title: Scottish independence

text: The United Kingdom is a plurinational, rather than multinational, state, where overlapping national identities exist. According to Keating, both Scottishness and Britishness can be understood national identity and one can hold one of them alone or both at the same time. Many people in Scotland have multiple national identities. 59% in Scotland surveyed by the BBC in 2018 said they felt strongly British, though the figure is lower than the equivalent in Wales (79%) and England (82%). However, the majority of Scots feel closer affinity to a Scottish, rather than a British national identity. In a 2021 survey, when asked about their national identity and only allowed to pick one option, 64% of Scottish residents identify as Scottish and 29% as British. Furthermore, many in Scotland do not feel a national affinity to the UK at all. In a poll taken in early 2021 by Panelbase, a third of respondents in Scotland said they felt Scottish but not British.


title: Scottish independence

text: There are strong historical and contemporary ties between Scotland and the rest of the UK from the Reformation and Union of Crowns, to Scottish involvement in the growth and development of the British Empire and contribution of the Scottish Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution. Contemporary popular culture is also shared, primarily through the prevalence of the English language. Almost half of the Scottish population have relatives in England. At the time of the 2011 census, approximately 700,000 adults who were born in Scotland lived in the rest of the UK, while about 470,000 adults who were born elsewhere in the UK had moved to live in Scotland. There are also significant economic links with the Scottish military-industrial complex as well as close links within the financial sector. The UK Government argues that Scotland benefits from over 200 UK institutions, such as the BBC and HM Passport Office.


title: Scottish independence

text: In "Scotland's Future", the Scottish Government argued that an independent Scotland would "not affec the many other ties that bind Scotland to the other nations of the UK" and that there will still be a social union of family, history, culture and language within the British Isles. The UK Government consequently argued that a relationship of two sovereign states based on self-interest is 'profoundly differently' from being part of one state, and thus any co-operation would need to be in the interest of the rest of the UK, as well as Scotland.


title: Scottish independence

text: Independence would mean a much greater change for business than devolution. While Scottish nationalists generally assert that independence would not be economically disruptive, unionists and the UK government tend to assert the opposite. Journalist Peter Jones argues that calculating the real economic impacts of independence (i.e. whether Scotland would be richer or poorer outwith the UK) is "an extremely hazard, if not impossible, task".


title: Scottish independence

text: If businesses concluded that independence would yield benefits, there could be positive economic effects. However, if businesses do not, they could postpone spending or investment plans or even leave Scotland entirely. Uncertainty caused by independence referendums can also have negative implications for financial markets and the wider economy, depending on the likelihood that separation wins. This uncertainty has impacts not only in Scotland, but in the whole of the UK. Due to the relative size of Scotland in the UK, any negative economic effects would be felt worse in Scotland.


title: Scottish independence

text: Economic modelling by the Centre for Economic Performance found that independence would hit Scotland's economy ‘two to three times’ harder than Brexit. According to their model, leaving the UK after Brexit could reduce Scottish income per capita between 6.5 per cent and 8.7 per cent, depending on trade barriers. Rejoining the EU would do little to mitigate the costs of Brexit, because the cost of removing trade barriers with the EU is outweighed by the cost of erecting trade barriers with the UK. Scotland's largest trading partner is the rest of the UK, which accounts for £51.2 billion in exported goods and services, compared to only £16.1 billion to EU countries. According to Nicola Sturgeon, a customs border with the rest of the UK would be needed. 42% of those in Scotland think it would be financially worse off outside the Union (compared to 36% who think it would be better).


title: Scottish independence

text: Nationalists argue that only an independent Scotland can fully utilise and exploit its national resources, including North Sea oil and gas, for the benefit of its population. According to the Scottish Government led by Alex Salmond in 2014, 64% of the EU's oil reserves existed in Scottish waters, while the David Hume Institute think tank estimated that "Scotland is sitting on oil and gas reserves worth up to £4 trillion". Investment in and production from the North Sea oilfields dropped sharply after Conservative chancellor George Osborne imposed punitive taxes, undercutting the projected revenue an independent Scotland could claim.


title: Scottish independence

text: David Maddox, writing for "The Scotsman" in 2008, pointed to a future Peak oil decline in North Sea oil revenue, within ten years oil revenue had fallen to 10% of the 2008 peak. Some, such as Ruth Davidson of the Scottish Conservatives, wish to reduce public spending and devolve more fiscal powers to the Scottish Parliament in order to address this issue within the broader framework of the Union. Outlying regions such as Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles would be disadvantaged or deserve a greater share of oil revenue.


title: Scottish independence

text: The Scottish Government has argued that "it is clear that Scotland currently pays our way within the UK". The Scottish Government argues that an independent Scotland would have full autonomy over decisions on tax, spending and borrowing. Scotland would be able to issue sovereign debt and set fiscal limits. The Scottish Government suggests setting up a 'New Scotland Fund' to provide capital investment and boost growth. According to the IFS, this fund would probably need to be funded by additional borrowing.


title: Scottish independence

text: According to an analysis by the "Financial Times", an independent Scotland would have a large hole in its public finances. The paper's analysis suggests this would be due to the combined effect of lower than expected tax revenues, Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic, which have increased the country's budget deficit. In 2020-21 (during the COVID-19 pandemic), the national deficit of Scotland was between 22% and 25% of national income, though this is predicted to fall after the pandemic. If it leaves the UK by the middle of the decade, Scotland would face a deficit of almost 10 per cent of GDP. This means Scotland would need to raise taxes or cut public spending by the equivalent of £1765 per person after independence to make the deficit sustainable. Short-term forecasts of public spending are inherently uncertain, but can still provide useful predictions. A report published by the Sustainable Growth Commission set up by the SNP to make recommendations on the economy of an independent Scotland stated that the deficit would need to be cut to 3 per cent of GDP.


title: Scottish independence

text: Before the 2014 referendum, there were questions over the currency of an independent Scotland and whether it would continue to use the Pound sterling, adopt the Euro, or introduce a Scottish currency (often referred to as the "Scottish pound"). Uncertainty could be brought in the immediate aftermath of independence, particularly disagreement as to how Scotland would be treated in relation to the European Union, and the unlikelihood of the Bank of England accepting a currency union with an independent Scotland. The chairman of HSBC, Douglas Flint, warned in August 2014 of uncertainty if there was an independent Scottish currency, or if Scotland joined the Eurozone, which could result in capital flight. In 2018, the SNP suggested keeping the pound for a period after Scottish independence. Dame DeAnne Julius, a founding member of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee, has called this a "hugely risky experiment for Scotland".


title: Scottish independence

text: Nicola Sturgeon announced in October 2022 her intention for Scotland to continue using the pound sterling after independence. Monetary policy in this period would be set by the Bank of England. Scotland would subsequently develop a central Scottish bank and would move to a Scottish pound "when the economic conditions were right". The establishment of a Scottish pound would be at the decision of the Scottish Parliament, once the Scottish Central Bank has established credibility, foreign exchange reserves are sufficient and Scotland is fiscally sustainable. The Scottish pound could run on a fixed or floating exchange rate.


title: Scottish independence

text: With control over defence and foreign policy, an independent Scotland could demand the removal of Trident nuclear weapons, which are based in the Firth of Clyde. Nuclear disarmament is an issue long associated with the campaign for an independent Scotland, as outlined in the House of Commons Defence Committee's white paper "The future of the UK's strategic nuclear deterrent: the White Paper" of 2006–2007. The Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament supports independence on this basis.


title: Scottish independence

text: Scottish voters are in favour of the Trident nuclear deterrent being in Scotland. Even in the event of a vote for independence, 45 per cent of Scots polled in 2022 think the nuclear deterrent should be maintained in Scotland, compared to 34 percent against. While in the Union, 58% of Scots believe in the retention of the nuclear deterrent and only 20% definitely want it axed. In the event that Scottish independence meant the nuclear deterrent could no longer be in Scotland, there is a risk that the costs of relocation would make keeping a nuclear deterrent in the British Isles unfeasible. In 2019, the NATO Secretary General said the maintenance ofa British nuclear deterrent is important to NATO. In 2014, the UK Government argued "as NATO is a nuclear alliance, an independent Scottish state’s position on nuclear weapons would be one of the factors which would be considered". An independent Scotland governed by an anti-nuclear party may not be admitted to NATO on these grounds.October 2013 In 2022, 73 percent of Scots would want an independent Scotland to be part on NATO and only 8 percent oppose this.


title: Scottish independence

text: Supporters of the Union argue that the defence of Scotland is best served as part of the UK. Scotland is said to benefit from a collective defence force and an independent Scotland would weaken the UK's defence posture. There are many UK defence installations in Scotland other than Trident and many Scottish people serve in the British Armed Forces. There are 12,000 service personnel in Scotland and a further 18,500 civilian jobs in the armed forces defence industry. It is expected Scotland would lose defence jobs. For example, Lord West said Scotland could lose 20,000 or 25,000 jobs.


title: Scottish independence

text: In 2014, the UK Government argued that Scotland "plays an integral part in all aspects of the UK's defence". In the event of independence, they argue, the new Scottish Government would need to set up much defence infrastructure and services from scratch. Existing defence assets in Scotland are well integrated into a UK-wide defence structure. According to the UK Government, it would be difficult for an independent Scotland to co-opt existing UK armed force units based or recruited in Scotland. The UK Government argues that Scotland benefits from defence resources across the UK, not just within Scotland itself.


title: Scottish independence

text: Under the Scottish Government's 2014 plans for independence, Scotland would have applied to become a full and equal member of the United Nations, NATO and the European Union and many other international organisations. With an autonomous voice in international politics, Scottish independence campaigners believe the nation's global influence would increase in regard to the defence of its national interests and the promotion of its values. Furthermore, Scottish embassies could be established globally to promote Scotland internationally, and to lobby other governments on the nation's behalf.


title: Scottish independence

text: During the 2014 referendum, a major argument against independence was that Scotland would be outside the EU. Scotland is very supportive of EU membership, with 62% voting to remain in the 2016 EU referendum. Since Brexit, many have called for a second independence referendum to have a chance to re-enter the EU.


title: Scottish independence

text: As part of the UK, Scotland is part of NATO, the G7, and as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. 82% of Scots believe that UK membership of these organisations is important. Opponents of further integration of the European Union have stated that independence, within Europe but outside the "EU three", would mean that Scotland would be more marginalised because, as a relatively small independent country, Scotland would be unable to resist the demands of larger member states.


title: Scottish independence

text: The "Centre for Constitutional Change" stated during the 2016 EU referendum campaign that the "international relations aspect of the Brexit debate looks somewhat similar to the debate about Scottish independence". There is no agreed process for Scottish independence and there would be no negotiations of the terms of independence before a positive referendum result. Ruth Davidson has described "independence because of Brexit" as "amputating your foot because you've stubbed your toe". The common use of the term Brexit has led some sources to describe Scottish independence as "Scexit", a portmanteau of Scotland + exit.


title: Scottish independence

text: Scottish independence is supported most prominently by the Scottish National Party, but other parties also support independence. Other pro-independence parties which have held representation in the Scottish Parliament or the UK Parliament include the Scottish Greens, the Alba Party and the Scottish Socialist Party. At the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, 72 of the 129 seats available were won by pro-independence parties (64 SNP and 8 Greens). The independence movement consists of many factions with varying political views. The SNP wants Scotland to keep the monarchy (see personal union) and become an independent Commonwealth realm, similar to Canada, Australia or New Zealand. All of the other aforementioned pro-independence parties want Scotland to become an independent republic. The SSP has led republican protests and authored the Declaration of Calton Hill, calling for an independent republic.


title: Scottish independence

text: The Independence Convention was set up in 2005, seeking "Firstly, to create a forum for those of all political persuasions and none who support independence; and secondly, to be a national catalyst for Scottish independence." The Scottish Republican Socialist Movement is a Pan-Socialist independence movement that believes that Scotland should be made an independent republic. This movement has a Firebrand socialist ethos, however is not affiliated with the SSP or the Scottish Communist Party. It believes that a failure to become independent should lead to mass emigration elsewhere, or as put as a slogan "Independence or Desertion".


title: Scottish independence

text: Apart from the official Yes Scotland campaign for independence in the 2014 referendum, other groups in support of independence were formed at that time. This included the National Collective, an artist-driven movement which describes itself as "an open and non-party political collaboration of talent focused on driving social and political change in Scotland through a variety of the arts". It was responsible for organising a mock referendum held at the University of Glasgow in February 2013. Another group, the Radical Independence Campaign, described itself as "fighting for an independent Scotland that is for the millions not the millionaires". RIC was formed after the Radical Independence Conference 2012 in Glasgow, which was attended by at least 650 people and has been described as a "[bringing together of] the Scottish Greens, the Scottish Socialists, some of the more militant trade unionists, nuclear-disarmament campaigners and anti-monarchist republicans".


title: Scottish independence

text: During the 2014 referendum campaign, independence attracted little support from newspapers. The "Sunday Herald" was the only publication to endorse a "Yes" vote in the referendum. "The National", a daily newspaper supporting independence, was launched in November 2014, in wake of the Yes Scotland campaign's defeat.


title: Scottish independence

text: In October 2014, the lobby group All Under One Banner (AUOB) was formed. AUOB stages regular public marches in support of Scottish independence throughout Scotland.


title: Scottish independence

text: Proponents of Brexit and Scotland's independence share relatively similar, but incompatible, objectives and difficulties. Despite this, those who voted for Brexit in 2016 tend to be more unionist than those who voted to remain. The BBC reported that 39% of those who voted Leave in 2016 would vote Yes, while 59% of those who voted Remain would do the same.


title: Scottish independence

text: The Conservative Party, Labour Party and Liberal Democrats, which all have seats in the Scottish Parliament, oppose Scottish independence. In 2012 they established the cross-party Better Together campaign. Other parties that oppose Scottish independence include the UK Independence Party (UKIP), All for Unity, Reform UK, Abolish the Scottish Parliament, the British National Party (BNP), Britain First, the Scottish Unionist Party (SUP), and the Ulster unionist parties.


title: Scottish independence

text: A campaign group called "Scotland in Union" emerged after the 2014 independence referendum. It has encouraged anti-SNP tactical voting in elections and promoted the Union more generally. However, 'Scotland in Union' has been the subject of controversy, after leaked records indicated that most of their money came from wealthy donors rather than the campaign's own members. In late 2017, a new group called "Unity UK" was formed. Its supporters said that Unionists needed to be more supportive of Brexit and were critical of Scotland in Union's "agnostic" stance on the issue.


title: Scottish independence

text: Many leaders of foreign nations expressed support for Unionism during the 2014 independence referendum. Barack Obama expressed his support for a "strong, robust and united" UK. Then-Swedish Foreign Minister and former prime minister Carl Bildt opposed the "Balkanisation" of the British Isles.


title: Scottish independence

text: The Orange Order, a Protestant brotherhood with thousands of members in Scotland, campaigned against Scottish independence, and formed a campaign group called British Together. In September 2014, it held a march of at least 15,000 Orangemen, loyalist bands and supporters from Scotland and across the UK; described as the biggest pro-Union demonstration of the campaign.


title: Scottish independence

text: Many newspapers in Scotland were also opposed to independence in 2014. This included Scottish-based newspapers "The Scotsman", "Scotland on Sunday", "The Herald", the "Sunday Post", the "Daily Record, the Sunday Mail", the "Scottish Daily Mail", "The Scottish Daily Express", "The Scottish Sunday Express", and "Daily Star of Scotland"; as well as UK-wide newspapers "The Daily Telegraph", "Sunday Telegraph", "The Guardian", "The Independent", "The Economist", "Financial Times", "The Spectator", and "The Sunday Times".


title: Scottish independence

text: A Confederal UK has been proposed as a concept of constitutional reform of the United Kingdom, in which the countries of the United Kingdom; England, Scotland, Wales, as well as Northern Ireland become separate sovereign groups or states that pool certain key resources within a confederal system.


title: Scottish independence

text: Many opinion polls were conducted about Scottish independence during the 2014 referendum campaign. Professor John Curtice stated in January 2012 that polling had shown support for independence at between 32% and 38% of the Scottish population. This had fallen somewhat since the SNP were first elected to become the Scottish Government in 2007. The research also showed, however, that the proportion of the population strongly opposed to independence had also declined. Curtice stated in April 2014 that support for independence had increased since December 2013, although there was disagreement between the polling companies as to the true state of public opinion. Polls in the run-up to the referendum vote showed a closing of the gap, with one YouGov poll giving the Yes campaign a 51–49 lead. In the referendum Scotland voted against independence by 55.3% to 44.7%, with an overall turnout of 84.5%.


title: Scottish independence

text: Since six weeks after the 2014 referendum, opinion polls have asked how people would vote in a proposed second referendum. Twenty-five polls were conducted in the year after the referendum, with seventeen of them having "No" as the predominant answer, seven having "Yes", and one having an equal proportion of respondents for each opinion.


title: Scottish independence

text: In the year from September 2016 to September 2017, 25 of 26 polls conducted showed "No" as the most popular answer and only one showed "Yes" as the most popular answer. "No" continued to show a lead in opinion polls until July 2019, when one poll by Lord Ashcroft showed a narrow majority for "Yes". Professor John Curtice said after this poll was released that there had recently been a swing towards "Yes", and that this was concentrated among people who had voted to "Remain" in the 2016 Brexit referendum.


title: Scottish independence

text: This pro-independence trend continued into 2020, as three polls in the early part of the year put "Yes" support at between 50% and 52%. In October 2020, an Ipsos MORI/STV News poll saw support for independence at its highest ever level, with 58% saying they would vote "Yes". As of December 2020, fifteen consecutive opinion polls had shown a lead for "Yes". The run of polls showing a "Yes" lead continued into January 2021, although the average support for Yes was down by two percentage points compared to polls by the same companies in late 2020. Polls conducted in early March 2021, following testimony by Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon at a Holyrood parliamentary inquiry, showed narrow leads for "No". Since February 2022, polls have generally shown leads for "No".


title: Scottish independence

text: Support for independence in opinion polling depends upon the format of the question being asked. Polling company Survation have asked Scottish voters the question "Should Scotland remain in the United Kingdom or leave the United Kingdom?". Since 2018, none of these polls have shown a lead for Remain of less than 10%. The rest of the UK generally supports Scotland remaining a part of the UK. YouGov polling between late 2019 and early 2022 shows that support for Scottish independence is at around 30%, while support for Scotland remaining in the UK is at around 45%.


title: Erik Satie

text: Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an undistinguished student and obtained no diploma. In the 1880s he worked as a pianist in café-cabaret in Montmartre, Paris, and began composing works, mostly for solo piano, such as his "Gymnopédies" and "Gnossiennes". He also wrote music for a Rosicrucian sect to which he was briefly attached.


title: Erik Satie

text: After a spell in which he composed little, Satie entered Paris's second music academy, the Schola Cantorum, as a mature student. His studies there were more successful than those at the Conservatoire. From about 1910 he became the focus of successive groups of young composers attracted by his unconventionality and originality. Among them were the group known as Les Six. A meeting with Jean Cocteau in 1915 led to the creation of the ballet "Parade" (1917) for Serge Diaghilev, with music by Satie, sets and costumes by Pablo Picasso, and choreography by Léonide Massine.


title: Erik Satie

text: Satie's example guided a new generation of French composers away from post-Wagnerian impressionism towards a sparer, terser style. Among those influenced by him during his lifetime were Maurice Ravel and Francis Poulenc, and he is seen as an influence on more recent, minimalist composers such as John Cage and John Adams. His harmony is often characterised by unresolved chords, he sometimes dispensed with bar-lines, as in his "Gnossiennes", and his melodies are generally simple and often reflect his love of old church music. He gave some of his later works absurd titles, such as "Veritables Preludes flasques (pour un chien)" ("True Flabby Preludes (for a Dog)", 1912), "Croquis et agaceries d'un gros bonhomme en bois" ("Sketches and Exasperations of a Big Wooden Man", 1913) and "Sonatine bureaucratique" ("Bureaucratic Sonatina", 1917). Most of his works are brief, and the majority are for solo piano. Exceptions include his "symphonic drama" "Socrate" (1919) and two late ballets "Mercure" and "Relâche" (1924).


title: Erik Satie

text: Satie never married, and his home for most of his adult life was a single small room, first in Montmartre and, from 1898 to his death, in Arcueil, a suburb of Paris. He adopted various images over the years, including a period in quasi-priestly dress, another in which he always wore identically coloured velvet suits, and is known for his last persona, in neat bourgeois costume, with bowler hat, wing collar, and umbrella. He was a lifelong heavy drinker, and died of cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 59.


title: Erik Satie

text: Satie was born on 17 May 1866 in Honfleur, Normandy, the first child of Alfred Satie and his wife Jane Leslie ("née" Anton). Jane Satie was an English Protestant of Scottish descent; Alfred Satie, a shipping broker, was a Roman Catholic anglophobe. A year later the Saties had a daughter, Olga, and in 1869 a second son, Conrad. The children were baptised in the Anglican church.


title: Erik Satie

text: After the Franco-Prussian War, Alfred Satie sold his business and the family moved to Paris, where he eventually set up as a music publisher. In 1872 Jane Satie died and Eric and his brother were sent back to Honfleur to be brought up by Alfred's parents. The boys were rebaptised as Roman Catholics and educated at a local boarding school, where Satie excelled in history and Latin but nothing else. In 1874 he began taking music lessons with a local organist, Gustave Vinot, a former pupil of Louis Niedermeyer. Vinot stimulated Satie's love of old church music, and in particular Gregorian chant.


title: Erik Satie

text: In 1878 Satie's grandmother died, and the two boys returned to Paris to be informally educated by their father. Satie did not attend a school, but his father took him to lectures at the Collège de France and engaged a tutor to teach Eric Latin and Greek. Before the boys returned to Paris from Honfleur, Alfred had met a piano teacher and salon composer, Eugénie Barnetche, whom he married in January 1879, to the dismay of the twelve-year-old Satie, who did not like her.


title: Erik Satie

text: Eugénie Satie resolved that her elder stepson should become a professional musician, and in November 1879 enrolled him in the preparatory piano class at the Paris Conservatoire. Satie strongly disliked the Conservatoire, which he described as "a vast, very uncomfortable, and rather ugly building; a sort of district prison with no beauty on the inside – nor on the outside, for that matter". He studied solfeggio with Albert Lavignac and piano with Émile Decombes, who had been a pupil of Frédéric Chopin. In 1880 Satie took his first examinations as a pianist: he was described as "gifted but indolent". The following year Decombes called him "the laziest student in the Conservatoire". In 1882 he was expelled from the Conservatoire for his unsatisfactory performance.


title: Erik Satie

text: In 1884 Satie wrote his first known composition, a short Allegro for piano, written while on holiday in Honfleur. He signed himself "Erik" on this and subsequent compositions, though continuing to use "Eric" on other documents until 1906. In 1885 he was readmitted to the Conservatoire, in the intermediate piano class of his stepmother's former teacher, Georges Mathias. He made little progress: Mathias described his playing as "Insignificant and laborious" and Satie himself "Worthless. Three months just to learn the piece. Cannot sight-read properly". Satie became fascinated by aspects of religion. He spent much time in Notre-Dame de Paris contemplating the stained glass windows and in the National Library examining obscure medieval manuscripts. His friend Alphonse Allais later dubbed him "Esotérik Satie". From this period comes "Ogives", a set of four piano pieces inspired by Gregorian chant and Gothic church architecture.


title: Erik Satie

text: Keen to leave the Conservatoire, Satie volunteered for military service, and joined the 33rd Infantry Regiment in November 1886. He quickly found army life no more to his liking than the Conservatoire, and deliberately contracted acute bronchitis by standing in the open, bare-chested, on a winter night. After three months' convalescence he was invalided out of the army.


title: Erik Satie

text: In 1887, at the age of 21, Satie moved from his father's residence to lodgings in the 9th arrondissement. By this time he had started what was to be an enduring friendship with the romantic poet Contamine de Latour, whose verse he set in some of his early compositions, which Satie senior published. His lodgings were close to the popular Chat Noir cabaret on the southern edge of Montmartre where he became an habitué and then a resident pianist. The Chat Noir was known as the "temple de la 'convention farfelue'" – the temple of zany convention, and as the biographer Robert Orledge puts it, Satie, "free from his restrictive upbringing … enthusiastically embraced the reckless bohemian lifestyle and created for himself a new persona as a long-haired man-about-town in frock coat and top hat". This was the first of several personas that Satie invented for himself over the years.


title: Erik Satie

text: In the late 1880s Satie styled himself on at least one occasion "Erik Satie – gymnopédiste", and his works from this period include the three "Gymnopédies" (1888) and the first "Gnossiennes" (1889 and 1890). He earned a modest living as pianist and conductor at the Chat Noir, before falling out with the proprietor and moving to become second pianist at the nearby Auberge du Clou. There he became a close friend of Claude Debussy, who proved a kindred spirit in his experimental approach to composition. Both were bohemians, enjoying the same café society and struggling to survive financially. At the Auberge du Clou Satie first encountered the flamboyant, self-styled "Sâr" Joséphin Péladan, for whose mystic sect, the Ordre de la Rose-Croix Catholique du Temple et du Graal, he was appointed composer. This gave him scope for experiment, and Péladan's salons at the fashionable Galerie Durand-Ruel gained Satie his first public hearings. Frequently short of money, Satie moved from his lodgings in the 9th arrondissement to a small room in the rue Cortot not far from Sacre-Coeur, so high up the Butte Montmartre that he said he could see from his window all the way to the Belgian border.


title: Erik Satie

text: By mid-1892, Satie had composed the first pieces in a compositional system of his own making ('), provided incidental music to a chivalric esoteric play (two '), had a hoax published (announcing the premiere of his non-existent "", an anti-Wagnerian opera) and broken away from Péladan, starting that autumn with the ""Uspud"" project, a "Christian Ballet", in collaboration with Latour. He challenged the musical establishment by proposing himself – unsuccessfully – for the seat in the Académie des Beaux-Arts made vacant by the death of Ernest Guiraud. Between 1893 and 1895, Satie, affecting a quasi-priestly dress, was the founder and only member of the Eglise Métropolitaine d'Art de Jésus Conducteur. From his ""Abbatiale"" in the rue Cortot, he published scathing attacks on his artistic enemies.


title: Erik Satie

text: In 1893 Satie had what is believed to be his only love affair, a five-month liaison with the painter Suzanne Valadon. After their first night together, he proposed marriage. The two did not marry, but Valadon moved to a room next to Satie's at the rue Cortot. Satie became obsessed with her, calling her his Biqui and writing impassioned notes about "her whole being, lovely eyes, gentle hands, and tiny feet". During their relationship Satie composed the "Danses gothiques" as a means of calming his mind, and Valadon painted his portrait, which she gave him. After five months she moved away, leaving him devastated. He said later that he was left with "nothing but an icy loneliness that fills the head with emptiness and the heart with sadness".


title: Erik Satie

text: In 1895 Satie attempted to change his image once again: this time to that of "the Velvet Gentleman". From the proceeds of a small legacy he bought seven identical dun-coloured suits. Orledge comments that this change "marked the end of his Rose+Croix period and the start of a long search for a new artistic direction".


title: Erik Satie

text: In 1898, in search of somewhere cheaper and quieter than Montmartre, Satie moved to a room in the southern suburbs, in the commune of Arcueil-Cachan, eight kilometres (five miles) from the centre of Paris. This remained his home for the rest of his life. No visitors were ever admitted. He joined a radical socialist party (he later switched his membership to the Communist Party), but adopted a thoroughly bourgeois image: the biographer Pierre-Daniel Templier, writes, "With his umbrella and bowler hat, he resembled a quiet school teacher. Although a Bohemian, he looked very dignified, almost ceremonious".


title: Erik Satie

text: Satie earned a living as a cabaret pianist, adapting more than a hundred compositions of popular music for piano or piano and voice, adding some of his own. The most popular of these were ', text by Henry Pacory; ', text by Vincent Hyspa; ', a waltz; "La Diva de l'Empire", text by Dominique Bonnaud/Numa Blès; ', a march; ', text by Contamine de Latour (lost, but the music later reappears in '); and others. In his later years Satie rejected all his cabaret music as vile and against his nature. Only a few compositions that he took seriously remain from this period: "Jack in the Box", music to a pantomime by Jules Depaquit (called a "" by Satie); "", a short comic opera to a text by "Lord Cheminot" (Latour); "The Dreamy Fish", piano music to accompany a lost tale by Cheminot, and a few others that were mostly incomplete. Few were presented, and none published at the time.


title: Erik Satie

text: A decisive change in Satie's musical outlook came after he heard the premiere of Debussy's opera "Pelléas et Mélisande" in 1902. He found it "absolutely astounding", and he re-evaluated his own music. In a determined attempt to improve his technique, and against Debussy's advice, he enrolled as a mature student at Paris's second main music academy, the Schola Cantorum in October 1905, continuing his studies there until 1912. The institution was run by Vincent d'Indy, who emphasised orthodox technique rather than creative originality. Satie studied counterpoint with Albert Roussel and composition with d'Indy, and was a much more conscientious and successful student than he had been at the Conservatoire in his youth.


title: Erik Satie

text: It was not until 1911, when he was in his mid-forties, that Satie came to the notice of the musical public in general. In January of that year Maurice Ravel played some early Satie works at a concert by the Société musicale indépendante, a forward-looking group set up by Ravel and others as a rival to the conservative Société nationale de musique. Satie was suddenly seen as "the precursor and apostle of the musical revolution now taking place"; he became a focus for young composers. Debussy, having orchestrated the first and third "Gymnopédies", conducted them in concert. The publisher Demets asked for new works from Satie, who was finally able to give up his cabaret work and devote himself to composition. Works such as the cycle "Sports et divertissements" (1914) were published in de luxe editions. The press began to write about Satie's music, and a leading pianist, Ricardo Viñes, took him up, giving celebrated first performances of some Satie pieces.


title: Erik Satie

text: Satie became the focus of successive groups of young composers, whom he first encouraged and then distanced himself from, sometimes rancorously, when their popularity threatened to eclipse his or they otherwise displeased him. First were the "jeunes" – those associated with Ravel – and then a group known at first as the "nouveaux jeunes", later called Les Six, including Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger, and Germaine Tailleferre, joined later by Francis Poulenc and Darius Milhaud. Satie dissociated himself from the second group in 1918, and in the 1920s he became the focal point of another set of young composers including Henri Cliquet-Pleyel, Roger Désormière, Maxime Jacob and Henri Sauguet, who became known as the "Arcueil School". In addition to turning against Ravel, Auric and Poulenc in particular, Satie quarrelled with his old friend Debussy in 1917, resentful of the latter's failure to appreciate the more recent Satie compositions. The rupture lasted for the remaining months of Debussy's life, and when he died the following year, Satie refused to attend the funeral. A few of his protégés escaped his displeasure, and Milhaud and Désormière were among those who remained friends with him to the last.


title: Erik Satie

text: The First World War restricted concert-giving to some extent, but Orledge comments that the war years brought "Satie's second lucky break", when Jean Cocteau heard Viñes and Satie perform the "Trois morceaux" in 1916. This led to the commissioning of the ballet "Parade", premiered in 1917 by Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, with music by Satie, sets and costumes by Pablo Picasso, and choreography by Léonide Massine. This was a "succès de scandale", with jazz rhythms and instrumentation including parts for typewriter, steamship whistle and siren. It firmly established Satie's name before the public, and thereafter his career centred on the theatre, writing mainly to commission.


title: Erik Satie

text: In October 1916 Satie received a commission from the Princesse de Polignac that resulted in what Orledge rates as the composer's masterpiece, "Socrate", two years later. Satie set translations from Plato's Dialogues as a "symphonic drama". Its composition was interrupted in 1917 by a libel suit brought against him by a music critic, Jean Poueigh, which nearly resulted in a jail sentence for Satie. When "Socrate" was premiered, Satie called it "a return to classical simplicity with a modern sensibility", and among those who admired the work was Igor Stravinsky, a composer whom Satie regarded with awe.


title: Erik Satie

text: In his later years Satie became known for his prose. He was in demand as a journalist, making contributions to the "Revue musicale", "Action", "L'Esprit nouveau", the "Paris-Journal" and other publications from the Dadaist "391" to the English-language magazines "Vanity Fair" and "The Transatlantic Review". As he contributed anonymously or under pen names to some publications it is not certain how many titles he wrote for, but "Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians" lists 25. Satie's habit of embellishing the scores of his compositions with all kinds of written remarks became so established that he had to insist that they must not be read out during performances.


title: Erik Satie

text: In 1920 there was a festival of Satie's music at the Salle Erard in Paris. In 1924 the ballets "Mercure" (with choreography by Massine and décor by Picasso) and "Relâche" ("Cancelled") (in collaboration with Francis Picabia and René Clair), both provoked headlines with their first night scandals.


title: Erik Satie

text: Despite being a musical iconoclast, and encourager of modernism, Satie was uninterested to the point of antipathy about innovations such as the telephone, the gramophone and the radio. He made no recordings, and as far as is known heard only a single radio broadcast (of Milhaud's music) and made only one telephone call. Although his personal appearance was customarily immaculate, his room at Arcueil was in Orledge's word "squalid", and after his death the scores of several important works believed lost were found among the accumulated rubbish. He was incompetent with money. Having depended to a considerable extent on the generosity of friends in his early years, he was little better off when he began to earn a good income from his compositions, as he spent or gave away money as soon as he received it. He liked children, and they liked him, but his relations with adults were seldom straightforward. One of his last collaborators, Picabia, said of him:


title: Erik Satie

text: Throughout his adult life Satie was a heavy drinker, and in 1925 his health collapsed. He was taken to the Hôpital Saint-Joseph in Paris, diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. He died there at 8.00 p.m. on 1 July, at the age of 59. He was buried in the cemetery at Arcueil.


title: Erik Satie

text: In the view of the "Oxford Dictionary of Music", Satie's importance lay in "directing a new generation of French composers away from Wagner‐influenced impressionism towards a leaner, more epigrammatic style". Debussy christened him "the precursor" because of his early harmonic innovations. Satie summed up his musical philosophy in 1917:


title: Erik Satie

text: Among his earliest compositions were sets of three "Gymnopédies" (1888) and his "Gnossiennes" (1889 onwards) for piano. They evoke the ancient world by what the critics Roger Nichols and Paul Griffiths describe as "pure simplicity, monotonous repetition, and highly original modal harmonies".


title: Erik Satie

text: It is possible that their simplicity and originality were influenced by Debussy; it is also possible that it was Satie who influenced Debussy. During the brief spell when Satie was composer to Péladan's sect he adopted a similarly austere manner.


title: Erik Satie

text: While Satie was earning his living as a café pianist in Montmartre he contributed songs and little waltzes. After moving to Arcueil he began to write works with quirky titles, such as the seven-movement suite "Trois morceaux en forme de poire" ("Three Pear-shaped Pieces") for piano four-hands (1903), simply-phrased music that Nichols and Griffiths describe as "a résumé of his music since 1890" – reusing some of his earlier work as well as popular songs of the time. He struggled to find his own musical voice. Orledge writes that this was partly because of his "trying to ape his illustrious peers … we find bits of Ravel in his miniature opera "Geneviève de Brabant" and echoes of both Fauré and Debussy in the "Nouvelles pièces froides" of 1907".


title: Erik Satie

text: After concluding his studies at the Schola Cantorum in 1912 Satie composed with greater confidence and more prolifically. Orchestration, despite his studies with d'Indy, was never his strongest suit, but his grasp of counterpoint is evident in the opening bars of "Parade", and from the outset of his composing career he had original and distinctive ideas about harmony. In his later years he composed sets of short instrumental works with absurd titles, including "Veritables Preludes flasques (pour un chien)" ("True Flabby Preludes (for a Dog)", 1912), "Croquis et agaceries d'un gros bonhomme en bois" ("Sketches and Exasperations of a Big Wooden Man", 1913) and "Sonatine bureaucratique" ("Bureaucratic Sonata", 1917).


title: Erik Satie

text: In his neat, calligraphic hand, Satie would write extensive instructions for his performers, and although his words appear at first sight to be humorous and deliberately nonsensical, Nichols and Griffiths comment, "a sensitive pianist can make much of injunctions such as 'arm yourself with clairvoyance' and 'with the end of your thought'". His "Sonatine bureaucratique" anticipates the neoclassicism soon adopted by Stravinsky. Despite his rancorous falling out with Debussy, Satie commemorated his long-time friend in 1920, two years after Debussy's death, in the anguished "Elégie", the first of the miniature song cycle "Quatre petites mélodies". Orledge rates the cycle as the finest, though least known, of the four sets of short songs of Satie's last decade.


title: Erik Satie

text: Satie invented what he called "Musique d'ameublement" – "furniture music" – a kind of background not to be listened to consciously. "Cinéma", composed for the René Clair film "Entr'acte", shown between the acts of "Relâche" (1924), is an example of early film music designed to be unconsciously absorbed rather than carefully listened to.


title: Erik Satie

text: Satie is regarded by some writers as an influence on minimalism, which developed in the 1960s and later. The musicologist Mark Bennett and the composer Humphrey Searle have said that John Cage's music shows Satie's influence, and Searle and the writer Edward Strickland have used the term "minimalism" in connection with Satie's "Vexations", which the composer implied in his manuscript should be played over and over again 840 times. John Adams included a specific homage to Satie's music in his 1996 "Century Rolls".


title: Erik Satie

text: Satie wrote extensively for the press, but unlike his professional colleagues such as Debussy and Dukas he did not write primarily as a music critic. Much of his writing is connected to music tangentially if at all. His biographer Caroline Potter describes him as "an experimental creative writer, a "blagueur" who provoked, mystified and amused his readers". He wrote "jeux d'esprit" claiming to eat dinner in four minutes with a diet of exclusively white food (including bones and fruit mould), or to drink boiled wine mixed with fuchsia juice, or to be woken by a servant hourly throughout the night to have his temperature taken; he wrote in praise of Beethoven's non-existent but "sumptuous" Tenth Symphony, and the family of instruments known as the cephalophones, "which have a compass of thirty octaves and are absolutely unplayable".


title: Erik Satie

text: Satie grouped some of these writings under the general headings "Cahiers d'un mammifère" (A Mammal's Notebook) and "Mémoires d'un amnésique" (Memoirs of an Amnesiac), indicating, as Potter comments, that "these are not autobiographical writings in the conventional manner". He claimed the major influence on his humour was Oliver Cromwell, adding "I also owe much to Christopher Columbus, because the American spirit has occasionally tapped me on the shoulder and I have been delighted to feel its ironically glacial bite".


title: Modular arithmetic

text: In mathematics, modular arithmetic is a system of arithmetic for integers, where numbers "wrap around" when reaching a certain value, called the modulus. The modern approach to modular arithmetic was developed by Carl Friedrich Gauss in his book "Disquisitiones Arithmeticae", published in 1801.


title: Modular arithmetic

text: A familiar use of modular arithmetic is in the 12-hour clock, in which the day is divided into two 12-hour periods. If the time is 7:00 now, then 8 hours later it will be 3:00. Simple addition would result in , but clocks "wrap around" every 12 hours. Because the hour number starts over at zero when it reaches 12, this is arithmetic "modulo" 12. In terms of the definition below, 15 is "congruent" to 3 modulo 12, so "15:00" on a 24-hour clock is displayed "3:00" on a 12-hour clock.


title: Modular arithmetic

text: Given an integer , called a modulus, two integers and are said to be congruent modulo , if is a divisor of their difference (that is, if there is an integer such that ).


title: Modular arithmetic

text: Congruence modulo is a congruence relation, meaning that it is an equivalence relation that is compatible with the operations of addition, subtraction, and multiplication. Congruence modulo is denoted:


title: Modular arithmetic

text: The parentheses mean that applies to the entire equation, not just to the right-hand side (here, ). This notation is not to be confused with the notation (without parentheses), which refers to the modulo operation. Indeed, denotes the unique integer such that and formula_2 (that is, the remainder of formula_3 when divided by formula_4).


title: Modular arithmetic

text: explicitly showing its relationship with Euclidean division. However, the here need not be the remainder of the division of by Instead, what the statement asserts is that and have the same remainder when divided by . That is,


title: Modular arithmetic

text: because , which is a multiple of 12. Another way to express this is to say that both 38 and 14 have the same remainder 2, when divided by 12.


title: Modular arithmetic

text: The multiplicative inverse may be efficiently computed by solving Bézout's equation formula_11 for formula_12—using the Extended Euclidean algorithm.


title: Modular arithmetic

text: In particular, if is a prime number, then is coprime with for every such that ; thus a multiplicative inverse exists for all that is not congruent to zero modulo .


title: Modular arithmetic

text: Like any congruence relation, congruence modulo is an equivalence relation, and the equivalence class of the integer , denoted by , is the set }. This set, consisting of all the integers congruent to  modulo , is called the congruence class, residue class, or simply residue of the integer modulo . When the modulus is known from the context, that residue may also be denoted .


title: Modular arithmetic

text: Each residue class modulo may be represented by any one of its members, although we usually represent each residue class by the smallest nonnegative integer which belongs to that class (since this is the proper remainder which results from division). Any two members of different residue classes modulo are incongruent modulo . Furthermore, every integer belongs to one and only one residue class modulo .


title: Modular arithmetic

text: The set of integers } is called the least residue system modulo . Any set of integers, no two of which are congruent modulo , is called a complete residue system modulo .


title: Modular arithmetic

text: The least residue system is a complete residue system, and a complete residue system is simply a set containing precisely one representative of each residue class modulo . For example. the least residue system modulo 4 is {0, 1, 2, 3}. Some other complete residue systems modulo 4 include:


title: Modular arithmetic

text: Given the Euler's totient function , any set of integers that are relatively prime to and mutually incongruent under modulus is called a reduced residue system modulo . The set {5,15} from above, for example, is an instance of a reduced residue system modulo 4.


title: Modular arithmetic

text: The set of all congruence classes of the integers for a modulus is called the ring of integers modulo , and is denoted formula_14, formula_15, or formula_16. The notation formula_16 is, however, not recommended because it can be confused with the set of -adic integers. The ring formula_18 is fundamental to various branches of mathematics (see below).


title: Modular arithmetic

text: We use the notation formula_18 because this is the quotient ring of formula_21 by the ideal formula_31, a set containing all integers divisible by , where formula_32 is the singleton set }. Thus formula_18 is a field when formula_31 is a maximal ideal (i.e., when is prime).


title: Modular arithmetic

text: This can also be constructed from the group formula_35 under the addition operation alone. The residue class is the group coset of in the quotient group formula_18, a cyclic group.


title: Modular arithmetic

text: Rather than excluding the special case , it is more useful to include formula_37 (which, as mentioned before, is isomorphic to the ring formula_21 of integers). In fact, this inclusion is useful when discussing the characteristic of a ring.


title: Modular arithmetic

text: The ring of integers modulo is a finite field if and only if is prime (this ensures that every nonzero element has a multiplicative inverse). If formula_39 is a prime power with "k" > 1, there exists a unique (up to isomorphism) finite field formula_40 with elements, but this is "not" formula_41, which fails to be a field because it has zero-divisors.


title: Modular arithmetic

text: The multiplicative subgroup of integers modulo "n" is denoted by formula_42. This consists of formula_43 (where "a" is coprime to "n"), which are precisely the classes possessing a multiplicative inverse. This forms a commutative group under multiplication, with order formula_44.


title: Modular arithmetic

text: In theoretical mathematics, modular arithmetic is one of the foundations of number theory, touching on almost every aspect of its study, and it is also used extensively in group theory, ring theory, knot theory, and abstract algebra. In applied mathematics, it is used in computer algebra, cryptography, computer science, chemistry and the visual and musical arts.


title: Modular arithmetic

text: A very practical application is to calculate checksums within serial number identifiers. For example, International Standard Book Number (ISBN) uses modulo 11 (for 10 digit ISBN) or modulo 10 (for 13 digit ISBN) arithmetic for error detection. Likewise, International Bank Account Numbers (IBANs), for example, make use of modulo 97 arithmetic to spot user input errors in bank account numbers. In chemistry, the last digit of the CAS registry number (a unique identifying number for each chemical compound) is a check digit, which is calculated by taking the last digit of the first two parts of the CAS registry number times 1, the previous digit times 2, the previous digit times 3 etc., adding all these up and computing the sum modulo 10.


title: Modular arithmetic

text: In cryptography, modular arithmetic directly underpins public key systems such as RSA and Diffie–Hellman, and provides finite fields which underlie elliptic curves, and is used in a variety of symmetric key algorithms including Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), International Data Encryption Algorithm (IDEA), and RC4. RSA and Diffie–Hellman use modular exponentiation.


title: Modular arithmetic

text: In computer algebra, modular arithmetic is commonly used to limit the size of integer coefficients in intermediate calculations and data. It is used in polynomial factorization, a problem for which all known efficient algorithms use modular arithmetic. It is used by the most efficient implementations of polynomial greatest common divisor, exact linear algebra and Gröbner basis algorithms over the integers and the rational numbers. As posted on Fidonet in the 1980s and archived at Rosetta Code, modular arithmetic was used to disprove Euler's sum of powers conjecture on a Sinclair QL microcomputer using just one-fourth of the integer precision used by a CDC 6600 supercomputer to disprove it two decades earlier via a brute force search.


title: Modular arithmetic

text: In computer science, modular arithmetic is often applied in bitwise operations and other operations involving fixed-width, cyclic data structures. The modulo operation, as implemented in many programming languages and calculators, is an application of modular arithmetic that is often used in this context. The logical operator XOR sums 2 bits, modulo 2.


title: Modular arithmetic

text: In music, arithmetic modulo 12 is used in the consideration of the system of twelve-tone equal temperament, where octave and enharmonic equivalency occurs (that is, pitches in a 1:2 or 2:1 ratio are equivalent, and C-sharp is considered the same as D-flat).


title: Modular arithmetic

text: The method of casting out nines offers a quick check of decimal arithmetic computations performed by hand. It is based on modular arithmetic modulo 9, and specifically on the crucial property that 10 ≡ 1 (mod 9).


title: Modular arithmetic

text: Arithmetic modulo 7 is used in algorithms that determine the day of the week for a given date. In particular, Zeller's congruence and the Doomsday algorithm make heavy use of modulo-7 arithmetic.


title: Modular arithmetic

text: More generally, modular arithmetic also has application in disciplines such as law (e.g., apportionment), economics (e.g., game theory) and other areas of the social sciences, where proportional division and allocation of resources plays a central part of the analysis.


title: Modular arithmetic

text: Since modular arithmetic has such a wide range of applications, it is important to know how hard it is to solve a system of congruences. A linear system of congruences can be solved in polynomial time with a form of Gaussian elimination, for details see linear congruence theorem. Algorithms, such as Montgomery reduction, also exist to allow simple arithmetic operations, such as multiplication and exponentiation modulo , to be performed efficiently on large numbers.


title: Modular arithmetic

text: Some operations, like finding a discrete logarithm or a quadratic congruence appear to be as hard as integer factorization and thus are a starting point for cryptographic algorithms and encryption. These problems might be NP-intermediate.


title: Modular arithmetic

text: Below are three reasonably fast C functions, two for performing modular multiplication and one for modular exponentiation on unsigned integers not larger than 63 bits, without overflow of the transient operations.


title: Modular arithmetic

text: On computer architectures where an extended precision format with at least 64 bits of mantissa is available (such as the long double type of most x86 C compilers), the following routine is faster than a solution using a loop, by employing the trick that, by hardware, floating-point multiplication results in the most significant bits of the product kept, while integer multiplication results in the least significant bits kept:


title: Modular arithmetic

text: Below is a C function for performing modular exponentiation, that uses the function implemented above.


title: Modern display of the Confederate battle flag

text: Although the Confederate States of America dissolved at the end of the American Civil War (1861–1865), its battle flag continues to receive modern display. The modern display began during the 1948 United States presidential election when it was used by the Dixiecrats, a political party that opposed civil rights for African Americans. Further display of the flag was a response to the civil rights movement and the passage of federal civil rights laws in the 1950s and 1960s.


text: The display of flags associated with the Confederacy is controversial. Supporters associate the Confederate battle flag with pride in Southern heritage, states' rights, and historical commemoration of the Civil War, while opponents associate it with glorification of the Civil War and celebrating the Myth of the Lost Cause, racism, slavery, segregation, white supremacy, historical negationism, and treason. Incidents such as the Charleston church shooting, the Unite the Right rally, and the murder of George Floyd led to public bans against the flag and official display mostly retired.


text: The Confederate States of America used three national flags during the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865, known as the "Stars and Bars" (1861–1863), the "Stainless Banner" (1863–65), and the "Blood-Stained Banner" (1865).


text: The "Stars and Bars" was unpopular among Confederates for its resemblance to the United States flag, which caused confusion during battle. Criticism of the first national flag led to the rise of the battle flag design, which was incorporated by the "Stainless Banner" and "Blood-Stained Banner". Both of these national designs also failed to gain traction in the South. The "Stainless Banner" was criticized for its excessive white design, creating fears that it could be mistaken for a flag of truce and causing it to be easily soiled. The "Blood-Stained Banner", issued a little over a month before the Confederacy's surrender, was seldom used due to few flags being manufactured.


text: Designed by William Porcher Miles, the chairman of the Flag and Seal Committee of the Confederate Provisional Congress, the flag now generally known as the "Confederate flag" was first proposed and rejected as the national flag in 1861. However, the design was adopted as a battle flag by the Army of Northern Virginia (ANV) under General Robert E. Lee and grew in popularity throughout the Confederacy.


text: To conserve material, the ANV changed Miles' design from a rectangle to a square for the battle flag. The rectangular version, similar to the battle flag used by the Army of Tennessee under General Joseph E. Johnston, is the most popular today and common in modern reproductions. Despite never having historically represented the Confederacy as a country nor been officially recognized as one of its flags, it is commonly referred to as "the Confederate Flag" and has become a widely recognized symbol of the American South. It is also called the "rebel flag", "Dixie flag", "Confederate battle flag", or "Southern cross". Opponents of the flag have referred to it as the "Dixie swastika". Due to misconceptions of this design being the Confederacy's national flag, it is often incorrectly called the "Stars and Bars" after the original national design. The self-declared Confederate exclave of Town Line, New York, lacking a genuine Confederate flag, flew a version of this flag prior to its 1946 vote to ceremonially rejoin the Union.


text: During the "memorial period" that ran from the late 19th century through the 1920s, the use of Confederate flags broadened and became the symbolic embodiment of the Lost Cause. The Confederate battle flag was added to the state flags of three former Confederate states. The flag of Mississippi included the battle flag from 1894 until 2020, and the flag of Georgia did from 1956 until 2003. The 50th anniversary reunion at Gettysburg in 1913 was a turning point in obtaining national acceptance of the flag and other Confederate symbols. The flag appears prominently in "The Birth of a Nation" (1915), a highly successful and influential film. Margaret Mitchell's novel, "Gone with the Wind", led to a brief but intense period of nostalgia for the Old South during which the Confederate flag appeared widely. In the film adaptation, the flag flutters over a scene of vast carnage.


text: During World War II, several U.S. military units using Southern nicknames or composed largely of Southerners made the flag their unofficial emblem. Some soldiers carried Confederate flags into battle. After the Battle of Okinawa, a Confederate flag was raised over Shuri Castle by a Marine from the self-styled "Rebel Company" (Company A of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines). It was visible for miles and was taken down after three days on the orders of General Simon B. Buckner Jr. (son of Confederate general Simon Buckner Sr.), who stated that it was inappropriate as "Americans from all over are involved in this battle". The regulation replaced it with of the United States. By the end of the war, the use of the Confederate flag in the military was relatively rare. In 1952, Destroyer Division 122 (known as the "Dixie Division" because its four commanders were from the South) was ordered to stop flying the Confederate flag.


text: Following the May 2020 murder of George Floyd and ensuing protests, Commandant of the Marine Corps David Berger directed Marine Corps leaders to remove all Confederate-related items from all the Corps' bases throughout the world. The entire U.S. Navy soon followed suit, disallowing the exhibition of the Confederate battle flag in all public places on installations, ships, and aircraft. After the branch-specific bans, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper issued guidance in July that effectively forbade the display of the battle flag by all uniformed American military personnel and at all US military installations around the world.


text: The 1948 Dixiecrat political party extensively used Confederate symbols, including the battle flag, and it contributed to the flag's mid-20th-century re-popularization. According to historian John Coski, segregationists utilized Confederate symbols since both they and the Confederates had similar goals, that is, opposition to efforts to "change the South's racial status quo". As a result, Coski stated that "There could be no more fitting opposition than the Confederate battle flag."


text: In Georgia, the Confederate battle flag was reintroduced as an element of the state flag in 1956, just two years after the Supreme Court decision "Brown v. Board of Education". It was considered by many to be a protest against school desegregation. It was also raised at the University of Mississippi during protests against the integration of schools.


text: While some supporters of the flag's continued use claim that it is merely a symbol of Southern heritage and ancestry, or that it represents the cultural traditions that distinguish southern states from the United States at large, white supremacist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan have continued to use the "southern cross" as a symbol. Such groups often display Confederate flags alongside others like the Nazi-era "Reichskriegsflagge" or the Blood Drop Cross, contributing to public perception of the Confederate flag as a hate symbol.


text: Historian John Coski noted that the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the "most visible, active, and effective defender of the flag", "carried forward into the twenty-first century, virtually unchanged, the Lost Cause historical interpretations and ideological vision formulated at the turn of the twentieth." Coski wrote concerning "the flag wars of the late twentieth century":


text: The allied United Daughters of the Confederacy and other historical societies also used the flag as one of their symbols.


text: From an opposite political perspective, both the Southern Student Organizing Committee and the Young Patriots Organization (the latter among Southern migrants in Chicago), were 1960/70s New Left anti-racist movements that attempted to reappropriate the Confederate flag in their symbolism.


text: In Petersburg, Virginia, the Ladies Memorial Association of Petersburg in 1909 had a Tiffany stained-glass Confederate flag included in a window over the door to the former Blandford Church.


text: At its annual meeting in 2016, the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution calling for Southern Baptist churches to stop displaying the Confederate flag, as a "sign of solidarity of the whole Body of Christ."


text: The Confederate flag is a controversial symbol for many Americans today. A 2011 Pew Research Center poll revealed that 30% of Americans had a "negative reaction" when "they saw the Confederate flag displayed." According to the same poll, 9% of Americans had a positive reaction. A majority (58%) did not react. Among black Americans, 41% had a negative reaction, 10% had a positive reaction, and 45% did not. A similar poll taken in 2015 revealed little change from 2011.


text: In an October 2013 YouGov poll, a plurality (38%) of those polled disapproved of displaying the flag in public places. In the same poll, a plurality (44%) of those asked viewed the flag as a symbol of racism, with 24% viewing it as exclusively racist and 20% viewing it as both racist and symbolic of pride in the region. 35% viewed it exclusively as a symbol of regional pride.


text: In a national survey in 2015 across all races, 57% of Americans believed that the Confederate flag represented Southern pride rather than racism. A similar poll in 2000 had a nearly identical result of 59%. However, poll results from only the South yielded a completely different result: 75% of Southern whites described the flag as a symbol of pride. Conversely, 75% of Southern blacks said the flag symbolized racism.


text: Another poll, administered by Economist / YouGov after racially motivated violence in Charleston in August 2017, showed that by a 5% margin – 43% to 38% – the Confederate Flag was viewed as a symbol of southern pride rather than racism. However, participants of color were 32% more likely than their white neighbors to see it as a sign of racism.


text: In July 2020, over a month after the George Floyd incident, Quinnipac released a poll showing that the majority of both Southerners and Americans in general now viewed the Confederate flag as a racist symbol rather than one of heritage, with 55% of Southerners associating the Confederate flag with racism compared to 36% who said the flag a symbol of Southern pride. Closely followed were Americans in general, 56% of whom said the flag was a symbol of racism, with 35% saying it was a symbol of southern pride.


text: This contrasted with polling conducted Morning Consult and Politico right after the George Floyd incident, which showed nearly the opposite - 44 percent of saw the Confederate flag as symbol of Southern pride, and 36 percent saw it as racist.


text: As a result of these varying perceptions, there have been several political controversies surrounding using the Confederate battle flag in Southern state flags, at sporting events, at Southern universities, and on public buildings. In their study of Confederate symbols in the contemporary Southern United States, the Southern political scientists James Michael Martinez, William Donald Richardson, and Ron McNinch-Su wrote:


text: Symbols of the Confederacy remain a contentious issue across the United States and their civic placement has been debated vigorously in many southern U.S. state legislatures since the early 1990s, such as the effort that led to the replacement of Georgia's flag in 2001. Supporters have labeled attempts to display the flag as an exercise of free speech in response to bans in some schools and universities, but have not always been successful in court when attempting to use this justification.


text: In a 2001 essay, "Old Times There Are Best Forgotten", Emory University professor Lucas Carpenter observed that "Contemporary Confederate sympathizers want free use of Confederate symbolism because they say it represents their 'heritage.' It does, of course, but it is heritage chiefly characterized by its brutal oppression of the enslaved and their 'free' descendants. The most important thing to know about the South is that until recently it was a region ruled by slavery and apartheid."


text: The Anti-Defamation League says the flag is "still used by non-extremists, especially in the South, as a symbol of Southern heritage or history."


text: The flag has found popularity in places far outside of the former Confederacy, especially in rural areas in the United States.


text: Muriel Hazel Wright's "14 flags of Oklahoma", inspired by the six flags of Texas, flew at the 1964 New York World's Fair, and were moved to a plaza at the State Capitol in 1966, with Wright's Stars-and-Bars replaced by the battle flag. A 1988 joint legislative resolution specified that the flags be restored after imminent renovations, but in 1989 governor Henry Bellmon provided only 13 flags, arguing that the legislature would have to specify which Confederate flag to fly. In 2003 the legislature agreed to move the display to the Oklahoma History Center and fly the Stars and Bars rather than the battle flag.


text: When researching his ethnography of white Americans, "Searching for Whitopia", scholar Rich Benjamin kept a notepad while traveling the Pacific Northwest. "I remember driving through swaths of Washington and Oregon and seeing a lot of Confederate flags", Benjamin explained to journalist Matthew Novak. "There are a lot of refugees from the South who seem attracted to Oregon not because they're racists, but because Oregon has a racial homogeneity and a conservatism and a gun culture that they really appreciate." The Pacific Northwest offers a cultural collision between the Confederate flag, other emblems of racism, and its new technological profit hubs.


text: Calls for the removal of Confederate flags from Jefferson Davis Park in southwestern Washington state began in 2015, after the Charleston church shooting, by Rev. Marva Edwards, the president of Vancouver's NAACP chapter. Even though the markers and flags are located on private property, they are and were intended to be highly visible (to all cars traveling Interstate 5). Their visibility, and events in other parts of the nation regarding Confederate memorials, still make these symbols a local focus of strong emotions, especially in the aftermath of the white nationalist Unite the Right rally August 11–12, 2017.


text: Eighteen flags fly at Civic Center Plaza in front of the San Francisco City Hall, each representing important events in United States history. These include several related to the American Revolution, along with the original flags of the Republic of California and the Republic of Texas. It also included the Confederate flag, but it was removed in 1984 as a result of protests by members of the Spartacist League, who repeatedly tore down the flag.


text: The Confederate battle flag is sometimes displayed in Europe at far-right group gatherings. The flag is popular with neo-Nazis, particularly in Germany, where displaying Nazi symbols is a crime. In Ukraine, a Confederate flag was prominently displayed in the hall of Kyiv's city council following the Maidan revolution.


text: "Washington Post" reporter Adam Taylor, in an article of June 22, 2015, about the use of Confederate flag in Italy, reports that the first time S.S.C. Napoli supporters were noticed flying the flag abroad was during their quarterfinal match of the UEFA Champions League against English side Chelsea in 2012. He quoted an explanation given several years before to historian Don Harrison Doyle and reported in "Divided Nations" (2002) by a professor of American Literature in Naples: "We too are a defeated people. Once we were a rich and independent country, and then they came from the North and conquered us and took our wealth and power away to Rome."


text: Writer Vladimiro Bottone, in an article of July 15, 2004 on Naples newspaper , adds that stadium is the "place [where] the first virulent and explicit opposition between North and South of the post-war period was made visible in a mass dimension" [...]. For Napoli FC supporters, [...] "Napoli is what it could have been if the robbery of Savoy sneaky team (aiming to Juventus FC, main team of Turin, town of the Savoy, the Italian Royal family, ndr) was not able to perpetrate its damage, to the point of colonizing the Belpaese football with the violence of fraud, thus distorting the development of what should be a fair competition between territories."


text: The 1977 film "Smokey and the Bandit", set in the Southern United States, featured a 1977 Pontiac Trans Am displaying the Georgia state flag on the front license plate of the vehicle; the 1956-2001 Georgia state flag prominently featured the Confederate battle flag.


text: The 1979–1985 American television series "The Dukes of Hazzard", set in a fictional Georgia county, featured the "General Lee" stock car with the flag prominently painted over its roof throughout the series' run.


text: The 1980 film "Battle Beyond the Stars" shows a spaceship used to haul freight piloted by a man calling himself Cowboy. The space truck sports a rectangular variant of the Mobile Depot flag.


text: The 1982 film "Megaforce" is about a fictional high-tech international military organization where each member wears the flag of their home county on the sleeve of their Megaforce uniform. The character Dallas wears a confederate patch on his shoulder, the American flag is seen among the flags that other characters wear.


text: The 1985 film "The Breakfast Club" portrays the 1956 Georgia state flag which incorporates the battle flag design.


text: Kelly (in the 1987–1997 television sitcom "Married... with Children") wears the rebel flag as one of many patches on her jacket in early episodes of the show.


text: The 2005 film "The Dukes of Hazzard" and its 2007 prequel "" both feature the General Lee car from the TV series complete with Confederate flag paint job.


text: The Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd has made heavy use of the flag. In 2012, it tried to distance itself from the flag because of its divisive history as a symbol of racism. In an interview with CNN, Gary Rossington stated, "We just had it in the beginning because we're Southern and that was our image back in the '70s and late '60s. But I think people through the years, people like the KKK and the skinheads...kidnapped the Dixie rebel flag, the Southern tradition and the heritage of the soldiers, you know, that's what it was about. We didn't want that to go to our fans or show the image like we agreed with any of the race stuff or any of the bad things." Two weeks later, after backlash from fans, they resumed using it, with Rossington stating on the band's website, "We know what the Dixie flag represents and its heritage; the Civil War was fought over States rights."


text: Until July 2015, the metal band Pantera sold numerous items that featured the flag in its official online store. Founding member Dimebag Darrell, who was shot and killed in 2004, used a Dean ML guitar customized with the flag covering the guitar's body. As of July 2015, singer Phil Anselmo distanced himself from using the flag.


text: The hip-hop group Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz used the flag (burning) on the cover of its 2001 album "Put Yo Hood Up", as well as in the music video for its single "Bia' Bia'".


text: The rockabilly musician Ray Campi played an upright bass with a customized image of the flag on the back of the instrument. At some point prior to 2009, he changed the image to the Texan flag.


text: The Southern rock musician Tom Petty used the Confederate flag in his 1985 "Southern Accents" tour, tying its imagery to the lead character in his song "Rebels". In 2015, he disclaimed his use of the flag as "downright stupid," saying "It's like how a swastika looks to a Jewish person."


text: Despite hailing from Michigan, the singer Kid Rock prominently displayed the Confederate flag on his tours starting with his 2001 album "Cocky", but by 2011, he had quietly abandoned his use of the flag.


text: The instrumental guitarist Duane Eddy, along with his backing band, "The Rebels", used the Confederate flag and symbolism during his early career.


text: In December 2020, Twitch announced a new policy towards harassment and hateful content, to take effect on January 22, 2021, aimed to better protect marginalized users of the service. While the new policy is more strict, Twitch said this also includes a larger sliding scale of remedies or punishments to better deal with edge cases, such as temporarily blocking one's channel for a short time rather than a full ban. The new policy includes a ban on imagery containing the Confederate flag.


text: On February 16, 2014, University of Mississippi campus police discovered the James Meredith memorial statue, erected in October 2006, surrounded with pre-2003 Georgia State Flags (containing the Confederate Flag) and a rope tied into a noose around the neck of the statue. Meredith, an alumnus of the University of Mississippi, was, in October 1962, the first African American to attend the school. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Oxford, Mississippi Police Department conducted an investigation shortly after the event which led to the arrest of Graeme Phillip Harris, a former freshman at the university. Harris pleaded guilty in June 2015 to a misdemeanor for using threat of force to intimidate African-American students and employees. U.S. District Judge Michael P. Mills sentenced Harris to six months in prison, followed by twelve months of supervision after release. A second student, Austin Reed Edenfield, 21, was sentenced to a year of probation in addition to 50 hours of community service. A third student has yet to be charged.


text: On May 19, 2016, the United States House of Representatives voted to ban the display of Confederate flags on flagpoles at Veterans Administration cemeteries, by a 265–159 vote. The ban was contained in an amendment (House Amendment 592, 114th Congress) to House bill 2822, an appropriations bill. The author of the amendment was California congressman Jared Huffman, who stated that the flag represented "racism, slavery and division."


text: In June 2016, Republicans in Congress attempted to attach an amendment to a bill funding the fight against the Zika virus epidemic that would have reversed the flag ban. It was just one provision of several that Republicans had attached, including an amendment cutting Planned Parenthood funding. Senate Democrats blocked the bill through filibuster.


text: In August 2017, in response to the controversial Unite the Right rally that was held in Charlottesville, the park Six Flags Over Texas replaced its six flags (which had included the first Confederate flag) with six American flags. A representative of the park told KXAS-TV, "We always choose to focus on celebrating the things that unite us versus those that divide us. As such, we have changed the flag displays in our park to feature American flags."


text: On September 27, 2017, ten Confederate flag posters bearing chunks of cotton were found on American University campus.


text: The date coincided with the presentation by historian Ibram Kendi to introduce the Anti-racist Research and Policy Center.


text: On December 15, 2020, the State of New York passed a law "to prohibit the sale or display of hate symbols in public buildings and public grounds including state and local fairs, unless serving an educational or historical purpose." The law defines hate symbols to "include, but not be limited to, symbols of white supremacy, Neo-Nazi ideology or the Battle Flag of the Confederacy".


text: During the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol, several rioters carried Confederate battle flags. This was the first time in U.S. history where the Confederate flag entered the Capitol building in an act of insurrection.


text: In the years after the end of the American Civil War, many former slave states that were members of the Confederacy adopted new state flags during the war. In their new flags' designs, motifs were used in the Confederacy's flags, such as the St. Andrew's cross. In the case of Mississippi, Florida, and Alabama these new state flags were adopted around the same time that new Jim Crow segregation laws were being enacted. These laws, combined with poll taxes, literacy tests, and extrajudicial violence such as lynchings, disenfranchised African American voters for the next ninety years. According to historian John M. Coski:


text: The current Flag of Alabama (the second in Alabama state history) was adopted by Act 383 of the Alabama state legislature on February 16, 1895:


text: An article in the October 1917 "National Geographic" magazine posited that "the purpose in inacting the state flag law was to preserve in permanent form some of the distinctive features of the Confederate Battle Flag."


text: The flag of Arkansas contains four blue stars within a diamond representing the four countries that historically controlled the territory; one of these stars represents the Confederate States of America. The design of the border around the white diamond evokes the saltire found on the Confederate battle flag. In 2019, the Arkansas legislature did not approve a bill that would have redefined the star as referring to Native Americans.


text: The current flag of Florida, adopted by popular referendum in 1900, with minor changes in 1985, contains the Cross of Burgundy. It is believed that the Cross was added in memory of, and showing support for, the Confederacy. The addition of the Cross was proposed by Governor Francis P. Fleming, a former Confederate soldier, who was strongly committed to racial segregation. However, some historians believe the flag dates back to the original flag the Spanish flew over Florida in the 16th century.


text: In 1956 the Georgian state flag was redesigned to incorporate the Confederate battle flag. Following protests over this aspect of the design in the 1990s by the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) and other groups, efforts began in the Georgia General Assembly to remove the battle flag from the state flag's design. These efforts succeeded in January 2001 when Georgia Governor Roy Barnes introduced a design that, though continuing to depict the Battle Flag, significantly reduced its prominence.


text: The following year, amidst dwindling demands for the return of the 1956 design ("Battle Flag" version) and lesser opposing demands for the continued use of the new "Barnes'" design, the Georgia General Assembly redesigned the flag yet again; it adopted a "compromise" design using the 13-star First National Flag of the Confederacy (the "Stars and Bars"), combined with a simplified version of Georgia's state seal placed within the circle of 13 stars on the flag's canton.


text: The city flag of Trenton, Georgia, United States, was adopted in 2001 as a protest following the change of the state flag of Georgia. The flag has been controversial because it incorporates the Confederate Battle Flag.


text: The Confederate battle flag became a part of the flag of Mississippi in 1894. In 1906, the flag statutes were omitted by error from the state's new legal code, leaving Mississippi without an official flag. The omission was not discovered until 1993 when a lawsuit filed by the NAACP regarding the flag was being reviewed by the Supreme Court of Mississippi. In 2000, Governor Ronnie Musgrove issued an executive order making the flag official, which it did in February 2001. After continued controversy, the decision was turned over to citizens of the state, who, on April 17, 2001, voted 2:1 to keep the Confederate Battle Flag a part of the current state flag.


text: Following the Charleston church shooting in June 2015 and subsequent discussion of the flying of the Confederate Battle Flag at the South Carolina State House, Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives Philip Gunn publicly called for the removal of the Confederate Battle Flag from the flag of Mississippi.


text: During the George Floyd protests, more discussion about changing the flag was held, with legislation being introduced into the state legislature. On June 27, 2020, the Mississippi Legislature voted to suspend rules in order to debate over and vote on a bill to address the flag issue. On June 28, both houses passed a bill to abolish the state flag, remove the flag from public institutions within 15 days of its enactment, and create a nine-member commission to design a replacement that would exclude the Confederate battle flag and include the motto "In God We Trust". Governor Tate Reeves signed the bill into law on .


text: The first flag of North Carolina, which was adopted in 1861, had two ribbons. On one of the ribbons is emblazoned "May 20th, 1775". The other one had the inscription "May 20, 1861".


text: The new flag, which was adopted in 1885, has a modified design with other colors, and the date of the North Carolina's secession was replaced by "April 12, 1776".


text: The current Flag of Tennessee was designed by Colonel Lee Roy Reeves, an attorney and officer of the Tennessee National Guard. The flag was officially adopted in 1905, replacing the original post-Civil War state flag. Although the symbolism is reported as referencing only the State of Tennessee, its color scheme, symbolism, and design evoke the Confederacy's flags. The red field and blue charge with white fimbriation evoke the Confederate Battle Flag. The placement of the vertical bar at the fly of the field evokes the Third National Flag of the Confederacy. The language the designer used to describe the three central stars ('the indissoluble trinity', albeit regarding the three 'Grand Divisions of Tennessee') and their central placement evokes the cross of St. Andrew of the Confederate Battle Flag. Vexillologist Steven A. Knowlton, an assistant professor and collection development librarian of the University Libraries of the University of Memphis, believes the relationship of the current Tennessee State Flag and the flags of the Confederacy is one of "pragmatic unity" with a "deeper symbolic recognition" linking it to the Confederacy. While there is no explicit evidence of any intention on the part of the designer to create a link, Knowlton believes many Tennesseans have perceived and continue to perceive a link, given the cultural and historical context. Christopher Ingraham of the Brookings Institution, citing Professor Knowlton, considers this a case of "plausible deniability" and that the flag is one of seven state flags visually continuing the legacy of the Confederacy.


text: Stone Mountain, Georgia, is a "monument to the Confederacy" that was paid for and is owned by the state of Georgia. Stone Mountain Park opened 100 years to the day after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. It is the most visited destination in the state of Georgia.


text: Four flags of the Confederacy are flown at Stone Mountain. In addition, the Stone Mountain Memorial Lawn "contains...thirteen terraces — one for each Confederate state... Each terrace flies the flag that the state flew as member of the Confederacy."


text: The first Confederate flag and five other nations that have had sovereignty over Texas (Spain, France, Mexico, Republic of Texas, United States) appear above one of the side entrances to the Capitol. They also appear on the reverse of the Seal of Texas, which is the subject of a floor mosaic in the Capitol Extension. The seal's reverse was proposed by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas and approved by the Texas Legislature and Governor in 1961, modified in 1991.


text: The Alabamian coat of arms features the Confederate battle flag's saltire in its design. Like Texas, the saltire on the coat of arms represents one of the five countries that have held sovereignty over part or all of Alabama.


text: The shield of the Confederacy was found in the Rotunda of the Florida Capitol, together with those of France, Spain, Great Britain, and the United States – all of them treated equally as "nations" that Florida was part of or governed by. The five flags "that have flown in Florida" were included on the official Senate seal, displayed prominently in the Senate chambers, on its stationery, and throughout the Capitol. On October 19, 2015, the Senate agreed to change the seal to remove the Confederate battle flag. The new (2016) Senate seal has only the flags of the United States and Florida.


text: In Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, vehicle owners can request a state-issued license plate featuring the Sons of Confederate Veterans logo, which incorporates the square Confederate battle flag.


text: In 1998, a North Carolina appellate court upheld the issuance of such license plates in the case "Sons of Confederate v. DMV", noting: "We are aware of the sensitivity of many of our citizens to the display of the Confederate flag. Whether the display of the Confederate flag on state-issued license plates represents sound public policy is not an issue presented to this Court in this case. That is an issue for our General Assembly."


text: In 2015, the dispute over Texas vanity plates that would have displayed the logo ended up before the United States Supreme Court. In its decision in "Walker v. Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans", the court ruled that license plates are governmental speech, so the government may decide what to have printed on them. Texas's refusal to issue flag-emblazoned license plates therefore didn't violate petitioners' right to free speech.


text: In 2015, Virginia recalled its vanity plates with the Confederate flag emblem pictured within the logo of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. To holders of SCV plates, the state mailed replacements without the emblem. The old design with the emblem was invalidated, and driving with such Virginia tags was made a misdemeanor similar to driving an unlicensed vehicle. However, in October 2015, an SCV legal team tried fighting the ban in court.


text: The Confederate battle flag was raised over the State House on April 11, 1961, at the request of Representative John May ostensibly as a part of opening celebrations of the Confederate War Centennial, according to Dr. Daniel Hollis, an appointed member of the centennial commission. Many historians point out that the flag's appearance likely had a more nefarious purpose: to symbolize Southern defiance in the face of a burgeoning Civil Rights Movement. In March 1962, lawmakers passed a resolution directing the flag to be flown over the State House. As "Time" magazine later noted, the move was "a states'-rights rebuff to desegregation." In 1996, then-governor David Beasley advocated for the removal of the flag from the Capitol dome, but later backtracked and was voted out of office.


text: On April 12, 2000, the South Carolina State Senate passed a bill to remove the Confederate flag from the top of the State House dome by a majority vote of 36 to 7. The new bill specified that a more traditional version of the battle flag would be flown in front of the Capitol next to a monument honoring fallen Confederate soldiers. The bill also passed the state's House of Representatives, but not without some difficulty. On May 18, 2000, after the bill was modified to ensure that the height of the flag's new pole would be , it was passed by a majority of 66 to 43. Governor Jim Hodges signed the bill into law five days later after it passed the state Senate. On July 1, 2000, the flag was removed from atop the State House by two students (one white and one black) from The Citadel; Civil War re-enactors then raised a Confederate battle flag on a 30-foot pole on the front lawn of the Capitol next to a slightly taller monument honoring Confederate soldiers who died during the Civil War. State law prohibited the flag's removal from the State House grounds without additional legislation.


text: In 2005, two Western Carolina University researchers found that 74% of African Americans polled favored removing the flag from the State House altogether. The NAACP and other civil rights groups attacked the flag's continued presence at the state capitol. The NAACP maintained an official economic boycott of South Carolina for 15 years, citing the state's continued display of the battle flag, until the flag was eventually removed completely from the State House grounds.


text: In 2000, the National Collegiate Athletic Association "announced that it will cancel future Association-sponsored events in South Carolina if that state doesn't take action to remove the Confederate battle flag from atop its state capitol." The association said that "many coaches and student-athletes feel that an inhospitable environment is created by the display of the Confederate flag over the South Carolina state house", and its chair said, "there is no question that to a significant number of our constituents, the flag is a symbol of oppression." Display of the flag has prevented South Carolina from hosting any championship sporting events in which the sites are determined in advance. This NCAA ban on postseason championships in South Carolina was strictly enforced, with the exception of HBCU Benedict College. In both 2007 and 2009, the school hosted the postseason Pioneer Bowl game, violating the NCAA ban, though no action was taken. On April 14, 2007, Steve Spurrier, coach of the University of South Carolina football team, made an acceptance speech for a community service award in which he referred to the flag on the State House grounds as "that damn flag." This statement was also inspired by the actions of, as Spurrier said, "some clown" who waved the battle flag while being videotaped for "SportsCenter". On July 6, 2009, the Atlantic Coast Conference announced a decision to move three future baseball tournaments out of South Carolina citing miscommunications with the NAACP concerning the display of the Confederate flag in the state.


text: In June 2015, Bree Newsome, filmmaker and activist, climbed the flagpole and removed the flag in the wake of the Charleston church shooting.


text: On July 10, 2015, Republican governor Nikki Haley ordered the flag removed, and it was given to the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum.


text: Dueling groups have been competing over the commemoration of the flag, if any, should be held on the anniversaries of its removal on July 10.


text: After 2015, the South Carolina Secessionist Party has sometimes raised the flag on a temporary flagpole at the capitol on July 10 to mark the anniversary of the flag's removal. This was permitted because the group applied for and got permission to hold an event on the Capitol grounds, the flag was never left unattended, and the temporary flagpole and flag were removed, as required, at the end of the event. Protestors far outnumbered the two dozen flag supporters.


text: From 1985 to late 2020, the town of Remington, Virginia, had a Confederate flag in its municipal seal. A variation of the seal, Confederate flag included, appeared on their police uniform shoulder patches.


text: The Remington town council voted to remove the Confederate flag from its seal on July 20, 2020. Remington was perhaps the last town to remove the Confederate flag from its municipal emblem.


text: From 1975 to 1998, a version of the Confederate battle flag appeared in the coat of arms and flag of Americana, São Paulo, Brazil, a city settled by .