WaPo’s Robinson: Confederate Flag ‘Was a Middle Finger’ in Opposition to Desegregation

Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson said the popularity of the Confederate battle flag only began in the 1960’s as a “massive resistance,”  to “desegregation.”

He pointed out the flag was first flown at the South Carolina State House in 1961 and said, “It was a middle finger directed at the federal government. It was flown their as a massive resistance to desegregation, period.  All this nonsense about honoring the valor of southern manhood 150 years ago, they didn’t have any urge to do that for a century after the Civil War. It was only after Brown v. Board of education, after Little Rock, after desegregation began. South Carolinians put up the flag at the state house that other state adopted the battle flag it as part of their state flags. It was massive resistance.”