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ABSTRACT
This article uses the cultural theorist Stuart Hall’s work to examine how one group of white leftists, the Young Patriot Organization (YPO) and their splinter organization the Patriot Party, attempted in the late 1960s and early 1970s to rearticulate the Confederate battle flag as a non-racist symbol of working-class empowerment, Appalachian regional pride, and cross-racial solidarity and egalitarianism. The Patriots’ failure to bestow the flag with a lasting anti-racist meaning despite their public alliances with the Black Power movement suggests that the flag has such an ingrained racist connotation that is almost entirely irreconcilable with progressive, anti-capitalist, and anti-racist politics. Nonetheless, among people who do claim the flag as their own, the flag is often embedded in a meaningful subcultural context. I make the case that attempts to discourage people from embracing the flag should speak directly to their cultural situation and politics of class in addition to criticizing the flag’s racist and violent history.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Zandria Robinson (Zeezus F. Maximus). 2015a. “The confederate flag is more than a symbol of white racial superiority. It is the ultimate symbol of white heteropatriarchal capitalism.” https://twitter.com/zfelice/status/613732602172669958 (June 24, 2015). 8:47 AM. Tweet; Zandria Robinson (Zeezus F. Maximus). “The flag thus is a direct symbol of race, class, gender, & sexuality oppression. We need a more nuanced intersectional reading of the thing.” https://twitter.com/zfelice/status/613732602172669958 (June 24, 2015), 8:41 AM. Tweet; Zandria Robinson (Zeezus F. Maximus). “This isn’t to say that the American flag does not represent such things, but the confederate flag only represents those things for whites.” https://twitter.com/zfelice/status/613732602172669958 (June 24, 2015), 8:44 AM. Tweet.
2 Zandria Robinson, “Flags and Flesh: Region, Race, and the Simulacra of Racial Terror,” New South Negress (June 2015), available online at: http://newsouthnegress.com/flagsandflesh/.
3 Chris Hayes, “The Real History of the Confederate Flag,” YouTube (June 24, 2015), available online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tash7XtDCyM&t=184s.
4 Roberto A. Ferdman and Matthew Guterl, “What the Confederate Flag Really Means to America Today, According to One Race Historian,” Washington Post (June 19, 2015), available online at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/19/what-the-confederate-flag-really-means-to-america-today-according-to-a-race-historian/.
5 See Tracy Rose, “The War between the Sons,” Mountain Xpress (February 5, 2003), available online at: https://mountainx.com/news/community-news/0205sons-php/.
6 Kirk D. Lyons, “Call her ‘Big Sister,’ not ‘Tricky Nicky,’” The Confederate Voice. 4.3 (2015): p. 1.
7 Jenna Zibton, “Suspended Christiansburg HS Students say they will wear Flag again Friday,” WSLS (September 17, 2015), available online at: http://wsls.com/2015/09/17/christiansburg-high-school-students-suspended-for-wearing-confederate-flag/.
8 Quoted in T. Rees Shapiro and Moriah Ballingit, “Virginia High School Students Suspended for Wearing Confederate Flag Apparel,” Washington Post (September 17, 2015), available online at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2015/09/17/virginia-high-school-students-suspended-for-wearing-confederate-flag-apparel/.
9 Jim Webb, Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America (New York: Broadway Books, 2007), p. 246.
10 Ibid, p. 253.
11 Ibid, pp. 208–209.
12 Ibid, pp. 291–292.
13 Stuart Hall “Notes on Deconstructing ‘the Popular,’” in Raphael Samuel (ed.), People’s History and Socialist Theory (Boston: Routledge, 1981).
14 Young Patriot Organization, “Patriot Program,” The Patriot (March, 1970): p. 2. collectiveliberation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Patriot_Program.pdf.
15 See Ronald Eller, Uneven Ground: Appalachia Since 1945 (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2008), p. 23; John Hartigan, “Name Calling: Objectifying ‘Poor Whites’ and ‘White Trash’ in Detroit,” in Matte Wray and Annallee Newitz (eds.) White Trash: Race and Class in America (New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 41–56.
16 Amy Sonnie and James Tracy, Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power: Community Organizing in Radical Times (New York: Melville House, 2011), p. 71; Chad Berry, Southern Migrants, Northern Exiles (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2000), pp. 186–189.
17 Patrick King and William Fesperman, “Young Patriots at the United Front Against Fascism Conference (1969),” Viewpoint Magazine (August 10, 2015) https://viewpointmag.com/2015/08/10/young-patriots-at-the-united-front-against-facsism-conference/; Roger Guy, “Hank Williams lives in Uptown: Appalachians and the Struggle against Displacement in Chicago,” Journal of Appalachian Studies 18.1 (2012): pp. 131–148. Sonnie and Tracy, Hillbilly Nationalists, p. 81; Eller Uneven Ground, p. 26.
18 See Charles Fager, White Reflections on Black Power (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1967), p. 90; Guy, “Hank Williams lives in Uptown,” p. 135.
19 King and Fesperman, “Young Patriots at the United Front.”
20 Barbara Joye. “Young Patriots.” Liberation News Service (March 9, 1970): pp. 302–304, available online at: https://www.collectiveliberation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Joyce_Young_Patriots.pdf; King and Fesperman, “Young Patriots at the United Front”; Sonnie and Tracy, Hillbilly Nationalists, pp. 71–72.
21 Jakobi Williams, From the Bullet to the Ballot: The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and Racial Coalition Politics in Chicago (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2013), p. 165.
22 Sonnie and Tracy, Hillbilly Nationalists, p. 71.
23 Joye, “Young Patriots.”
24 Sonnie and Tracy, Hillbilly Nationalists, pp. 67 and 76; King and Fesperman, “Young Patriots at the United Front.”
25 Jason Adams, “Self-Determination on the Paleface Reservation: The Melungeon Reemergence in Southern Appalachia,” The Multiracial Activist (April 1, 2001), available online at: http://multiracial.com/site/index.php/2001/04/01/self-determination-on-the-paleface-reservation/; YPO, “Patriot Program”; King and Fesperman, “Young Patriots at the United Front.”
26 Sonnie and Tracy, Hillbilly Nationalists, 82; King and Fesperman, “Young Patriots at the United Front.”
27 Jakobi Williams, From the Bullet to the Ballot, pp. 135–137.
28 Ibid, p. 141.
29 Eldridge Cleaver and Lee Lockwood, Conversation with Eldridge Cleaver: Algiers (New York: McGraw Hill, 1970), p. 108.
30 See King and Fesperman, “Young Patriots at the United Front.”
31 Ibid.
32 Sonnie and Tracy, Hillbilly Nationalists, p. 75.
33 Hy Thurman and James Tracy, “Revolutionary Hillbilly: An Interview with Hy Thurman of the Young Patriot Organization,” James Tracy Books (January 28, 2016), available online at: http://jamestracybooks.org/2016/01/28/revolutionary-hillbilly-an-interview-with-hy-thurman-of-the-young-patriots-organization/
34 Sonnie and Tracy, Hillbilly Nationalists, p. 75.
35 Quoted in Jakobi Williams, From the Bullet to the Ballot, p. 135.
36 Quoted in King and Fesperman, “Young Patriots at the United Front.”
37 Jakobi Williams, From the Bullet to the Ballot, p. 135.
38 Thurman and Tracy, “Revolutionary Hillbilly.”
39 John Shelton Reed, “The Banner that Won’t Stay Furled,” Southern Cultures 8.1 (2002): pp. 82–86 and 99.
40 Barbara Ellen Smith, “De-Gradations of Whiteness: Appalachia and the Complexities of Race,” Journal of Appalachian Studies 10.1&2 (2004): p. 45.
41 Robert P. Jones, “What Does the Confederate Flag Symbolize? Seven in ten Working-Class Whites Say ‘Southern Pride,’” PRRI (August 14, 2017), available online at: https://www.prri.org/spotlight/white-working-class-americans-confederate-flag-southern-pride-racism/#:~:text=White%20Americans%20are%20sharply%20divided%20by%20social%20class%3A,there%20are%20no%20divisions%20among%20whites%20by%20gender.
42 Larry Griffin, “Whiteness and Southern Identity in the Mountain and Lowland South,” Journal of Appalachian Studies 10.1 (2004): p. 20.
43 Barbara Kingsolver, “A view from the south: let the Confederate flag go,” The Guardian (July 3, 2015) available online at: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/03/south-flag-confederate-pride-hatred-racists.
44 Michael J. Martinez, “Traditionalist Perspectives of Confederate Symbols,” in J. Michael Martinez, William D. Richardson, and Ron McNinch-Su (eds.) Confederate Symbols in the Contemporary South (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000), pp. 244 and 253–254.
45 Hayes, “The Real History of the Confederate Flag”; Eric Levitz, “The odd, ignoble history of the Confederate battle flag,” MSNBC (June 23, 2015), available online at: https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/the-odd-ignoble-history-the-confederate-battle-flag-msna624891
46 Bill Fletcher, Jhacova Williams, Nia Winston, and Tanya Wallace Gobern, “Black Workers and Just Transition,” YouTube (June 25, 2020), available online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epFtp_0NoXY&t=821s
47 Jhacova Williams, “Our calls to remove racist symbols are finally being heard,” Brookings Institution (June 18, 2020), available online at: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/how-we-rise/2020/06/18/our-calls-to-remove-racist-symbols-are-finally-being-heard/
48 Quoted in Sonnie and Tracy, Hillbilly Nationalists, p. 75.
49 Ibid.
50 Ibid, p. 76.
51 Jakobi Williams, From the Bullet to the Ballot, p. 165.
52 For example, Ta-Nehisi Coates, “Take Down the Confederate Flag – Now,” The Atlantic (June 18, 2015), available online at: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/take-down-the-confederate-flag-now/396290/.
53 Lawrence Grossberg, “History, Politics, and Postmodernism: Stuart Hall and Cultural Studies,” Journal of Communication Inquiry 10.6 (1986): pp. 63–68.
54 Hall, “Notes on Deconstructing,” p. 238.
55 Stuart Hall, “Race, articulation and societies structured in dominance,” in Sociological Theories: Race and Colonialism (Paris: UNESCO, 1980), p. 342.
56 Stuart Hall, “The Culture Gap,” Marxism Today (1984): 18–22; Grossberg, “History, Politics, and Postmodernism,” pp. 68–70.
57 See Michael Staudenmaier, Truth and Revolution: A History of the Sojourner Truth Organization, 1969–1986 (Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2012), p. 194.
58 Hall, “Notes on Deconstructing,” pp. 237–238.
59 Stuart Hall, “The Great Moving Right Show,” Marxism Today 23.1 (1979): pp. 15–16.
60 Stuart Hall, “The Problem of Ideology: Marxism Without Guarantees,” in Betty Matthews (ed.) Marx: A Hundred Years On (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1983): p. 81.
61 Sonnie and Tracy, Hillbilly Nationalists, p. 83.
62 Ibid, pp. 82–85 and 99.
63 Ibid, pp. 85–86.
64 Ibid, p. 91; King and Fesperman, “Young Patriots at the United Front.”
65 John Clarke, Stuart Hall, Tony Jefferson, and Brian Roberts, “Subcultures, Cultures, and Class,” in Stuart Hall and Tony Jefferson (eds.) Resistance through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Postwar Britain, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2006 [1975]) p. 7.
66 Ibid.
67 Ibid, 8.
68 Ibid.
69 See Alvin Hughes, “A New Agenda for the South: The Role and Influence of the Highlander Folk School, 1953–1961,” Phylon 46.3 (1985): 242–250.
70 Sonnie and Tracy, Hillbilly Nationalists, p. 102.
71 Clarke et al, “Subcultures, Cultures, and Class,” pp. 8–9.
72 Ibid, p. 19.
73 Ibid, pp. 8–9.
74 Ibid, pp. 10–12.
75 Ibid, pp. 35–36.
76 Ibid, pp. 21 and 35–38.
77 Sonnie and Tracy, Hillbilly Nationalists, p. 72; King and Fesperman, “Young Patriots at the United Front.”
78 See Eller, Uneven Ground, p. 23; Berry, Southern Migrants, p. 125.
79 The Patriots’ experience reflects Hall’s argument that subcultures resist market cooptation. A Patriot leaflet warned against the market’s manipulation of popular culture, urging readers not to become dupes of the capitalists who make “millions on love beads, afro-shirts, and cowboy hats.” Quoted, Sonnie and Tracy, Hillbilly Nationalists, 80.
80 Ibid, 67.
81 Clarke et al, “Subcultures, Cultures, and Class,” pp. 32–33.
82 Joye, “Young Patriots.”
83 Clarke et al, “Subcultures, Cultures, and Class,” p. 33.
84 Ibid, p. 35.
85 Ibid, p. 45.
86 Larry Bennett, Neighborhood Politics: Chicago and Sheffield (New York: Garland Publishing, 1997), pp. 83–87.
87 Ibid, 83; Sonnie and Tracy, Hillbilly Nationalists, p. 67.
88 Sonnie and Tracy, Hillbilly Nationalists, p. 88; For a discussion of the Patriot Party’s difficulties in Eugene, Oregon, see The Eugene Patriots, “Serving the People in Eugene, Oregon,” The Patriot 1.1 (1970): 7. Available online at: http://www.itsabouttimebpp.com/Unity_Support/pdf/Patriot_Party.pdf.
89 Clarke et al, “Subcultures, Cultures, and Class,” p. 42.
90 Ibid, p. 43.
91 Ibid.
92 Martinez, “Traditionalist Perspectives of Confederate Symbols,” pp. 254–255.
93 Clarke et al, “Subcultures, Cultures, and Class,” p. 45.
94 Ibid, pp. 48–52.
95 Quoted in Ibid, p. 53.
96 Patriot Party, “The Patriot Party Speaks to the Movement,” in Philip S. Foner (ed.) The Black Panthers Speak (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1970), pp. 241–243.
97 Sonnie and Tracy, Hillbilly Nationalists, p. 75.
98 Joye, “Young Patriots.”
99 Angela Davis, Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement (Chicago: Haymarket, 2016), pp. 18–19.
100 Ibid, p. 21.
101 Joye, “Young Patriots.”
102 Stereo Williams, “Why Rappers Rock the Confederate Flag: From OutKast to Kanye West’s Merchandise,” The Daily Beast (June 30, 2015), available online at: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/30/why-rappers-use-the-confederate-flag-from-outkast-to-kanye-west-s-merchandise.html; Robinson, “Flags and Flesh.”
103 Robinson, “Flags and Flesh.”
104 Rachel Steele and Misti Jeffers, “The Future of Appalachian Identity in an Age of Polarization,” Journal of Appalachian Studies 26.1 (2020): pp. 72–73.
105 Ibid, 73.
106 Anna Rachel Terman, “Intersections of Appalachian Identity,” in William Schumann and Rebecca Adkins Fletcher (eds.) Appalachia Revisited: New Perspectives on Place, Tradition, and Progress (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2016), p. 76.
107 Sam Levin, “How ‘White Lives Matter’ protests over a police shooting were misunderstood,” The Guardian (June 30, 2016), available online at: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/30/white-lives-matter-protest-dylan-noble-shooting-fresno; Rory Appleton, “Family of slain teen Dylan Noble reaches settlement with city of Fresno,” The Freson Bee (August 1, 2018), available online at: https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article215949690.html.
108 Levin, “How ‘White Lives Matter’ protests.”
109 Ibid.
110 Lou Sandifer, quoted in Michael Daly, “Dylan Noble, ‘Country Boy’ Shot by Fresno Cops, ‘Loved everybody,’” The Daily Beast (April 13, 2017), available online at: https://www.thedailybeast.com/dylan-noble-country-boy-shot-by-fresno-cops-loved-everybody?ref=scroll.
111 Justin Horton, quoted in Levin, “How ‘White Lives Matter’ protests.”
112 Pamela Esquivel, “Shooting of unarmed white teenager has racially diverse Fresno trying to make sense of Black Lives Matter.” Los Angeles Times (July 21, 2016), available online at: https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-fresno-shooting-20160721-snap-story.html.
113 Hall, “The Culture Gap,” p. 18.