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Robert M. Sarwark

Flagging Interest

The Original, Hot Pink Confederate Battle flag

6/21/2017

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It’s amazing how one interesting tidbit of information can lead to another...and another, and another. Whether hopping through Wikipedia article links or hunting down hard copies of bibliographic citations, the thrill of discovery, of “connecting the dots,” is the fuel to the fire of any research, academic or otherwise.

I found myself fueling one such fire recently. While reading about the controversial removal of multiple statues of Confederate war heroes in New Orleans, I realized that I had no idea who one of these soon-to-be dememorialized men was: Brigadier General P.G.T. Beauregard. But hey, I then thought, isn’t that surname also the middle name of one Jefferson “Jeff” Beauregard Sessions, current (and perhaps soon-to-be former) Attorney General of the United States?

I pulled up P.G.T. Beauregard’s Wikipedia page to learn that he was a native French-speaking Louisianan who had led Rebel troops to capture Fort Sumter (South Carolina) from Union control, effectively setting off the Civil War in 1861. (At this point I was a little ashamed of my ignorance of my own country’s history.) Beauregard went on to play a pivotal role throughout the conflict and afterwards returned to Louisiana to work as a railroad and state lottery executive.

When scrolling through this extensively sourced page, an extremely odd image caught my eye about halfway down: a version of the Confederate battle flag...with a hot pink field instead of its usual blood red. This had to be a joke by some clever internet troll, right? Maybe a strategic “up yours” to the right-wing by rabble rousers from the LGBTQ community in advance of Pride Month?

Nope!

As it turns out, early in the Civil War General Beauregard sought to solve the problem of the CSA’s national “Stars and Bars” flag being constantly confused with the stars and stripes of the Union flag amidst the chaos of the battlefield. He proposed a distinct banner for warfare, the design of which we are familiar with to this day as the favorite symbol of back-country yokels, racist assholes, and revisionist historians. However, since materials were scarce at the time of design, the very first CSA battle flags were made with fabrics donated by several female associates of the General, resulting in a color scheme that was not exactly what we think of when we think of Johnny Reb.
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Yep, there it is.
This all still seemed too weird to be true, so I checked one of the sources of this section of the article in the notes. I then checked the online catalog of my local public library to see if they had this source, a book by T. Harry Williams, biographer of Beauregard. Here’s what he has to say about this issue:

"With War Department approval of his idea [for a new battle flag], Beauregard eagerly proceeded to get his first flags made while the army was in winter quarters. They were manufactured in the best tradition of Southern romance. At the time the three Cary girls [basically Confederate groupies] were on one of their periodic visits to camp. It was decided that they would contribute material from their dresses to make flags[...]. Material for additional flags would be procured from other ladies. Because of the origin of the silk in the first emblems, the backgrounds were more of a feminine pink than a martial red" (109-110; italics mine).

In the footnotes, besides letters in the Archives at the Library of Congress, the sources of this claim are cited as including “a multitude of letters on the origin of the battle flag in the Beauregard Papers (Confederate Hall, New Orleans) and in the Confederate Flag Correspondence (Confederate Museum, Richmond).” Seems legit.

That the earliest iteration of the rebel banner looks to modern eyes like it was made by a middle-school girl out of Starbursts may come as a shock to Yankees and Southerners alike. But as far as I can tell this odd little bit of flag history is true.


Sources:

Ward, Drew. "The official design of the Confederate Battle Flag per General PGT Beauregard's original design." Wikimedia Commons, 2015. Online:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._G._T._Beauregard#/media/File:Confederate_Battle_Flag_%28official_design%29.png. Accessed 19 June 2017.

Williams, T. Harry. P.G.T. Beauregard: Napoleon in Gray. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1954.
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Fun with Flags

6/14/2017

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When my girlfriend’s mom found out that I had started a blog about flags, she thought it was really, really funny. You see, on The Big Bang Theory, one of her favorite shows, a recurring bit is that one of the main characters, Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons), a brilliant scientist with a comically flat affect, hosts a YouTube series on this very topic. It’s called “Fun with Flags.”

In the clip linked above, at first Penny (Kaley Cuoco), Sheldon's neighbor and show guest, tries to help Sheldon improve his robotic presentation style. As usual, he completely misinterprets her perfectly reasonable suggestions, to comic effect. By the end of the scene, Sheldon finally gets to the topic of flags. He bluntly declares that Nebraska’s -- Nebraska being Penny's home state -- “is simply the state’s seal on a field of blue.” He offers no other information and then the scene ends.

The joke, of course, is that Sheldon is into arcane, nerdy things just for the sake of being into them. He’s a weirdo, but an ultimately loveable one. Because he is such a self-serious know-it-all, he makes for a classic sitcom character.

This is all good. I get the joke. At first glance it is pretty esoteric, taking such an active interest in the colorful rectangles of cloth that we put on poles.

But I don't mind. The stigma of geekiness aside, I still think flags are worth learning about and discussing. Looking into the details of the lore and designs of flags and seals as a “shorthand of history,” as vexillology has been called, is a perfectly fine lens with which to better understand the world.

So thanks, Sheldon, for bringing it up. And Happy Flag Day.

P.S. There basically is a real-life version of "Fun with Flags." It's called "Flag Friday" and is hosted by Paul "Barby" Barbato of the YouTube channel Geography Now! Check it out, it's a lot of fun.


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What’s in a Flag? A Brief Introduction to Vexillology

10/14/2015

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This post I wrote about vexillology appeared on the University of Illinois' International and Area Studies blog on September 17, 2015:

http://publish.illinois.edu/iaslibrary/2015/09/17/whats-in-a-flag/
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The Day The Flag Came Down

7/10/2015

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As I was writing yesterday's post to attempt to summarize the many ways Confederate symbolism was still with us in 2015, I had no idea how swiftly South Carolina's State Congress was working to decide the fate of the Confederate battle flag on its capitol grounds. It appears that the unspeakably horrific events of June 17th at the hands of a deranged white supremacist have forced the hearts, minds, and hands of the powers-that-be to reconsider the implications of iconography and symbols inexorably linked to the subjugation of non-white peoples, and particularly of African-Americans. 

And with that, the battle flag of the former Confederate States of America will nevermore be hoisted in an official capacity in the State of South Carolina, the epicenter of both the Civil War and the Old South. 
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The Flags in the News...

7/9/2015

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Arkansas
Georgia
Mississippi
PictureA meme generated by an anonymous commentator and posted to the Internet.
According to The World Encyclopedia of Flags and Heraldry, three American states currently employ or otherwise make reference to the Confederacy in their state flags: Arkansas, Georgia, and Mississippi (Slater and Znamierowski 2007: 196-200). In the case of Georgia, the current flag has been considerably altered (some might say "toned down"), which, like the current state flag of Mississippi, before 2001 included a Confederate battle flag in its canton (top left corner). 

What's worth noting is that the battle flag so fiercely disputed at the current time was never the national flag of the Confederacy (the "Stars and Bars," in the top right position above, was). Regardless, the symbolic resonance that the battle flag has maintained over the past 150 years has indeed morphed into something more complex as white supremacists (oftentimes claiming their general Southern heritage as a motivator) seek to maintain such representation of their beliefs in the midst of an American polity otherwise shifting towards multiculturalism, tolerance of minorities of all kinds, and equal rights for all (a notion represented in the comic strip in the top middle). 

Legislation is currently in session at both state and federal levels and the controversy rages on in public discourse about the appropriate usage of the Confederate battle flag. What's also in debate is how to appropriately reference whatsoever the former Confederate States of America. For example, as some argue, should these divisive symbols be relegated to museums only? Is it acceptable or accurate, as some have argued, to compare the Confederate flag to the national flag of Germany under Nazi rule? (Public display of a swastika or any other symbolism related to the Nazi government of the 1930s and 40s is strictly forbidden in Germany.) 

On June 27th, as seen in the bottom right corner photograph above, one individual took matters into her own hands to 
physically remove the disputed banner from the South Carolina State Capitol. 


As of today, Thursday, July 9th, the bill proposed by Republican South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, approved by the State Senate this past Tuesday July 7th, has now been approved by the House of Representatives. The New York Times reports, "Ms. Haley’s office said that she would sign the bill into law at an event at 4 p.m. on Thursday at the State House. With Ms. Haley’s signature, the clock will begin to tick, and the state will have 24 hours to take down the flag, which will be moved to the Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum, near the Capitol." On the federal level, the issue is no less complex but should yield at least one decision shortly. 

The comic by Ruben Bolling (tomthedancingbug.com) in the top left position above gives some satirical perspective on the politics and history involved. For some more commentary along these lines, here's the Onion's take on the matter. The meme shown above is, of course, an example of the counter argument. 

I'll continue to follow these events as they unfurl (no pun intended) and update this blog as new developments solidify.
 


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Chicago

7/7/2015

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The official flag of the City of Chicago was originally adopted in 1917. It was then amended in 1933 and 1939, when its two additional stars were added, respectively.

The cyan and white bars represent geographical features of the city: the cyan stripes for Lake Michigan and the North Branch of the Chicago River; the top, middle, and bottom white bars for the North, West, and South Sides, respectively.

The four red, six-pointed stars symbolize four of the most historically significant events in the city's history. The first is for the U.S. Army's Fort Dearborn and the massacre of settlers and destruction that took place there in 1812 at the hands of local Native Americans. The second is for the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which wreaked havoc on the city, destroying a large portion of its buildings and infrastructure. The third represents the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, a truly international event and a major milestone in establishing Chicago as a world-class city. (The 2003 best-seller
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson details this extraordinary event.) And the fourth star represents the Century of Progress Exposition of 1933-34, which commemorated Chicago's first one hundred years of existence and further bolstered the effects of the Columbian Exposition forty years earlier. It was speculated that if Chicago had won its bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics (instead of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), that event would have been a prime candidate for a fifth star on the flag.  

Each star's six points represents a unique value, attribute, or historical fact about the city. The first star's points represent transportation, labor, commerce, finance, populousness, and salubrity (a fancy way of saying healthiness). For the second star, the values of religion, education, aesthetics, justice, beneficence, and civic pride are symbolized. The points of the third star stand for the six governments that the territory of Illinois (and what eventually became Chicago) has been ruled by: France (1693), Great Britain (1763), Virginia (1778), Northwest Territory (1798), Indian Territory (1802), and the State of Illinois (1818). The last star's points stand for various mottos, nicknames, and other concepts relating to Chicago: its status as the United States' third largest city; the City seal's Latin motto
Urbs in Horto ("City in a Garden"); the motto "I will"; Chicago as "Great Central Market" to the nation; "Wonder City" in reference to its rapid growth and national economic importance, especially at the turn of the 20th century; and its firmly established reputation as the "Convention City," where businessmen and women from around the nation and the globe often meet.  

Chicago's municipal flag is extremely popular among the city's inhabitants. The cyan bars and red stars can be seen in the form of tattoos, t-shirts, accessories, and beyond, in addition to various sizes of flags. In fact, the design is so beloved that in a survey conducted by the North American Vexillological Association in 2004, it was voted the second most popular American city flag; the number one spot went to Washington, D.C. 

For more information, see:


http://www.chipublib.org/chicago-facts/


http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/The-312/August-2013/Chicago-City-Flag/

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Out with the Old: A Tale of Four Flags

7/1/2015

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1a. Rhodesia, 1968-1980
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2a. South Africa, 1928-1994
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1b. Zimbabwe, 1980-present
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2b. South Africa, 1994-present
As mentioned in a previous post of this blog, the significance of flags has recently come to the fore with the emergence of photos of suspected killer of nine African-American churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, Dylann Storm Roof. As much as his actions were uncategorically despicable, their symbolic resonance calls for further analysis. In one photo, Roof wears a jacket with two patches sewn onto the right breast: those of the former regimes of Rhodesia and South Africa, each ruled - until 1980 for the former and 1994 for the latter - by a white minority and governed with systemic prejudice against non-white inhabitants and particularly black Africans.  

Above are these former flags along with their present-day iterations. Placing them back-t0-back shows the drastic changes in political structure that they underwent, namely from white-minority rule to universal suffrage and an official policy of representative democracy. What may be less obvious, though, are some elements that have been retained from one to the other. 

Most interesting about the transformation from the flag of the former Rhodesia to that of modern-day Zimbabwe is that, despite all of the other changes, the golden Great Zimbabwe Bird remains. The World Encyclopedia of Flags and Heraldry (Slater and Znamierowski 2007: 228) explains, simply, that it represents "the great past of the country." More specifically, since the soapstone artifacts of the ancient site of Great Zimbabwe predate the modern era, it's interesting that both white-minority-ruled (and technically illegal by international consensus since its unilateral declaration of independence from Great Britain in 1965) Rhodesia and black-majority/socialist Zimbabwe have both co-opted the symbol's use in their flags, despite the extreme differences in each administration's politics. 

In the context of Roof's use of the former flag, however, its symbolism as the banner of an inherently racist government is most salient. The coat of arms at its center is based on that of Rhodesia's founder, South African mining magnate Cecil Rhodes, also the namesake of the Rhodes Scholarship Programme that allows international students the opportunity to study at Oxford, Rhodes' alma mater. In his name, mostly Anglo settlers originating in South Africa sought to establish a bastion of white rule in south-central Africa. 

For starters, the red star of socialism clearly distinguishes Zimbabwe's flag from that of Rhodesia. The green, yellow, and red are common among many African flags and traditionally stand for the earth, mineral resources, and the struggle for freedom, respectively. The black represents the vast majority of the nation's citizens.  

But of course South Africa has also wrestled with racial iniquity since its settlement by Dutch Boers ("farmers") in the 17th century. When the British arrived around a century later, the two groups fought vigorously for dominance over this strategic and vast territory that had been populated by various groups of black Africans for centuries, if not millennia. The former South African flag, in currency from 1928 until apartheid was dismantled in 1994, represents that jockeying for power between the descendents of Dutch and British settlers. The orange-white-blue horizontal tricolor of the flag's main body hearkens back to William of Orange, the Dutch nobleman who rebelled against Spain and gained the Netherlands its independence in the 17th century, around the same time that Dutchmen began to colonize South Africa. 

Looking at the old South African flag's central charge, the complexity of history and politics manifests itself in full force: the Union Jack shows the impact of Great Britain, particularly in the case of its former Cape Colony; the central flag is that of the Boers' Orange Free State, which took the orange of William's prinsenvlag for its three horizontal pallets (bars) on a white field, along with a canton (corner) of the alternate Dutch tricolor of red, white, and blue, the very same that remains in currency to this day for the Kingdom of the Netherlands. On the right is the flag of the other independent Boer republic of the late 19th and early 20th centuries - the Transvaal. Its only distinction from the flag of the Netherlands proper is its green field at the hoist (left side), representing the open expanses of the territory's veld. 

When Nelson Mandela won the presidency at the nation's first fully democratic elections of 1994, it was only fitting that a new flag represent such a sea change. Noted for its unique design - which is also wildly popular among South Africans of all walks of life - the pall, or Y-shape, according to flag expert Whitney Smith, "stands for the coming together of many parts and the merging of past and present" (2001: 86). The black, yellow, and green represent Mandela's party, the African National Congress (ANC) while the red, white, and blue stand for the flags of the erstwhile Boer republics mentioned above. 
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HAPPY 40th, Mozambique

6/25/2015

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In honor of Mozambique's 40 years since it gained independence from Portugal (June 25, 1975), here is its present national flag. It was first hoisted in 1983 after the fledgling nation had jointly flown both the flags of Portugal and FRELIMO (the Liberation Front of Mozambique, the leading independence party) in the interim since independence. The above flag is based on FRELIMO's own, used during the struggle for independence against not only Portugal but other independence movements, with the additions of the yellow star, book, hoe, and rifle to the red triangle. 

Of the basic design, the green symbolizes the fertility of Mozambique's land; the white fimbriations (separating lines) for peace; black for the people and continent of Africa; yellow for the nation's mineral wealth; and red for the struggle for independence. 

Where this flag gets particularly interesting is obviously in the red triangle at the hoist (left side): a black rifle - specifically an AK-47 - is crossed with a black hoe before a white open book, all before the yellow star typically associated with the socialism that FRELIMO espouses. Such a confluence of images is clearly a sign of the complex aspirations and concerns of the new nation. The book (education) and the hoe (agriculture) in particular seem almost at odds with the rifle (defense and vigilance), but within the context of a new nation-state forged from the downfall of fascist Portugal and even today at risk of internal conflict, the reasoning behind such multi-layered symbolism becomes clearer. 

While several other nations' flags also depict weaponry of various kinds (Angola, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, etc.), Mozambique's flag has the rare distinction of being the only official national flag that features a firearm. 

For more information:

https://flagspot.net/flags/mz.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Mozambique

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About this blog

6/23/2015

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As the controversy currently comes to a boil about not only the Confederate battle flag on the grounds of the South Carolina State Capitol, but also the use of the defunct flags of both apartheid-era South Africa and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) by suspected murderer Dylann Roof, flags and their meanings are in the news in a big way. 

While oftentimes overlooked as merely abstract representations of political units of varying kinds, flags are in fact highly symbolic and are laden with historical meanings that resonate well into the present. Vexillology is the study of flags and their history, symbolism, and usage. This blog aims to detail and discuss these issues and hopefully shed some light on a topic that has been, at least until recently, fairly underrepresented in public discourse. 


For more information, see the Wikipedia page for vexillology. 

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