Reply #45: So SC suddenly looked up in 1962 & said "Shit! We missed th'centenary o'th'Civil War last year!"??? [View All]

South Carolina actually voted to secede on Christmas Eve, 1860; the secession ordinance emphasizes the issue of slavery; see http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_scarsec.asp

The attack on Fort Sumpter occurred in April 1861. The first battles of the war were fought that summer. The war ended in 1865

So why would SC decide to begin celebrating the centenary of the civil war in 1962? And why didn't they stop celebrating the supposed centenary in 1865? 1962-2000 is a weird centenary celebration for a 1861-1865 war

And why the battle-flag/naval-jack instead of (say) the SC flag used during the war
http://flagspot.net.nyud.net:8090/images/u/us-sc861.gif

The reason, of course, is that the battle-flag/naval-jack was used as a symbol across the South to rally support for segregation:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com.nyud.net:8090/packages/images/photo/2008/09/22/20080924MISS/25117557.JPG
Hoisting a Confederate flag, hundreds of Ole Miss students protested integration of the school in front of the registrar's office on Sept. 20, 1963. Mr. Khayat, a former Ole Miss football player, banned Confederate flags at football games, sparkling controversy that earned him death threat http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/09/23/us/20080924MISS_6.html