More than 150 years after the Civil War, the Confederate flag—a banner featuring a blue saltire (or St. Andrew's cross) outlined in white and studded with 13 stars on a field of red—remains a potent symbol from the struggle between North and South.
But what’s known as the Confederate flag today was never the official flag of the Confederate States of America (CSA), the government formed of Southern states that seceded from the Union in 1861. In fact, it was one of numerous battle flags used by the soldiers who fought for the Confederacy, and was most famously identified with the Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by General Robert E. Lee.
Known as the “Southern Cross,” that battle flag became the de facto symbol of the Confederacy both during the Civil War and after. While supporters celebrate the flag as a symbol of Southern heritage, critics view it as a racist emblem of the Confederacy's fig to uphold slavery, as well as later efforts to enforce segregation and white supremacy.
1861: First Official Flag of the Confederacy Debuts
The first official flag of the Confederate States of America (CSA) debuts in 1861. Known as the “Stars and Bars,” it features three stripes, two red and one white, and a dark blue square in the upper left-hand corner (known as the canton) with a circle of seven stars, for the states that had seceded from the Union by that point: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. Stars were later added for the Confederate states of Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee, and two divided border states, Kentucky and Missouri.
Because the official CSA banner looks strikingly similar to the Union flag, the “Stars and Stripes,” soldiers have trouble distinguishing it on the battlefield during the First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run) in July 1861. To avoid future confusion, Confederate commanders P.G.T. Beauregard and Joseph Johnston request a different flag to carry into battle.
Confederate congressman William Porcher Miles of South Carolina comes up with the design we recognize today: a blue cross studded with white stars against a red background. It’s quickly adopted by different Confederate armies, including Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and Johnston’s Army of Tennessee.
1863-65: Confederacy Adopts the 'Stainless Banner' Flag
With resistance growing to the Stars and Bars, the CSA adopts a new official flag, the “Stainless Banner.” The new flag has a solid white background, with a smaller version of the Southern Cross in its canton. Because the nearly all-white Stainless Banner could easily be mistaken for a flag of surrender, it’s later modified to add a thick red vertical stripe at the end. Adopted in March 1865, this “Blood-Stained Banner” would be the last official CSA flag.
1870s-1880s: Confederate Flag Used for Ceremonies
In the decades immediately following the war, the blue cross-patterned battle flag carried by Lee’s army is used mainly for ceremonial purposes, including display at Confederate veterans’ meetings, memorials, battle reenactments and other events.
1894: Mississippi Adopts Banner Incorporating Confederate Battle Flag
Mississippi becomes the first state to adopt a banner incorporating the battle flag as a symbol of Confederate pride. The Southern Cross appears in the canton of the new Mississippi flag, along with three horizontal bars of red, white and blue. Alabama and Florida also adopt elements of the battle flag (red St. Andrew’s crosses) into their state flags in the 1890s.
1948: Dixiecrats Embrace Confederate Flag
Long celebrated as a symbol of Southern heritage, the Confederate battle flag takes a new meaning in the mid-20th century, especially with the advances of the civil rights movement. In 1948, the newly founded States Rights Democratic Party (known as the Dixiecrats) embraces the flag as a symbol of resistance to mainstream Democrats’ support for civil rights and racial integration.
As historian John Coski wrote in his book The Confederate Battle Flag: America’s Most Embattled Emblem, the Ku Klux Klan (the white supremacist group originally founded by Confederate veterans in 1865) also begins using the flag in its rituals by the mid-1940s.
1956: Georgia Incorporates Confederate Flag Into State Flag
Two years after the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, Georgia incorporates the flag into a new design for its state flag. At the time, according to a report by the state’s Senate Research Office in 2000, the Georgia legislature was in the midst of efforts to “preserve the institution of segregation throughout the state.”
1961: Confederate Battle Flag Raised Over Montgomery
Governor George Wallace of Alabama, a determined segregationist, orders the Confederate battle flag raised over the capitol building in Montgomery to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War.
1987: NAACP Begins Campaign to Remove Flag from Public Spaces
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) begins a campaign to remove the Confederate battle flag from public spaces, including the state capitol buildings in South Carolina and Alabama, as well as from the state flags of Georgia and Mississippi. Such efforts are met with a determined resistance among supporters of the flag, who argue its importance as a symbol of southern heritage.
2001-03: Mississippi Votes to Keep Confederate Symbol in State Flag
In 2001, after a lawsuit from the NAACP, Mississippi puts the question of changing the state flag to its citizens, who vote overwhelmingly to keep the Confederate symbol. Two years later, Georgia changes its state flag to a design closely resembling the original CSA flag, the Stars and Bars.
2015: South Carolina Removes Confederate Flag After Shooting
The U.S. Supreme Court rules 5-4 that the state licensing board of Texas could deny permission to a non-profit group called the Sons of Confederate Veterans to issue specialty license plates prominently featuring the Confederate battle flag. The Court’s majority finds that the denial didn’t violate the group’s First Amendment rights, as license plates constituted protected government speech.
In July 2015, in the wake of the racially motivated murder of nine black members of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina removes the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of its state capitol building, where it had long been on display.
2017: Supreme Court Declines to Hear Case on Mississippi Flag
The Supreme Court declines to hear a case that challenged the use of the Confederate battle flag on the Mississippi state flag. Carlos Moore, a black civil rights attorney from Mississippi had filed a lawsuit against the state arguing that the display of the flag on public buildings amounted to state-sponsored support of racial discrimination, and violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
2020: Mississippi Removes Confederate Emblem From Flag
Amid ongoing protests against systemic racism throughout the United States, Mississippi lawmakers vote to remove the Confederate battle flag emblem from its state flag after 126 years.
