina and in 2000 succeeded in having the flag moved from the capitol building. In California, there is a ban on the state government displaying it.

Why is the flag defended?

Some white Americans see it as a symbol of a proud south and say, in the 21st century, it has no racist connotations. It is still used to commemorate the deaths of relatives during the civil war.

Five southern states – Florida, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina and Louisiana – have passed laws banning the desecration of the flag, although this is unenforceable.

It forms part of the flag of Mississippi, the only state to incorporate it following Georgia’s decision to change its emblem in 2003.

What does the wider American public think?

Polling by the Pew Research Centre shows that 10 per cent of Americans have a positive view of the flag, with 30 per cent seeing it in a negative light. Most people – 60 per cent – do not have a positive or negative view.

Those most likely to dislike it are African-Americans, Democrat voters and the well educated.

How has the flag been used in recent popular culture?

The US blues-rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, best known for their song Sweet Home Alabama, have regularly used the flag over the years. But in 2012, their lone surviving original member, Gary Rossington, said they would stop displaying it on stage because it had been “kidnapped” by racists.

In the 1980s US television series the Dukes of Hazard, the confederate flag design graced the roof of the famous General Lee stock car.

It was also used on the cover of the British band Primal Scream’s 1994 album Give Out But Don’t Give Up, which featured black funk pioneer George Clinton as guest vocalist.

Have other flags attracted controversy?

Yes, the UK’s union flag also arouses controversy. It is not popular with nationalists in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

But it is no longer associated with the far right, as it was when the National Front was taking to the streets in the 1970s: the Spice Girls saw to that.

In 2016, New Zealand will hold a referendum to remove the union jack from its national flag because many consider it outdated.

Japan’s rising sun military flag was banned by the victorious allies after the second world war, but was re-adopted in the 1950s: a painful reminder to victims of Japanese aggression, like China and Korea.

When newly independent Macedonia adopted the Vergina sun flag in 1992, Greece objected. The flag was named after a Greek town and Athens protested to the World Intellectual Property Organisation, leading to the flag being changed.