Stop the delusion on Confederate legacy

By Ron Chimelis
on August 21, 2015 at 7:00 AM
updated August 21, 2015 at 7:02 AM

America has spent its summer arguing over a flag that represented a failed insurrection from 150 years ago ...

Here is American History 101, as I always understood it: Southern states based their economies on the backs of enslaved African-Americans, many of which were raped, beaten or killed if they acted up, or even if they didn't ...

Then came Reconstruction. Bitter Confederates showed their understanding of the phrase "all men are created equal'' and accepted the war's outcome by continuing the lynchings and other forms of lawbreaking bloodshed, making that era of American history almost as sorry as the war itself ...

To say every fan of the Confederate flag is a racist is wrong. To say racism is at the heart of this affection is right as rain ...

http://www.masslive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/08/stop_the_delusion_on_confedera.html