Rebel Yell: The Sound of Terrorism

Race relations in the United States have reached a fever pitch as of late.  While the melting pot simmers and the media await a boil, many of us find ourselves choosing sides as if it were 1861.  One of the issues pushing these boundaries is over the Rebel Flag, which has served as a symbol of terrorism to African Americans and minorities since before the phrase was coined.

  Webster’s defines terrorism as “the use of violent acts to frighten the people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal.”  Armed with torches, the Ku Klux Klan infamously adopted the Rebel Flag as their standard in the late 1860’s following the end of the Civil War.  Their main aim was to overthrow the United States government during the Reconstruction.  Of course their methods included lynching African Americans and burning their churches to the ground- all in the name of calling for new southern revolution.  These anti-governmental plots would surely land such folks on a government watch list today where they would be labeled domestic terrorists.