The Baltimore Afro-American, also known as the Afro-American or the Afro, is the longest-running African-American owned newspaper in the United States. Founded in Baltimore, MD in 1892, from the time of its inception, it was particularly notable for its powerful editorial voice. Of the sixty-six articles in our database from the Afro on the topic of Confederate memorialization, over half were written by the Afro itself. The Afro was outspoken in decrying attempts to glorify the Confederacy or the institution of slavery. Often writing in a distinctive, sardonic tone, the editors were not shy in their criticism of Confederate commemoration and its defenders.
In 1962, they commented on an incident involving U.S. naval officer Rufus C. Wells, who removed a Confederate flag flying near the Virginian port where the ship he was on was docked. Wells was taken to court by state officials for this act, a decision the Afro openly condemned:
Time was that when a serviceman breached an enemy bastion and tore down the flag of the foe, he was given a medal in a ceremony with full military honors…[Rufus] had better have a good lawyer when he appears in court. He, himself, will never to be able to explain to a Southern court that since he had sworn to uphold the Constitution and protect the United States from her enemies, his action was only natural. Not that the South denies being an enemy of the United States—it just doesn’t want anybody to do anything about it.[1]
The Afro’s unabashed disdain for the Southern justice system was seen in another editorial published the following year. In their article “Already Desecrated,” the authors mocked the stance of flag supporters at the University of Mississippi. There, professor of art G. Ray Kerciu had made paintings of the Confederate flag incorporating some of the racial obscenities and epithets that had been hurled by white students at James Meredith, the first Black student to integrate Ole Miss. This project outraged many white members of the university, prompting a law student to file a motion that Kerciu be “punished for desecration of the Confederate flag.”[2]
The Afro held nothing back in impugning not only the soundness of this argument, but the integrity of the entire Mississippi court system:
We wonder how far Mr. Kerciu’s attorneys could get, before a Mississippi jury or judge, by raising the question of whether an American citizen can be punished under American law for ‘desecrating’ the flag of a nonexistent, non-American state…? We doubt if they could get very far – especially considering that Mississippi juries failed to convict a self-admitted murderer of a young boy or failed to indict the lynchers of Mack Charles Parker.[3]
The Afro ended the piece with a final jab at the level of technological development in the states:
After the Kerciu ‘menace’ is disposed of, then the atmosphere will be purified enough for the young toughs to plank a quarter down on a Confederate flag to hoist from the aerial of their souped-up jalopy – Mississippi’s sole evidence of the machine age.[4]
Neither of these incidents rose to the level of national headlines, but the Afro, with its finger on the pulse of Confederate controversy across the United States, had a clear vision of the relationship between Confederate commemoration, white supremacism, and resistance to civil rights struggles.
In 1934, the paper wrote an editorial piece on the United Daughters of the Confederacy’s “first convention north of the Mason-Dixon line” held in New York. Among the aims of the meeting, reported the Afro, were to popularize the Confederate flag, the rebel yell, and Confederate songs such as “Dixie” in the North. The Afro noted, with a touch of snark:
Perhaps we ought to advise the daughters that in going to New York they left their Southern post unguarded. Last week in Birmingham…a brass band actually played Julia Ward Howe’s immortal ‘Battle Hymn of the Republic.’ Daughters attending the Vanderbilt-Alabama State game must surely have been outraged. Still if New York is to learn the rebel yell, why shouldn’t descendants of former rebels play a Yankee marching song…?[5]
While this sardonic tone was a distinct trait of the Afro editorial section, they also published more serious, impassioned condemnations of the Confederate flag. In 1952, in a particularly lengthy and intense piece, the Afro reiterated the refrain “Keep your eye on those Confederate flags,” drawing a direct parallel between CSA iconography and the Nazi swastika.
Only yesterday it seems, the Swastika was but the sign of a few criminally insane men, who plotted world power in a Munich beer hall. But the Swastika led to the downfall of the German republic and the establishment of the Hitler dictatorship. In its wake came the pogroms against the Jews… All of Europe was brought under the yoke of the Nazi hordes and the world was plunged into the greatest conflagration in history. Only a swastika you say, but many an American home is broken and many billions of American dollars must be extracted from our sweat and blood to restore the damage it caused so: KEEP YOUR EYES ON THOSE CONFEDERATE FLAGS! [sic] [6]
The movement to glorify the Confederacy was expressly linked to America’s fascist enemies that had caused so much death and destruction in Europe. They warned their readers not to believe any claims that Confederate flag wavers are harmless:
Ask yourself if the South is not now trying to accomplish by fist what they failed to gain first by arms and later by ballot….Have we so soon forgotten what the Confederate flag represents? The Confederate flag stands for slavery and human degradation. The Confederate flag stands for rebellion and treachery…The Confederate flag stands for white supremacy and everything to which democracy and Christianity are opposed. These are no laughing matters. These things are a threat to the living and a desecration of our noble dead.
Of further frustration to the authors, was a complacency they felt was taking over the North. Instead of being alarmed by the South’s persistent fanaticism for the Confederate flag, leaders in the North, the authors wrote, believed the spirit of the Southern rebellion had faded out. But, the article argued, one should not underestimate the power of resentment:
The conquered never forget the nightmare and nurture in their progeny the hope that a lost cause may someday be regained. AWAKE AMERICA! Let us not become so intent on watching the enemy beyond our borders, that we are blind to the enemy within our gates.[7]
Olivia Haynie
Please cite as:
Haynie, Olivia. “‘KEEP YOUR EYES ON THOSE CONFEDERATE FLAGS!’: The Baltimore Afro-American as Critic of Confederate Commemoration.” False Image of History: Perspectives on Confederate Commemoration from the Black Press (online). Fall 2024 Edition. Schaefer, Donovan O., ed. URL = https://falseimage.pennds.org/essay/“keep-your-eyes-on-those-confederate-flags-”-the-baltimore-afro-american-as-critic-of-confederate-commemoration/.
References
Afro-American (Baltimore, MD). “Above Call Of Duty.” January 20, 1962.
Afro-American (Baltimore, MD). “Already Desecrated.” May 18, 1963.
Afro-American (Baltimore, MD). “Awake, America, Awake!” April 19, 1952.
Afro-American (Baltimore, MD). “Confederate Dotters.” December 8, 1934.
Afro-American (Baltimore, MD), “Above Call Of Duty.” ↩︎
Afro-American (Baltimore, MD), “Already Desecrated.” ↩︎
Afro-American (Baltimore, MD), “Already Desecrated.” ↩︎
Afro-American (Baltimore, MD), “Already Desecrated.” ↩︎
Afro-American (Baltimore, MD), “Confederate Dotters.” ↩︎
Afro-American (Baltimore, MD), “Awake, America, Awake!” ↩︎
Afro-American (Baltimore, MD), “Awake, America, Awake!” ↩︎