Having antebellum ancestors from both Georgia and Tennessee, I view the heritage and culture of the Deep South from a different perspective. The poor, white, barely educated southern farmer and laborer was used by the rich white plantation owner and politician as a tool to perpetuate slavery and racial inequality. Having no slaves himself, the typical southern man was taught that if the slaves were ever set free or their lack of chattel negated in any way, they would take over his livelihood, drive him from his land, force him to work in the cities, and eventually intermarry with his own descendants.

In modern-day terms, this is exactly what Donald Trump and his elitist loyalists are doing to the 'MAGA" crowd. 175 years later, and by Jove! It still works! The Confederate flag is a potent symbol akin to the modern-day MAGA hat. It represents the fealty of the common man to the white, anglo protestant elitist businessman/plantation owner who promises to keep him and his heritage safe.

If I may add a personal anecdote, my ancestors, many of whom fought for the Confederacy, were able to lift themselves out of poverty, move out of Tennessee and to the western lands of Dakota and Wyoming, where they made a better living as ranch hands and teamsters, eventually co-founding the Cheyenne-Black Hills Stage Company in the 1870s. They still clung to their southern heritage and Confederate culture until at least the 1930s when, on a spring day in 1938 my great-grandfather summoned true courage, started a fire in his backyard, and burned HIS great-grandfather's confederate flag, war correspondence, and, hardest of all, his moth-eaten, tattered butternut military uniform. Thereafter, he moved back to Tennessee a "free man", becoming a friend, confidant, and staunch supporter of progressive Democratic Senator Estes Kefauver's presidential aspirations until his death in 1958.