How Haley rewrites history
Adam Domby
WashingtonPost.com
After a white supremacist murdered nine black churchgoers in Charleston, S.C., in 2015, said historian Adam Domby, then–Gov. Nikki Haley did the right thing by ordering the Confederate battle flag to be lowered from the South Carolina Statehouse’s grounds. The shooter had posted photos of himself posing with the Confederate flag. As the daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley, a Republican, seemed to recognize that the flag was a symbol of racial division and hate. “So much for that.” Last week, Haley—who has apparent ambitions to succeed President Trump—declared that the Charleston shooter had “hijacked” the flag, which she said had previously been a symbol of “service, sacrifice, and heritage.” History shows that this is a lie. The flag was first raised at the Statehouse in 1962 as a defiant response to federal orders to desegregate the state. Earlier, in 1948, the pro-segregation Dixiecrat party displayed the battle flag and photos of Robert E. Lee as part of its “openly racist” campaign. Ever since the Civil War ended, the Confederate banner has stood for defiant nostalgia for the “slaveholders’ republic” that secession created. Haley and those to whom she is pandering are promoting “false memories of America’s past.”
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