The first official flag of the Confederacy, called the "Stars and Bars," was flown from March 5, 1861, to May 26, 1863. Its seven stars represent the original Confederate states: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas.
The second national flag of the Confederacy, called the "Stainless Banner," was put into service on May 1, 1863. It incorporated the traditional battle flag, but its pure white field could be mistaken as a flag of surrender when the wind wasn't blowing.
The third national flag, adopted March 4, 1865, just before the fall of the Confederacy, added a red vertical stripe, thus ensuring the white field wouldn't be seen as a banner of truce.
Historians say the Confederacy's recognized battle flag is actually one of nearly 200 separate flags carried into battle. It was a square banner rather than rectangular and featured the familiar "Southern Cross" of 13 stars representing those states considered part of the Confederacy.
The Confederate Navy Jack was flown from 1863 to 1865. It was essentially a rectangular version of the battle flag with a much lighter blue "cross."
What came to be thought of as the Confederate flag in the 20th century is basically a combination of the battle flag's darker blue colors and the Navy Jack's design.
It's been saluted and trampled, preserved and cursed for 140 years. But nowadays in South Carolina, the Confederate flag is mostly being sidestepped.
"It's political dynamite," political analyst Scott Huffmon said about the controversial banner that flies prominently just steps from the State House in Columbia.
Apparently, most local lawmakers agree.
After the NAACP announced its renewed effort to boycott South Carolina because of its display of the Confederate flag on State House grounds, The Herald surveyed local leaders about the issue.
Some said they never wanted the flag to leave the Capitol dome.
Others want it removed permanently.
Most tried to stay out of the argument.
"Politicians right now feel they have stretched as far as they can stretch in both directions," said Huffmon, a political science professor at Winthrop University. "If they stretch any more, they're afraid they'll break."
For decades a controversial banner representing heritage to some and racism to others, the Confederate flag was removed from the State House dome in 2000 as part of a landmark compromise between state lawmakers. The deal, brokered amid protests from both sides, called for the flag to be flown as a historical banner at the Confederate Soldier Monument on the north side of the State House.
The agreement was intended to honor Confederate Civil War dead and their families, while appeasing growing anti-flag sentiment, especially among blacks.
But many believe the compromise cost then-Gov. David Beasley a second term. That's why current legislators often back away from amending the deal, Huffmon said.
"Many politicians are terrified of falling to the same fate as David Beasley," Huffmon said. "There was political heck to pay."
The compromise also hasn't satisfied the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which has maintained an economic boycott of South Carolina despite the 2000 compromise. The boycott has cost South Carolina the opportunity to host NCAA-sanctioned baseball and basketball championships, tourism experts say. The renewed effort to have the flag lowered, announced last week at the NAACP's annual meeting, will also try to discourage filmmakers from shooting in South Carolina.
"That's the danger in compromising on such a polarizing issue," Huffmon said, "No one's going to be happy."
The boycott is mainly symbolic, Huffmon said, and not a practical political tool. A statewide poll conducted last year by Winthrop University showed that, while many black South Carolinians have strong feelings about the Confederate flag, they also are devoted to their state.
"It's very difficult to boycott a state," Huffmon said, "especially when you're asking an entire race to boycott a state where 30 percent of the population is that race."
