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Chronicle editorial of July 10 got it wrong

By Staff | Jul 17, 2015

Your July 10th editorial has it wrong. It is the displaying of the Confederate Flag (your “inanimate object”) that does more to “fuel disagreement and create continued dissension among the masses” than the recent decisions by public and private institutions and national and local businesses to cease displaying that Flag.

There can be no disagreement that the Confederate Flag represented the efforts of certain citizens to secede from the Union because of their white supremacy views and commitment to preserve and extend slavery at the expense of the Union. That is a historical fact. Also a fact is that beginning in the late 1950s states and citizens in opposition to the national movement for abolishment of Jim Crow laws and the enforcement of equal rights of all peoples regardless of color, race and creed as guaranteed in the Constitution, began flying of the Confederate Flag in government buildings and prominently elsewhere as a symbol of their reaffirmation of white supremacy.

In light of these facts it is heartening that many in the Deep South today recognize that Flag as a divisive symbol not only to many people of color but that they are joined by many whites who do not subscribe to the doctrine which 150 years ago caused many to die many because they opposed slavery and its necessary predicate the supremacy of the white race. I wish the Chronicle recognized this as well.

Arthur Wineburg

Shepherdstown