ACLU: The Confederacy upheld white supremacy and slavery. Period.

Last week, as many prepared to celebrate America's "independence," Mississippi voted to remove the Confederate emblem from its state flag. Just days later, a federal court would block the city of Graham, North Carolina from suppressing protests against its Confederate monument following a lawsuit by the ACLU. Considering all of this, we wanted to give you a deeper look into the historical context behind Mississippi's recent vote and the growing debate around Confederate symbols nationwide. Read more in my full piece here. What is the history exactly? We know that the top ten states with Confederate monuments account for over 4,000 lynchings from 1877 to 1950. The University of Washington's Lynching Violence Database documents 689 lynchings in Mississippi alone between 1877 and 1949. However, it was the modern-day lynching of George Floyd, and the anti-racist movement it reinforced, that finally led to the decision about the Mississippi flag last week. Some – including President Trump – argue that Confederate icons and monuments like this should remain because "if you don't understand history, you will go back to it again." But monuments that portray Confederate traitors as heroes are viewed as icons by white supremacists and have done nothing to stop the rise of white supremacy or stop the brutality that Black people have faced for centuries. Please read more on how this deeply harmful "heritage" persists still today. The fact is that the racist ideology upheld by the Confederacy will be ingrained in our memories and history books no matter how many monuments are toppled. To preserve the names of its so-called heroes and the battle flag they fought under only tells Black Americans that this country doesn't care what they did to our ancestors. That's why the decision to retire the Mississippi state flag is not erasing history – it's telling the truth about America's legacy of slavery. And it's long past time for us to reckon with that truth. Thanks for reading, Jeffery Robinson ACLU Deputy Legal Director

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