PRIDE OR PREJUDICE?
Racial Prejudice, Southern Heritage, and White Support for the Confederate Battle Flag
Logan Strother, Spencer Piston, and Thomas Ogorzalek
Forthcoming at Du Bois Review Vol. 14, No. 1 (2017)
Abstract
Debates about the meaning of Southern symbols such as the Confederate battle emblem are
sweeping the nation. These debates typically revolve around the question of whether such
symbols represent “heritage or hatred:” racially innocuous Southern pride or White prejudice
against Blacks. In order to assess these competing claims, we first examine the historical
reintroduction of the Confederate flag in the Deep South in the 1950s and 1960s; next, we
analyze three survey datasets, including one nationally representative dataset and two probability
samples of White Georgians and White South Carolinians, in order to build and assess a stronger
theoretical account of the racial motivations underlying such symbols than currently exists.
While our findings yield strong support for the hypothesis that prejudice against Blacks bolsters
White support for Southern symbols, support for the Southern heritage hypothesis is decidedly
mixed. Despite widespread denials that Southern symbols reflect racism, racial prejudice is
strongly associated with support for such symbols.
<KW>Keywords: Confederate Flag, Race, Prejudice, Heritage, South
1
INTRODUCTION
The mass killing of nine Black churchgoers by a White gunman in Charleston on June 17, 2015
rekindled a nation-wide debate over the Confederate battle emblem. The tragedy was
immediately followed by calls to remove the Confederate flag from the South Carolina capitol
grounds, echoed by Governor Nikki Haley, who had originally opposed removal of the flag. Not
everyone supported the removal of the Confederate flag. Representative Jonathon D. Hill called
efforts to remove the flag “misguided,” while Mike Ryhal, another member of the South
Carolina House, referencing “South Carolina history,” said, “I don’t think it should be removed”
(Srivastava 2015). Fairly rapidly, the South Carolina legislature voted overwhelmingly to
remove the flag and Governor Haley signed the bill into law. Meanwhile, a number of other
states began (or revived) debates on the appropriateness of the Confederate battle emblem:
Governor Robert Bentley ordered the removal of Confederate flag from Alabama’s capitol on
June 24, 2015; Terry McAuliffe, the governor of Virginia, moved to ban the flag from Virginia
license plates on June 23, 2015; and the Supreme Court held that Texas can ban the Confederate
flag from license plates, on June 18, 2015 (Fain 2015; Krishnadey 2015). The debate spilled over
into the private sector as well—a number of major retailers have moved to ban the sale of
Confederate flags and merchandise in their domains, including Amazon and Wal-Mart.
Furthermore, the recent revival of debates over Southern symbols have extended beyond
the flag to other symbols of the Confederate States of America. Statues of Southern generals
have been vandalized with graffiti reading “Black Lives Matter” (Holley 2015). In July 2015, the
Memphis City Council voted unanimously to remove a statue of Confederate General Nathan
Bedford Forrest in a park near downtown Memphis. The school board in one Arkansas town
voted to ban the song “Dixie” and eliminate the school mascot “Rebel,” while other schools
2
named for Confederate generals are considering name changes. Names of parks, such as
Baltimore’s Robert E. Lee Park, are also under consideration for possible change. These debates
have reached even symbols in the United States Capitol, including a statue of Jefferson Davis.
Notably, while efforts to remove the Confederate flag are increasingly popular in the wake of the
Charleston mass shooting, efforts to remove additional Confederate symbols remain unpopular
with majorities of the American public—especially Whites (Agiesta 2015).
Ben Jones, chief of heritage operations for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, argues in
The New York Times that in certain contexts the flag “has been seen as a symbol of non-racist
Southern spirit,” celebrating a “legacy” of ancestors “whose valor became legendary in military
history,” and claims that opponents of the flag “wish to demonize and marginalize” those “of
Confederate ancestry” (Jones 2015). Former Virginia Senator and presidential hopeful Jim Webb
adds that while the Confederate flag has been used for racist purposes in the past, “we should
also remember that honorable Americans fought on both sides in the Civil War, including slave
holders in the Union Army from states such as Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware, and
that many non-slave holders fought for the South” and thus that we should respect the
complicated history of the Civil War. Opponents claim, in contrast, that the Confederate battle
emblem represents both historical and continuing racism in the United States (Dann 2015). TaNehisi Coates of The Atlantic, for example, claims that the Confederate flag is “the symbol of
White supremacists” (Coates 2015). Several writers have pointed out that the designer of the
Confederate flag stated explicitly that it represented the fight to “maintain the Heaven-ordained
supremacy of the White man over the inferior or colored race,” not bravery, independence, or
Southern culture (Thompson 1863). Opponents further claim that the frequent appearance of the
battle emblem in rallies opposing civil rights makes the post-war meaning of the flag crystal
3
clear (Blake 2015; McKay 2015). Indeed, our analyses reveal that the purportedly non-racial
view of the Confederate flag endorsed by its supporters is not shared by a large fraction of
Southerners, especially African American Southerners. As such, the Confederate flag is better
understood as a polarizing symbol of White Southern heritage than as a non-racial symbol of
some shared regional heritage.
In this analysis we adopt a mixed-method approach to address a fundamental question:
what is at stake in these debates? In particular, what motivates some Whites to support Southern
symbols and others to oppose them? First, we explore the politics of the adoption of the
Confederate battle emblem in several contexts in the Deep South. A central theme emerges from
these histories: the Confederate battle emblem was reintroduced into Southern politics as an
unambiguous symbol of racial hierarchy and opposition to racial equality (Thornton 1996).
These histories allow us to build a stronger theoretical account of the racial motivations
underlying support for the Confederate emblem.
Second, we utilize survey data to advance the debate over contemporary attitudes about
the Confederate flag. We are not the first to interrogate the sources of White support for the
Confederate emblem, but our data allow us to test the “heritage” hypothesis more rigorously than
has been done previously. That is, while Christopher Cooper and H. Gibbs Knotts (2006), Byron
Orey (2004), and Beth Reingold and Richard Wike (1998) have all made important
contributions, finding compelling evidence of relationships between racial attitudes and support
for the Confederate battle emblem, they measure Southern pride as residence in the South due to
the limitations of available survey data. But of course it is possible to live in the South without
feeling pride in one’s heritage. Thus previous data do not allow adjudication between the relative
influence of racial prejudice and purportedly non-racist pride in the unique heritage of the South.
4
We build on this valuable scholarship, therefore, by simultaneously estimating the independent
relationships between pride in southern heritage (measured in a few different ways), prejudice
against African Americans (Piston 2010), and support for Confederate symbols. We find that
racial prejudice remains the strongest predictor of support for public displays of the Confederate
flag, while pride in Southern heritage has at best weak explanatory power.
Third, relying on nationally representative data, we examine the extent to which White
warmth toward Southerners is itself racially motivated rather than an alternative explanation of
support for Southern symbols. Our results suggest that it is racially prejudiced Whites who are
most likely to say they feel warm toward Southerners; and the relationship between prejudice
and warmth toward Southerners is strongest among Whites who live in the South.
Put differently, if our argument that a primary source of support for the Confederate
battle emblem is prejudice rather than pride, we should expect to see three key things. First, in
the historical analyses, we should see that White support for Confederate symbols will increase
when racial tensions are high, perhaps even featuring explicit racial appeals. Second, racial
prejudice should predict White support for Confederate symbols even after taking affection for
or knowledge of Southern heritage, properly measured, into account. Third, racial prejudice
should also be highly correlated with warmth toward Southerners. Our research bears out all
three expectations. Importantly, our findings have implications for much more than just attitudes
toward a public symbol, as the Confederate flag has been demonstrated to influence vote choice
and to activate negative attitudes toward Blacks in general (e.g., Ehrlinger et al., 2011; Hutchings
et al., 2010).
BACKGROUND
5
The Confederate Battle Emblem as Symbol
Before analyzing contemporary opinion about the flag, we turn to the historical record to assess
the intended and constructed meaning of the flag’s display in Southern capitals. The battle over
Confederate symbolism can be fairly characterized by two diametrically opposed perspectives.
The first is that the Confederacy was fundamentally racist, and thus that honoring the
Confederacy is racist. This view holds that notions of the honor of the Confederacy are both
historically and morally wrong and deserve to be repudiated, and that Southern resistance to
repudiation is indicative of the perseverance of the Southern orthodoxy and a continued
disregard for African American opinion (Thornton 1996). The second perspective is that the
Southern heritage of bravery and idealism—the fight for liberty—is real, and that demands for
the repudiation of Confederate symbols needless vilify Southern Whites and Southern identity
generally and are concomitant to a demand for a new Southern identity in which apology is the
central feature.1 For proponents of the “heritage” position, denunciation of the Confederacy is
concomitant to admission that ancestors of Southerners are “uniquely guilty,” that they are “the
Nazis of the American past” (Thornton 1996, p. 234). Each perspective is on display in the
current debates over the public display of Confederate symbols—not just the rebel flag, but also
of statues and memorials to Confederate soldiers and the like. It is important to note that both
sides accuse the other of being willfully ignorant of the relevant historical facts, which nearly
dooms any hope for finding a middle ground from the outset.
The most recent Confederate flag controversy has been over the display of the flag itself,
but its incorporation into state flag designs in the South has also been controversial. After the
Civil War, the Confederate flag was rarely displayed and absent from official state displays until
its reappearance in the 1950s, when it was adopted as an element of several redesigned state
6
flags (and also reappeared itself in prominent state-sponsored locations, as until recently in South
Carolina). Georgia and South Carolina have had some of the most visible confederate flag
controversies. Many claim that the incorporation of the Confederate battle emblem was
motivated by racism—most explicitly triggered by the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown
v. Board of Education, which barred racial segregation in schools as an unconstitutional violation
of the Constitution’s promise of equal protection under the law.2 Others claim that the move was
not racially motivated, but rather represents a more benign official recognition of the state’s
heritage and history. In this section, we trace the modern roots of the flag’s symbolic deployment
and the ideas behind its inclusion and display.
From Appomattox through the 1930s, the Confederate banner was rarely displayed,
appearing mostly at memorial tributes for Confederate veterans (Davis 1998). During this time, it
was apparently not widely produced or available, as even Senator Coleman Livingston Blease
(D-SC) had to make a general appeal and have one especially made for him by the Daughters of
South Carolina in 1930 (Congressional Record 1930). During World War II it again appeared
briefly, this time as a symbol of regional pride among servicemen. Throughout this time, the flag
remained little used and largely apolitical (Davis 1998; Martinez 2008).
The flag emerged as a potent political symbol in the wake of President Harry Truman’s
modest civil rights initiatives in the late 1940s. Many Southern Democrats viewed these
measures as an “infringement upon their ‘state rights’” which ultimately led to the “Dixiecrat”
revolt of 1948. The Dixiecrats enjoyed little electoral success, but they adopted the Confederate
battle emblem as their symbol, and their use of the Confederate symbol generated popular
interest in the emblem, and forged a strong link between the flag and racism (Davis 1998).
Shortly thereafter, the battle flag’s increasing salience was “dismissed as a fad” by some, despite
7
an early 1950s “rage for displaying the Confederate battle flag on neckties, windshields, and
wherever else a place may be found” (Atlanta Journal and Constitution 1952). In 1951, Rep.
John Rankin (D-MS), perhaps the most outspoken racist and segregationist in Congress at the
time, proudly observed that he had “never seen as many Confederate flags in all my life as I have
observed floating here in Washington during the last few months.” Rankin himself wore a
Confederate flag necktie to help drive home his opposition to “indignities” of “Communist” fair
employment and the “beastly” integration of schools, playgrounds, and the military
(Congressional Record 1951).3
The Confederate Emblem in the Georgia State Flag
The flag appeared much more frequently, and gained official recognitions in the South after the
Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board, along with other more concrete forms of
resistance, such as approval of a measure to divert state money into private schools in order to
avoid integration (see generally Klarman 1994, 2004). The push to change Georgia’s state flag to
include the battle emblem began in 1955, when the Association of County Commissioners
(ACC) suggested a new state flag design that incorporated the battle emblem. The ACC was a
conclave for a number of Georgia’s county commissioners—121 of them, which represented less
than one-third of the state’s population, but a majority of the county-unit votes, and as such, was
a force in Democratic politics in the state. The flag containing the emblem was designed by the
ACC’s attorney, John Sammons Bell, who also happened to be the state chairman of the
Democratic party and one of the nation’s staunchest and most outspoken pro-segregationists
(Martinez 2008). The ACC adopted and disseminated a series of resolutions suggesting that the
Confederate emblem should be adopted because it is “a symbol of loyalty and devotion of a
8
people to [Georgia’s] government,” and is “symbolic of the traditions it represents,” “regardless
of what the Federal government or any division thereof says or does” (quoted in Davis 1998, p.
317). The ACC’s resolutions stressed that Brown was “an affront and challenge to the traditions
of our people...[and] this Association and its members...pledge to the Governor and all public
officials of the State, full support in each and every way or means required...to protect and
maintain the segregation of the races in our schools” (quoted in Davis 1998, p. 317). Notably, the
ACC’s resolutions never mention any intention of memorializing Confederate soldiers. The
terms “tradition” and “heritage” appeared frequently in that publication, but did so primarily in
reference to maintenance of segregation and the county-unit system. The ACC resolution did
argue the flag’s design represented both Georgia’s role in the original United States and the
“Confederacy under which [their] forefathers fought so bravely and valiantly,” but the
document’s emphasis was the usefulness of the symbol, “which has meaning for Georgians,” in
the South’s new battle against integration, and soon thereafter, reapportionment (Davis 1998).4
The flag’s popular re-emergence and inclusions in official designs was controversial even
among Southern traditionalists: some supported it as a symbol of Southern heritage, others
opposed the seeming defiance represented by its re-emergence. Indeed, flying the flag was illegal
in Washington, DC, and the United Daughters of the Confederacy supported the ban, contending
that the “sacred banner was being trivialized and dishonored” by frivolous displays and opposed
inclusion in state changes on the basis that the flag “belongs to no one state of the Confederacy
and placing it on our Georgia flag…will cause strife” (quoted in Davis 1998, p. 313). The
Georgia Division of the Children of the Confederacy adopted a similar resolution (Atlanta
Constitution 1955). In Georgia, there were also many concerns over the cost of replacing flags at
9
all public buildings, and the editors of the Atlanta Constitution (1955) called for a committee to
study the matter, rather than endorse the change.5
There was also recognition of the indignity Black Georgians would suffer in response to
the new flag, particularly as state law required it to fly at all schools (including Black schools).
The Georgia Federation of Womens’ Clubs resolved that the flag change would be a “backward
step toward prejudice and sectionalism.” The editors of the Atlanta Daily World (Atlanta’s Black
daily) agreed, noting that Denmark Groover’s “all good Southerners” seemed to leave out “a
certain segment of citizens” that would find it difficult to “salute or insist devotion in something
that stood for the enslavement of its people and which revives and enlivens [the] cause” of White
supremacy. They identified the flag resolution as a “bitter retaliation against…the activation of a
real democracy on our home front” (Atlanta Daily World 1956).
The state senate voted on February 1, 1956, to add the Confederate battle emblem to the
flag by a vote of 41–3. In that chamber, the bill’s champion was Sen. Jefferson Lee Davis, who
spoke of Georgia’s role in the “War Between the States.” The vote in the house was closer: 107
supported the change, 32 opposed, and 66 abstained (Azarian and Fesshazion, 2000). No
legislator (so far as Davis could find to report) stated any intention of memorializing or paying
tribute to Confederate veterans. Rather, House leader Denmark Groover argued that the new
design had “deep meaning in hearts of all true Southerners” adding that “anything we…can do to
preserve the memory of the Confederacy is a step forward” (Davis 1998, p. 325).
Davis argues that an “overwhelming amount of evidence indicates that those who
introduced the flag change (and those legislators who voted for it) were not motivated by a desire
to offer a memorial to Confederate soldiers, but were influenced by the Supreme Court’s
desegregation rulings and by the fear that the Court would find Georgia’s county-unit system
10
unconstitutional” (1998, p. 307–8).6 Indeed, Governor Marvin Griffin, who signed the new flag
into law, had campaigned on the promise to maintain “Georgia’s two greatest traditions—
segregation and the county-unit system” (quoted in Davis 1998, p. 307), and Groover, who had
guided the change through the state Assembly, later admitted that “the Confederate symbol was
added mostly out of defiance to federal integration orders” (Firestone 2001).
Even so, when Governor Zell Miller proposed in 1993 to remove the Confederate
emblem from the state flag because of its racist connotations, the flag’s defenders rallied to the
familiar cry “Heritage! not Hate!” Polls revealed that most Georgians viewed a change as
unnecessary (Leib 1995), however, these state-wide polls masked racial variations. Threequarters of Whites reported that they viewed the flag as a symbol of Southern pride, while more
than half of Blacks viewed as a racist symbol (Reingold and Wike, 1998). Still, Miller’s effort to
replace the flag failed. Indeed, the Georgia legislature responded to Miller’s call by proposing a
bill that would discontinue funding for any municipalities that did not display the state flag on
state property, and another that would have made it a crime to deface Confederate monuments,
punishable by up to seven years in prison (Martinez 2008).
In 2001, Governor Roy Barnes took up the issue of the flag, again proposing to remove
the Confederate emblem and replace it with the state seal (the new design also included each of
the states’ previous flags in miniature in a banner beneath the seal). Barnes’ supporters revealed
the bill on January 21, 2001, and his allies in the legislature called for a vote the same afternoon.
The Confederate emblem’s supporters had no time to respond or to marshal public opinion,
allowing Barnes’ proposal to narrowly pass (94–82). The measure was approved by the state
Senate on January 30 (34–22). Barnes’ flag design flew over the state capitol from 2001 to 2003.
The abrupt adoption of the Barnes’ flag caused a political controversy, and was likely a
11
contributing factor in Barnes’ loss to Sonny Perdue in the ensuing gubernatorial election. Making
good on a campaign promise, Perdue proposed a referendum which would allow voters to choose
between the Barnes’ flag and the pre-1956 state flag—strategically omitting the choice of the
flag which featured the Confederate battle emblem.7 In the March 2, 2003 referendum, Georgia
voters approved the pre-1956 flag over the Barnes flag three-to-one. This flag remains the
official flag of Georgia today.
The Confederate Emblem in South Carolina
The Confederate battle emblem was raised over the South Carolina capitol in 1962.8 White
political leaders universally claimed that the flag’s placement was commemorative, and not
motivated by racial malice. The state legislature debated removing the emblem in 1993, amidst
concerns that the flag was a deterrent to international investment (Leib,1995; Woliver et al.,
2001). These debates over the emblem led the legislature to propose a non-binding referendum
on the flag in 1994, in which 76% of respondents voted to keep the battle emblem flying (oddly,
the referendum was not voted on in an at-large election, but was tied to the Republican party
primary (see Webster and Leib, 2001)). In 1996, Governor David Beasley responded to a wave
of racially-motivated violence (especially the burning of several Black churches) by calling for
the removal of the flag. In a public address, he stated that it was time to “compromise on the
Confederate flag, and teach our children that we can live together” (quoted in Webster and Leib,
2001, p. 278). Beasley ultimately proposed a compromise bill that would remove the flag from
the capitol dome and move it to a Confederate monument on the capitol grounds. A statewide
poll taken in December 1996 found modest support for Beasley’s proposal (52% to 43%).
Interest groups coalesced on both sides of the issue: the Council of Conservative Citizens, the
12
League of the South, and the Ku Klux Klan opposed the removal of the battle emblem (it is
important to note that the CCC and the League of the South did not welcome the Klan’s
involvement), while dozens of groups led by the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People and the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce agitated for its removal (Woliver
et al., 2001). After a series of votes on proposals facially similar to Beasley’s (the legislature
declined to directly vote on the Governor’s plan), the legislature rejected any plan to remove the
battle emblem from the capitol dome.
Gerald Webster and Jonathan Leib (2001) analyze the legislature’s votes on these
proposals. They find that partisanship and the racial composition of a legislator’s district strongly
influenced vote choice. Republicans were highly supportive of the emblem, as were
representatives from overwhelmingly White districts. Representatives from majority Black
districts, in contrast, overwhelmingly opposed the measure. Notably, Webster and Leib (2001)
also find that many Democrats were absent for these votes, suggesting that many Democrats did
not want to officially announce a position on the issue. Further, they find that similar patterns
(i.e., support broke along partisan and racial lines) hold for a subsequent vote on (optional)
incorporation of the Confederate emblem into state license plates.
After the NAACP called for a tourism boycott of South Carolina for as long as it chose to
fly the Confederate flag in 1999, debates began anew about its removal. In 2000, Governor Jim
Hodges called for flag to be removed from the capitol dome. Later that year, the State Senate
voted to remove the flag from the dome and place it on a flagpole at the Confederate memorial in
front of the capitol building. This proposal gained broad bipartisan support from both Black and
White senators. (Webster and Leib, 2001). The state House narrowly passed the measure (63–56)
13
after several amendments aimed to make the flag more prominent, which cost the measure the
support of many Democrats and all but three of its Black members (Webster and Leib, 2001).
DISCUSSION
Together, these narratives of the confederate flag’s official display in Georgia and South
Carolina provide support for the racial politics interpretation of its symbolism: up the flagpole in
response to attacks on segregation, down the flagpole in response to protests by African
Americans or as an attempt at intergroup comity. Tales of battlefield valor did not change during
this time, but the institutional, contemporary racial politics of the symbol did.
Stories such as these are not limited to the cases described in detail here. Kevin Thornton
(1996) argues that the revival of the Confederate symbols—perhaps especially the battle emblem
—in the post-Reconstruction South was a deliberate move by state Democratic party elites to
remind the White yeomanry that theirs was a party of the White man, and to unite them behind a
party that would restore and preserve their rightful place atop the political hierarchy. Thus the
“appearance of a state flag on a Confederate model was a pointed and timely reminder that to be
‘southern’ was to be White” (Thornton 1996, p. 239). Careful study of the public histories
surrounding the revival of Confederate symbols in the South led Thornton to conclude that
“[w]ithin the context of the civil rights movement and southern defiance, the raising of the battle
flag was a deliberate, overt expression of segregationist resentment. To pretend otherwise is to be
mistaken at best and dishonest at worst” (1996, p. 236).
These histories clearly point to the essentially racist signification of Confederate symbols
in their modern usage. The battle emblem flew over an army dedicated to the preservation of a
nation founded on racism; General Lee may well have demonstrated martial virtue and nobility,
14
but even his efforts cannot be disentangled from slavery and virulent racism. Those who support
Confederate symbols as anodyne heritage ought to be held to a high burden of argument—
acknowledging support for the region’s antebellum racial order as the root cause of the Lost
Cause while praising valor or heroism. Given the region’s racial diversity, resurrected symbols
of Southern tradition (like the battle flag) should resonate as part of the heritage of more than just
the White majority. But historically, flag proponents have typically done the opposite: they
adopted a divisive symbol, explicitly linked the banner to White supremacy, and declined the
opportunity to imbue the banner with any potentially non-racial significance. Their arguments,
explicit or tacit, were well understood by those on both sides of flag adoption debates as racially
motivated.
Contemporary Attitudes Toward the Confederate Flag
Having argued that the historical reintroduction of Confederate symbols, and their intended
meaning by proponents, was unambiguously more closely tied to race than to “heritage,” we now
analyze what motivates support for the emblem in contemporary America. We analyze survey
data from two probability state samples, one from Georgia and one from South Carolina. But
these analyses, like previous scholarship, treat Southern pride and Southern prejudice as distinct
alternative explanations. In fact, it is possible that prejudice against Blacks motivates White
attachment to the South. In the final empirical section, therefore, we examine this possibility
using nationally representative data.
The statewide datasets reveal large racial gaps in support for Confederate symbols: in the
Winthrop poll of South Carolinians, for example, 75% of White South Carolinians had a
“Somewhat Positive” or “Very Positive” view of the flag, while a majority of Africa Americans
15
had a “Very Negative” view. Because African Americans tended to express such views of
Confederate symbols, we focus our analysis on White respondents, conscious that this racial gap
in itself reveals at least the perceptions (if not necessarily the intended significance) of the flag’s
display. Wording for questions in all three datasets can be found in Appendix A; all statistical
tests are one-tailed and all variables are rescaled to vary between 0 and 1 in order to facilitate
interpretation. Descriptive statistics of variables used for analysis of each dataset can be found in
Appendix B. Parallel analyses of African American respondents are reported in Appendix C.
2004 Georgia Survey
The Survey Research Laboratory in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State
University, conducted the panel survey before and after the March 2, 2004 referendum described
above. The first survey was conducted by telephone using random-digit dialing in the period
January 20 through February 29; a follow-up survey of the same respondents was conducted
during the period May 24 through June 28. The sampling procedure was stratified to ensure
representative sampling of residents in the five-county Atlanta metropolitan area and in the
remainder of the state. The interviewing staff included both African American and White
interviewers. We analyze responses from 341 Whites who completed both waves.
This survey suits our purposes admirably because it has a number of questions that reflect
the distinct sides of the “heritage or hatred” debate. For example, we reason that if some Whites
are motivated to support the flag because it represents a unique Southern historical legacy, we
might expect to see that knowledge about Southern history, along with feelings of attachment to
the South, are greater among White supporters of the Confederate battle emblem than among
White opponents. On the other hand, if racial prejudice leads Whites to support the Confederate
16
battle emblem, we should see that anti-Black attitudes are more widely held among White
supporters of the Confederate battle emblem than among White opponents.9
To assess these competing perspectives, we regress support for the Confederate flag on
knowledge about Southern history, feelings of attachment to the South, and a number of racial
attitude measures: racial resentment (Kalmoe and Piston, 2013), opposition to interracial dating,
and denial that Blacks are worse off than Whites when it comes to jobs and education. Control
variables include ideology (measured as support for limited government), party identification,
and select demographics (sex, age, education, birthplace, urbanicity, and home ownership). We
estimate a logistic regression due to the structure of the dependent variable: respondents were
coded “1” if they preferred the version of the state flag that prominently featured the Confederate
battle emblem, and “0” otherwise.
Knowledge about Southern history was measured through two questions: 1) whether the
respondent can correctly identify the famous Union general, William Tecumseh Sherman, and 2)
the number of Civil War battles the respondent can name (in our analyses, no credit was given
for additional battles named after the first two). We reason that this measure captures the latent
concept of pride in Southern heritage, in that those with high levels of Southern pride should also
exhibit higher levels of knowledge of Southern history than those who have no such pride (after
controlling for education). While imperfect, this measure is a significant improvement over
previous works that relied upon residence in the South to proxy “heritage” or “pride.”
Feelings of attachment to the South were measured with a question asking how close the
respondent felt to Southerners. The racial resentment measure was a battery of three standard
questions (e.g., Tesler and Sears, 2010; the additional standard question about whether Blacks
are getting less than they deserve was not included). Old-fashioned” racism was captured by a
17
question asking whether the respondent would object if their child dated someone of a different
race. The final independent variable of interest, perceptions of White advantage, was a battery of
two questions. The first asked whether the respondent thought that the average Black person was
worse off (or better off, or about the same) as the average White person with respect to income,
and the second asked the same except with respect to education. Coefficient estimates from the
regression are presented in Table 1.10
[Insert Table 1 about here]
We begin with those variables intended to reflect the “heritage” side of the debate.
Contrary to the argument that respect for Southern heritage drives White support for the
Confederate flag, we find that those Whites with more knowledge about Civil War history are
actually less supportive of the state flag prominently featuring the Confederate battle emblem.
White supporters of the Confederate battle emblem are distinguished not by their knowledge of
Southern history, but rather their ignorance of it.
Of course, it is possible that one could feel an affiliation for the South without knowing
much about the Civil War. We therefore also examine whether those Whites who say they “feel
close to Southerners” are more likely to support the Confederate flag. But after holding other
factors constant, the results indicate no meaningful relationship between feelings of closeness to
Southerners and support for the Confederate battle emblem.
Turning now to the racial prejudice side of the debate, we see a positive and statistically
significant relationship between racial resentment and support for the Confederate battle
emblem. Since the racial resentment scale is controversial—some have argued it is contaminated
with (though not reducible to) non-racial ideology (e.g., Feldman and Huddy, 2005)—it is
important to note that the results are robust to dropping the two controversial questions from the
18
battery. Furthermore, while opposition to interracial dating is not statistically significantly
associated with opinion about the Confederate flag, this changes if racial resentment is not
included in the model. Finally, even after controlling for racial resentment and opposition to
interracial marriage, denial that Blacks are worse off than Whites when it comes to income and
education is positively associated with White support for the Confederate battle emblem. The
magnitude of these associations is significant, as a predicted probability plot (control variables
set to their means) in Figure 1 indicates. At the low end of the racial resentment scale, the
predicted probability of preferring the Confederate battle emblem is 0.34; at the high end, the
predicted probability more than doubles to 0.75. Conversely, Figure 1 shows also that individuals
at the low end of knowledge of Southern history are predicted to support the Confederate flag at
0.59, while those with the highest knowledge are predicted to support it only 0.39, net of
controls. That is, to the extent that knowledge of Southern Civil War history captures “Southern
pride” in the Confederacy, such pride (or heritage) is negatively associated with support for the
rebel banner. In sum, among our sample of White Georgians the heritage argument fares
poorly—in fact, the coefficient is statistically significant but in the opposite direction as
proponents of the heritage argument would suggest—but the racial prejudice argument fares well
as racial attitudes are tightly bound up with support for the Confederate battle emblem.11
[Insert Figure 1 about here]
2014 Winthrop Survey
The Winthrop Poll at Winthrop University (South Carolina) interviewed 852 adult South
Carolinians between November 9 and November 16, 2014. The survey was conducted using
random digit dialing (RDD), supplemented with wireless phone number sampling. Calls were
made on weekday evenings, and on weekends, in order to avoid oversampling non-working
19
populations or systematically excluding groups working second or third shifts. Similarly,
wireless sampling helps ensure that there are not geographic or age disparities in the sample.
This survey included individuals of multiple races; we analyze only responses of the 581 White
respondents.
While the Winthrop survey is more recent than the Georgia survey, it does have a more
limited range of measures of Southern pride or racial attitudes. In fact, there is only one question
about attachment to the South that asks whether the respondent considers him/herself to be a
native Southerner, a converted Southerner, or a non-Southerner. There is also only one question
measuring racial attitudes. This question is a slightly modified version of a standard question in
the racial resentment battery, asking whether generations of slavery and discrimination make it
difficult for Blacks to work their way out of the lower class.
Here too, in order to assess competing explanations, we regress support for the
Confederate battle emblem on Southern identity and racial attitudes. We have two separate
questions that we use as dependent variables, each of which measures support for the
Confederate battle emblem. The first asks whether the respondent feels that the Confederate flag
should be flown on the grounds of the South Carolina State House. This was followed up with a
branching question asking whether the respondent felt this way strongly or not strongly. The
second question asks whether the respondent feels very positive, positive, neutral, negative, or
very negative about the Confederate flag. We conduct two separate ordered logistic regressions,
one for each of these dependent variables. In addition to the independent variables described
above, we include controls for partisanship and demographics: gender, age, education, and
income. Coefficient estimates are presented in Table 2.12
[Insert Table 2 about here]
20
This analysis uncovers more support for the heritage thesis than did the analysis of the
Georgia survey data. Both those who identify as “converted Southerners” and those who identify
as “native Southerners” are more likely than those who identify as “non-Southerners” to believe
that the Confederate flag should fly outside the South Carolina State House and to report that
they feel positive toward the flag. That said, the results here support the racial prejudice thesis as
well. Those Whites who deny that generations of slavery and discrimination have made it
difficult for Blacks to work their way out of the lower class are also more likely than their
counterparts to claim that the Confederate flag should fly outside the South Carolina State House
and to report that they feel positive toward the flag.
Furthermore, the magnitude of this effect is large. Predicted probability plots are shown
in Figure 2: all control variables are set to their means. At the low end of the racial resentment
scale, the predicted probability of reporting that the respondent strongly feels the flag should be
flown is 0.23; at the high end of the racial resentment scale, this probability more than doubles to
0.63. While fewer Whites report feeling “very positive” toward the flag (the modal response is
neutral), the pattern here is similar. At the low end of the racial resentment scale, the predicted
probability of feeling very positive is 0.07, while at the high end, this probability more than
triples at 0.24. As in the case of the Georgia survey, the South Carolina survey indicates that
racial attitudes and White attitudes toward the Confederate flag are closely associated.
[Insert Figure 2 about here]
2008 ANES Survey
Of course, the foregoing analyses grant Southern nostalgists the benefit of the doubt as to
whether the remembrance and recognition of the concept of “Southern heritage,” when embraced
by White flag supporters, is analytically separable from racial prejudice or White supremacy.
21
When the pride and prejudice hypotheses are evaluated simultaneously, the data cast
considerable doubt on this move. The first thing to note is that although the flag may plausibly be
a part of Southern culture, it is definitely not a symbol admired by all southern groups. African
American Southerners overwhelmingly disapprove of the flag. This is why we do not include
them in our analyses—not because they are not a part of Southern culture, but because this
would make the case too easy. Thus the Confederate flag is at best, a racially polarizing symbol
of White Southern culture, which some Southern Whites claim to be a non-racial symbol. But
while not all flag supporters express negative attitudes toward Blacks, the two sentiments do
vary together empirically.
We now build on our analyses of surveys of statewide samples that directly examine
support for Southern symbols to analyze the relationship between prejudice and its supposedly
innocent alternative—pride or attachment to the South. To do so, we turn to the 2008 American
National Election Studies time series survey. The response rate of the ANES is high, and the
interviews are conducted face-to-face in order to produce high-quality data. Consistent with
other ANES studies conducted during years of presidential elections, interviews were conducted
in two waves. The pre-election wave was conducted during the two months preceding the
November election, and the post-election wave was conducted during the two months following
the election.
While the ANES does not have measures of Confederate flag support, it does have a
measure of global warmth toward Southerners: a 101–point feeling thermometer (rescaled from 0
to 1). This allows us to examine whether racial attitudes are bound up with Southern symbols
beyond the Confederate flag. Furthermore, the nationally representative sample allows us to
examine associations between racial attitudes and warmth toward Southerners among those
22
Whites who live both inside and outside the South (defined as residence in one of the states that
seceded during the Civil War).
To do so we conduct a series of ordinary least squares regressions, broken out by region
of respondent. In all cases the dependent variable is warmth toward Southerners. The
independent variable of interest is either racial resentment (the standard four-item battery) or a
separate racial attitude measure: a differential between warmth toward Whites and warmth
toward Blacks. This approach (Hutchings 2009) allows us to account for respondent tendencies
to rate any racial group positively (or negatively). Control variables, consistent with previous
analyses, include limited government, partisanship, and demographics: age, gender, education,
income, and participation in the labor force participation. Coefficient estimates are presented in
Table 3.13
[Insert Table 3 about here]
Among White respondents who live in the South, we see a strong association between
racial attitudes and warmth toward Southerners, net of controls. This association is statistically
significant in both cases and large in magnitude; movement from the low end to the high end of
the White/Black thermometer differential is associated with movement covering 40% of the
Southern feeling thermometer, while movement from the low end to the high end of the racial
resentment battery is associated with movement covering 16% of the Southern feeling
thermometer. For non-Southern Whites, in contrast, the coefficient on racial resentment is
statistically significant, while the coefficient on White/Black feeling thermometer is not. In sum,
especially among Southerners, racial prejudice is tied up with not only support for the
Confederate flag in particular (as we see in the Georgia and South Carolina polls) but also
warmth toward the South more generally. While measures of support for specific Confederate
23
symbols in the national sample would have bolstered the specific case above, this finding—that
White supremacy and affection for the South itself are twinned, both in the survey data and
historically—mean that the empirical conclusions from the state-level analyses are conservative;
it is also possible that respondents who express affection for “the South” or southern heritage are
subtly (perhaps not so subtly) invoking affection for White supremacy.
DISCUSSION
Our analysis of three separate survey datasets gives us unique insight into the heritage-versushatred debate. The 2004 Georgia survey offers unprecedented leverage on the question of
Southern heritage. By explicitly operationalizing Southern heritage and identity, this dataset
allows us to simultaneously estimate and directly compare the relative influence of both factors,
which no previous study we are aware has been able to do (Cooper and Knotts, 2006; Orey 2004;
Reingold and Wike, 1998). We find that White Georgians’ attitudes on the Confederate battle
emblem are strongly related to racial resentment, while there is a negative relationship between
knowledge of Southern Civil War history—heritage—and support for the emblem. The 2014
South Carolina survey similarly shows that racial resentment is strongly related to support for the
Confederate flag. Unlike in Georgia, Southern identity exerts a statistically significant influence
on support for the Confederate flag in South Carolina, net of controls. Finally, analysis of the
2008 ANES panel shows that among Whites living in the South, racial attitudes are strongly
related to warmth toward Southerners.
These findings have important implications beyond the context of potentially racist
symbolism. Orey and colleagues (2011) examine voting on referenda in Mississippi (2001) and
Alabama (2004), and in both referenda voters elected to retain racist artifacts in their states’
24
iconography (the flag in Mississippi; unenforceable constitutional provisions requiring separate
schools and a poll tax in Alabama). They find that White support for these arguably racist
measures is highest among Whites in urban areas with large minority populations. They attribute
this to racial threat—a finding that runs contra to longstanding predictions that urban contact
would erode racial conflict (see also Giles and Hertz, 1994; Karahan and Shughart, 2004; Orey
1998; Reksulak et al., 2007). They summarize: “even in the twenty-first century, racial context
still exercises a profound effect on the behavior of Southern Whites” (Orey et al., 2010, p. 553).
Joyce Ehrlinger and colleagues (2011) offer a complementary explanation for the continuing
racial resentment in the Deep South; in particular, they argue that exposure to the Confederate
battle emblem activates negativity toward Blacks because it is associated with racism and
prejudice. A clear implication of this finding is that the pervasiveness of Confederate symbolism
in the South perpetuates racism by routinely activating anti-Black feelings. Orey and colleagues
(2011) seem to agree, arguing that their findings “point to the continuing virulence of racial
attitudes and behavior” in the South, and thus that dismissing their findings as relevant only to
symbols would be a mistake (p. 553). Ehrlinger and colleagues’ finding that priming with the
Confederate flag significantly reduces the willingness of White respondents to vote for Barack
Obama offers a clear and concrete example of the potential real-world effects of Southern icons.
Another finding of Orey and colleagues (2010) points to a further reason to take Southern
symbols seriously. Orey and colleagues find that Whites who were raised outside the South but
migrated to the region were more supportive of the Confederate flag (on average) than native
Whites in the Mississippi referendum. This finding supports a claim made by sociologists of the
South that many Northerners who choose to move to the South do so because they are attracted
to Southern culture, and all of its connotations (e.g., Reed 1993, 1995). Our finding in the 2014
25
South Carolina survey, that “converted Southerners” are almost as supportive of the Confederate
flag as self-identified “native” Southerners, is consonant with this view.
CONCLUSION
While most of the elite actors involved in flag controversies have noted its explicitly racial
signification, to date, the popular conversation about whether support for the flag by the mass
White public is essentially a symbolic statement of racial animus or a more benign expression of
regional pride has generated much heat but little light. In the midst of ongoing debates over
Southern symbols, we have examined both the historical reintroduction of Confederate symbols,
and the contemporary “heritage or hatred” debate using three separate survey datasets.
We find that support for the Southern heritage argument is decidedly mixed. First, the
historical record indicates that debates over the Confederate flag arise during racial
controversies. In particular, elite support for the Confederate flag has become most salient during
attacks on racial segregation. Tales of battlefield valor did not change during this time, but the
institutional, contemporary racial politics of the symbol did.
Second, our survey data do little to substantiate claims that White support for
Confederate symbols stems from Southern pride. For example, while some claim that support for
the Confederate flag results from the celebration of a “legacy” of ancestors “whose valor became
legendary in military history,” we find in a 2004 survey of White Georgians that knowledge of
the Civil War is actually negatively correlated with support for the Confederate battle emblem.
Furthermore, the embrace of Southern identity is not associated with support for the Confederate
battle emblem among White Georgians in 2004, although in a 2014 survey of White South
Carolinians it does appear that those who identify as “converted” or “native” Southerners are
26
more likely to feel positively toward the Confederate flag. In contrast, support for the racial
prejudice argument is strong and robust across all three datasets.14 Among White Georgians in
2004, racial resentment and denial of Black disadvantage is positively associated with support of
the Confederate battle emblem. Among White South Carolinians in 2014, racial resentment is
positively associated with the belief that the Confederate battle flag should fly on the South
Carolina State House grounds, as well as with positive affect toward the flag.
Third, even if pride in Southern heritage were to underpin support for Confederate battle
emblems, we note that White pride in Southern heritage may not be racially innocuous. Our
analysis of nationally representative survey data in the 2008 American National Election Studies
indicates that prejudice against Blacks is positively associated with warmth toward White
Southerners—especially among those Whites who live in the South. The idea of the South as
simultaneously distinctive and quintessentially American has traction in American culture,
especially among Southerners. But what, exactly, is embodied in that distinctiveness, if not racial
division and White supremacy?
For C. Vann Woodward, the twentieth century’s pre-eminent historian of the region, the
most durable articulation of southern distinctiveness has been what the historian Ulrich B.
Phillips called “‘a common resolve indomitably maintained’ that the South ‘shall be and remain
a White man’s country.’ [which] had been from the beginning ‘the cardinal test of a Southerner
and the central theme of southern history’” (Woodward 2008, p. 11). It was in defense of this
racial ordering that Woodward saw the tragedy of the South: that with segregation as with
slavery, “the South’s defensive reaction was to identify its whole cause with the one institution
that was the most vulnerable” (p. ). It was this conviction that the racial order was the core of the
South that allowed Denmark Groover to declare that “all true southerners” would take a single
27
meaning from the proposed battle flag, even as Atlanta’s Black press vainly noted the perversity
of African Americans saluting the banner of an army so dedicated to their forebears’
enslavement. African American views were not counted as part of that heritage, even if their
labor was essential to it. And it was this conviction that allowed Rep. Rankin to stand on the
floor of the House of Representatives with a Confederate flag tie “not for purposes of
provocation” but as a reminder of “one of the greatest governments the world has ever known,”
and a warning that the “people of the South are not going to stand for” desegregation. In halting
the election of a racially moderate Democrat, Rankin maintained, the South would “save
America for Americans” (Congressional Record 1951).
Corresponding author: Logan Strother, Department of Political Science, Maxwell School,
Syracuse University, 100 Eggers Hall, Syracuse, NY 13210. Email: lrstroth@syr.edu.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT:
We thank, first and foremost, Greg Markus for sharing data and for many helpful comments at an
early stage of this project. Scott Huffmon also graciously shared data. An earlier version of this
project was presented at the Interdisciplinary Workshop of American Politics; we thank
participants, especially Ken Kollman, Yanna Krupnikov, and Rob Mickey, for their suggestions.
We are also grateful to those who read and commented on a portion of this project presented in
an op-ed in the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage blog: Inger Bergom, Shana Gadarian, Eric
McDaniel, Davin Phoenix, John Sides, Nadav Tanners, Keith Veal, and Randy Burnside. Finally,
Ted Brader, Vince Hutchings, Adam Seth Levine, and Hanes Walton provided valuable advice.
28
REFERENCES
Agiesta, Jennifer (2015). Poll: Majority Sees Confederate Flag as Southern Pride Symbol, Not
Racist. CNN (online), July 2. <http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/02/politics/confederate-flagpoll-racism-southern-pride/index.html> (accessed July 11, 2015).
Atlanta Constitution (1955). Ask State Flag with Stars, Bars. April 26.
Atlanta Constitution (1955). Change the State Flag Only After More Study (Editorial). April 27.
Atlanta Constitution (1955). Oppose State Flag Change. Jun 29.
Atlanta Journal and the Atlanta Constitution (1952). The Confederate Battle Flag Never Was
Official. Mar 16.
Azarian, Alexander, and Eden Fesshazion (2000). The State Flag of Georgia: The 1956 Change
in its Historical Context. Atlanta, GA: Georgia State Senate Research Office.
Blake, Jonathan S. (2015). Around the world, do symbols like the Confederate flag stand for
heritage or hate? The Monkey Cage, June 26.
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2015/06/26/around-the-worlddo-symbols-like-the-confederate-flag-stand-for-heritage-or-hate/> (accessed July 2,
2015).
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954). 347 U.S. 483.
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1955). 349 U.S. 294.
Coates, Ta-Nehisi (2015). Take Down the Confederate Flag—Now. The Atlantic, June 18.
<http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/take-down-the-confederate-flagnow/396290/> (accessed July 2, 2015).
Congressional Record (1930). April 17, 7191–7192.
Congressional Record (1951). October 9, A6399–A6400.
29
Cooper, Christopher A., and H. Gibbs Knotts (2006). Region, Race, and Support for the South
Carolina Confederate Flag. Social Science Quarterly, 87(1): 142–154.
Dann, Carrie (2015). Jim Webb: ‘Honorable Americans Fought on Both Sides in the Civil War.
NBC New, June 24. < http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/jim-webbhonorable-americans-fought-both-sides-civil-war-n381246> (accessed October 20, 2015).
Davis, John Walker (1998). An Air of Defiance: Georgia’s State Flag Change of 1956. The
Georgia Historical Quarterly, 82(2): 305–330.
Ehrlinger, Joyce, E. Ashby Plant, Richard P. Eibach, Corey J. Columb, Joanna L. Goplen,
Jonathan W. Kunstman, and David A. Butz (2011). How Exposure to the Confederate
Flag Affects Willingness to Vote for Barack Obama. Political Psychology, 32(1): 131–
146.
Fain, Travis (2015). McAuliffe Moves to Ban the Confederate Flag from State License Plates.
Daily Press, June 23. <http://www.dailypress.com/news/politics/dp-mcauliffe-banconfederate-flag-state-license-plates-20150623-story.html> (accessed July 8, 2015).
Feldman, Stanley, and Leonie Huddy (2005). Racial Resentment and White Opposition to RaceConscious Programs: Principles or Prejudice? American Journal of Political Science,
49(1): 168–183.
Firestone, David (2001). Redesigned Georgia Flag Is Advanced by House. New York Times,
January 25.
Giles, Michael W., and Kaenan Hertz (1994). Racial Threat and Partisan Identification.
American Political Science Review, 88(2): 317–326.
30
Hatcher, Laura J., Logan Strother, Randolph Burnside, and Donald Hughes (2012). The USACE
and Post-Katrina New Orleans: Demolitions and Disaster Clean-Up. Journal of Applied
Social Science, 6(2): 176–190.
Holley, Peter (2015). ‘Black Lives Matter’ Graffiti Appears on Confederate Memorials Across
the U.S. The Washington Post, June 23.
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/06/23/black-lives-mattergraffiti-appears-on-confederate-memorials-across-the-u-s/> (accessed July 6, 2015).
Hutchings, Vincent L (2009). Change or More of the Same? Evaluating Racial Attitudes in the
Obama Era. Public Opinion Quarterly, 73: 917–942.
Hutchings, Vincent L., Hanes Walton Jr., and Andrea Benjamin (2010). The Impact of Explicit
Racial Cues on Gender Differences in Support for Confederate Symbols and Partisanship.
Journal of Politics, 72(4): 1175–1188.
John, Arit (2015). Jim Webb Pushes Back on Behalf of Confederate Flag Supporters. Bloomberg
Politics (online), June 24. <http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-06-24/jimwebb-pushes-back-on-behalf-of-confederate-flag-supporters> (accessed July 2, 2015).
Jones, Ben (2015). The Confederate Flag is a Matter of Pride and Heritage, Not Hatred. New
York Times (online) June 19. <http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/06/19/doesthe-confederate-flag-breed-racism/the-confederate-flag-is-a-matter-of-pride-and-heritagenot-hatred> (accessed July 8, 2015).
Kalmoe, Nathan P., and Spencer Piston (2013). Is Implicit Racial Prejudice Against Blacks
Politically Consequential? Evidence from the AMP. Public Opinion Quarterly, 77: 305–
322.
31
Karahan, Gokhan R., and William F. Shughart II (2004). Under Two Flags: Symbolic Voting in
the State of Mississippi. Public Choice, 118(1/2): 105–124.
Klarman, Michael J. (1994). How Brown Changed Race Relations: The Backlash Thesis. The
Journal of American History 81(1): 81–118.
Klarman, Michael J. (2004). From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the
Struggle for Racial Equality. New York: Oxford University Press.
Krishnadey, Calamur (2015). Alabama Governor Orders Removal of Confederate Flags From
Capitol. NPR, June 24. <http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwoway/2015/06/24/417162233/alabama-governor-orders-removal-of-confederate-flags-fromcapitols> (accessed July 8, 2015).
Krupnikov, Yanna, and Spencer Piston (2015a). Accentuating the Negative: Candidate Race and
Campaign Strategy. Political Communication, 32: 152–173.
Krupnikov, Yanna, and Spencer Piston (2015b). Racial Prejudice, Vote Choice, and Turnout:
How Decision Conflicts Affect White Behavior toward Black Candidates. Political
Behavior, 37: 397–418.
Krupnikov, Yanna, and Spencer Piston (2016). The Political Consequences of Latino Prejudice
Against Blacks. Public Opinion Quarterly, 80: 480–509.
Krupnikov, Yanna, Spencer Piston, and Nichole Bauer (2016). Saving Face: Identifying Voter
Responses to Black and Female Candidates. Political Psychology, 37: 253–273.
Leib, Jonathan I. (1995). Heritage Versus Hate: A Geographical Analysis of Georgia’s
Confederate Flag Debate. Southeastern Geographer, 35(1): 37–57.
Lupia, Arthur, Logan S. Casey, Kristyn L. Karl, Spencer Piston, Timothy J. Ryan, and
Christopher Skovron (2015). What Does it Take to Reduce Racial Prejudice in
32
Individual-Level Candidate Evaluations? A Formal Theoretic Perspective. Political
Science Research and Methods, 3: 1–20.
Martinez, J. Michael (2008). The Georgia Confederate Flag Dispute. The Georgia Historical
Quarterly, 92(2): 200–228.
McKay, Tom (2015). Here’s the Racist Meaning of the Confederate Flag, In the Words of the
Man Who Designed it. Policy.Mic, June 21. <http://mic.com/articles/121082/here-s-theracist-meaning-of-the-confederate-flag-in-the-words-of-the-man-who-designed-it>
(accessed July 2, 2015).
Orey, Byron D. (1998). The Race Race in Black and White: The 1995 Louisiana Gubernatorial
Elections. Southeastern Political Review, 26: 908–920.
Orey, Byron D. (2004). White Racial Attitudes and Support for the Mississippi State Flag.
American Politics Research, 32(1): 1–18.
Orey, Byron D., L. Marvin Overby, Peter K. Hatemi, and Baodong Liu (2011). White Support
for Racial Referenda in the Deep South. Politics & Policy, 39(4): 539–558.
Piston, Spencer (2010). How Explicit Racial Prejudice Hurt Obama in the 2008 Election.
Political Behavior, 32: 431–451.
Pou, C (1956). New Flag for Georgia Would Be Costly Act. The Atlanta Journal and the Atlanta
Constitution, February 5.
Reed, John S (1993). My Tears Spoiled My Aim and Other Reflections on Southern Culture. New
York: Harcourt Brace & Co.
Reed, John S (1995). Kicking Back: Further Dispatches from the South. Columbia, MO:
University of Missouri Press.
33
Reingold, Beth, and Richard S. Wike (1998). Confederate Symbols, Southern Identity, and
Racial Attitudes: The Case of the Georgia State Flag. Social Science Quarterly, 79(3):
568–580.
Reksulak, Michael, Gokhan R. Karahan, and William F. Shughart II (2007). Flags of Our
Fathers: Voting on Confederate Symbols in the State of Georgia. Public Choice, 131(1):
83–99.
Srivastava, Rupali (2015). Eight South Carolina Lawmakers Explain Why They Are Opposed to
Removing the Confederate Flag. ThinkProgress, September 2.
<http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/06/23/3672910/south-carolina-lawmakerspublicly-opposed-removing-confederate-flag/> (accessed October 20, 2015).
Tesler, Michael, and David Sears (2010). Obama’s Race: The 2008 Election and the Dream of a
Post-Racial America. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Thompson, William T. (1863). [Untitled]. Savannah Daily Morning News, April 28.
Thornton, Kevin (1996). The Confederate Flag and the Meaning of Southern History. Southern
Cultures, 2(2): 233–245.
Webster, Gerald R., and Jonathan I. Leib (2001). Whose South is it Anyway? Race and the
Confederate Battle Flag in South Carolina. Political Geography, 20: 271–299.
Woliver, Laura R., Angela D. Ledford, and Chris J. Dolan (2001). The South Carolina
Confederate Flag: The Politics of Race and Citizenship. Politics & Policy, 29(4): 709–
730.
Woodward, C. Vann (2008). The Search For Southern Identity. Virginia Review Quarterly,
XXXI: 321–328. Reprinted in C. Vann Woodward (2008), The Burden of Southern
History. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press.
34
35
Appendix A: Question wording
Georgia Survey
Which of these three Georgia state flags do you most prefer...
1. the current flag that has three stripes and the state seal (THE “PERDUE FLAG”)
2. the blue flag adopted in 2001 during the Barnes administration (THE “BARNES FLAG”); or
3. The flag with the Confederate battle emblem that was the official flag from 1956 to 2001?
Now I’d like to ask you a few questions about the Confederate battle emblem.
Some people feel very strongly about the Confederate battle emblem. Others don’t care much
about it one way or the other. How about you: Would you say you feel very strongly about it,
you don’t care much, or something in between?
1. Feel Strongly
2. Don’t care much
3. Something in between
Some people say the Confederate battle emblem reminds them of White supremacy and racial
conflict. Other people say the Confederate battle emblem is a symbol of Southern heritage and
pride. Do you think the battle emblem is more a symbol of racial conflict or of southern pride?
1. Racial conflict
2. Southern pride
Do you know the names of any Civil War battles?
[INTERVIEWER: DO NOT READ CATEGORIES]
1. NO
2. YES, GETTYSBURG
3. YES, NAMES OTHER BATTLE
4. YES, NAMES MORE THAN ONE BATTLE
5. YES, BUT WON’T GIVE NAME
Next, here are a few questions about the history of the state of Georgia. Many people don't know
the answers to these questions, so if there are some you don't know, just say so and we'll go on.
Do you happen to know who William Tecumseh Sherman was?
1. Yes
2. No
3. Can’t recall
In the United States today, do you think the average African American is better off, worse off, or
just about as well off as the average White person in terms of income?
1. Better off
2. Worse off
3. Just about as well off
And what about education? Do you think the average African American is better off, worse off,
or just about as well off as the average White person?
1. Better off
36
2. Worse off
3. Just about as well off
Finally, what about in terms of the types of jobs they have? Do you think the average African
American is better off, worse off, or just about as well off as the average White person?
1. Better off
2. Worse off
3. Just about as well off
Would you object if a child of yours dated someone of a different race?
1. Yes
2. No
Please tell me whether you Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, or Strongly Disagree with each of
the following statements.
First: The Irish, Italians, Jews and other minorities overcame prejudice and worked their way up.
Blacks should do the same without any special favors.
1. Strongly agree
2. Agree
3. Disagree
4. Strongly disagree
Generations of slavery and discrimination have created conditions that make it difficult for
Blacks to work their way out of the lower class.
1. Strongly agree
2. Agree
3. Disagree
4. Strongly disagree
It is really a matter of people not trying hard enough; if Blacks would only try harder they could
be just as well off as Whites.
1. Strongly agree
2. Agree
3. Disagree
4. Strongly disagree
More good jobs for Blacks mean fewer good jobs for members of other groups.
1. Strongly agree
2. Agree
3. Disagree
4. Strongly disagree
Some people think that discrimination against Blacks is a big problem in this country, while
others think that it is not a big a problem. We would like to know what you think about it.
1. A lot
2. Some
37
3. None at all
Winthrop Poll
Now I'm going to read you the names of several public figures and groups or symbols. I'd like
you to rate your feelings toward each one as very positive, somewhat positive, neutral, somewhat
negative, or very negative. If you don't know the name, please just say so.
... the Confederate Flag
1. Very positive
2. Somewhat positive
3. Neutral
4. Somewhat negative
5. Very negative
On a completely different topic, do you feel that generations of slavery and discrimination do or
do not make it difficult for Blacks to work their way out of the lower class?
Do you feel that way Strongly or Somewhat?
1. Strongly DO make it difficult
2. Somewhat DO make it difficult
3. Somewhat do NOT make it difficult
4. Strongly do NOT make it difficult
From the year 1962 until the year 2000, the Confederate Flag flew above the dome over the
South Carolina State House, where the South Carolina Legislature meets. In the year 2000, it
was taken down from the dome, but still flies on the State House grounds next to a monument to
South Carolina’s Confederate dead. Do you think the Confederate Flag should or should not
continue to be flown on the grounds of the South Carolina State House? [Follow up with, “Do
you feel that way Strongly or Somewhat?” if appropriate]
1. Strongly feel it SHOULD continue to fly
2. Somewhat feel it SHOULD continue to fly
3. Have no feelings on the subject [VOLUNTEERED]
4. Somewhat feel it should NOT continue to fly
5. Strongly feel it should NOT continue to fly
Which of the following best describes your regional identity?
1. Non-Southern
2. Converted Southerner
3. Native Southerner
2008 ANES
I'd like to get your feelings toward some of our political leaders and other people who are in the
news these days. I'll read the name of a person and I'd like you to rate that person using
something we call the feeling thermometer. Ratings between 50 degrees and 100 degrees mean
that you feel favorable and warm toward the person. Ratings between 0 degrees and 50 degrees
mean that you don't feel favorable toward the person and that you don't care too much for that
38
person. You would rate the person at the 50 degree mark if you don't feel particularly warm or
cold toward the person. If we come to a person whose name you don't recognize, you don't need
to rate that person. Just tell me and we'll move on to the next one.
SOUTHERNERS
What about your opinion -- are you FOR or AGAINST preferential hiring and promotion of
Blacks? Do you favor preference in hiring and promotion STRONGLY or NOT
STRONGLY?/Do you oppose preference in hiring and promotion STRONGLY or NOT
STRONGLY? (ANES: V085157, V085157a, V085157b, “affirmative action”)
Where would you place YOURSELF on this scale, or haven't you thought much about this? 1.
Govt should help Blacks 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Blacks should help themselves (ANES: V083137, “aid
to Blacks”)
How do you feel? Should the government in Washington see to it that Black people get fair
treatment in jobs OR is this not the federal government's business? (ANES: V085079a, branched
from V085079, “fair jobs”)
[lazy/intelligent] Where would you rate WHITES on this scale? Where would you rate BLACKS
on this scale? (ANES: 083208b, V083207b, V083207a, V083208a“negative stereotypes”)
How often have you felt sympathy for Blacks? VERY often, FAIRLY often, NOT TOO often, or
NEVER? (ANES: V085115, “denial of sympathy”)
Racial Resentment:
Index created from four questions: Do you [AGREE STRONGLY, AGREE SOMEWHAT,
NEITHER AGREE NOR DISAGREE, DISAGREE SOMEWHAT, or DISAGREE STRONGLY
/ DISAGREE STRONGLY, DISAGREE SOMEWHAT, NEITHER AGREE NOR DISAGREE,
AGREE SOMEWHAT, or AGREE STRONGLY] with this statement? (1) Irish, Italians, Jewish
and many other minorities overcame prejudice and worked their way up. Blacks should do the
same without any special favors; (2) Generations of slavery and discrimination have created
conditions that make it difficult for Blacks to work their way out of the lower class; (3) Over the
past few years, Blacks have gotten less than they deserve; (4) It's really a matter of some people
not trying hard enough; if Blacks would only try harder they could be just as well off as Whites.
(ANES: V085143, V085144, V085145, V085146, “racial resentment”).
Coded: averaged, and scaled 0 to 1, where 1 is the highest level of racial resentment.
39
Appendix B: Descriptive Statistics
2004 Georgia Survey
Variable
Knowledge of Southern Hist.
Closeness to Southerners
Racial Resentment
Oppose Interracial Dating
Denies Racial Disadvantage
Limited Government
Party ID (Rep.)
Male
Age
Education
Native Georgian
Rural
Owns Home
2014 Winthrop Survey
Variable
Fly Flag
Feel Flag
Converted Southerner
Native Southerner
Racial Resentment
Party ID
Male
Age
Education
Income
2008 ANES
Variable
White/Black Therm. Diff.
Racial Resentment
Party ID (Rep.)
Limited Government
Age
Male
Education
Income
Employed
N
469
468
469
469
469
469
403
469
455
465
469
469
461
N
826
824
852
852
800
794
852
842
848
708
N
2040
2059
2311
2016
2277
2323
2312
2172
2317
Mean
0.4598
0.4882
0.5948
0.3345
0.3587
0.5042
0.5102
0.3987
0.4010
0.4666
0.5138
0.2281
0.7787
Mean
0.6322
0.4869
0.1948
0.6760
0.5645
0.5411
0.4706
0.4438
0.5884
0.4391
Mean
0.5058
0.5928
0.3839
0.3222
0.3915
0.4300
0.7691
0.3966
0.2317
SD
0.3705
0.4923
0.2307
0.4420
0.2658
0.4702
0.3693
0.4901
0.2199
0.2756
0.5003
0.4200
0.4155
SD
0.4204
0.3387
0.3963
0.4682
0.4066
0.3527
0.4994
0.2225
0.3047
0.2559
SD
0.0986
0.2338
0.3322
0.3569
0.3569
0.4951
0.1525
0.2584
0.2276
Min.
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Min.
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Min.
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Max
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Max
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Max
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
40
Appendix C: Analyses of Black Respondents
Table C1. Predictors of Support for Confederate Flag
2004 Georgia survey data
Prefer
Confederate
Flag
Knowledge of Southern History
-3.65
(3.17)
Close to Southerners
-1.94
(1.28)
Racial Resentment
0.27
(2.22)
Oppose Interracial Dating
3.87
(2.11)
Denial of Racial Disadvantage
0.74
(1.97)
Limited Government
1.83
(1.79)
Party ID (Rep.)
2.04
(2.04)
Male
-2.88
(1.92)
Age
1.60
(3.14)
Education
1.29
(2.72)
Native Georgian
1.32
(1.65)
Rural
1.68
(1.51)
Own Home
-1.55
(1.25)
Constant
-3.51
(2.34)
N
60
R-squared
0.34
*** p < 0.001; ** p < 0.01; * p < 0.05; cell entries are logistic regression coefficients (standard
errors in parentheses). All variables are coded from 0 to 1. Black respondents only.
[Note the very small sample size. Note also that dropping the racial resentment, opposition to
interracial dating, and denial of racial disadvantage variables does not materially alter the
findings.]
41
Table C2. Predictors of Support for Confederacy
2014 Winthrop Survey Data
Feel Positive
Should Flag Fly
Toward Flag
Converted Southerner
-0.51
-1.47
(0.83)
(0.91)
Native Southerner
-0.24
0.25
(0.48)
(0.45)
Racial Resentment
0.66
0.19
(0.56)
(0.59)
Party ID (Rep.)
1.57*
1.48*
(0.72)
(0.79)
Male
-0.05
-0.26
(0.39)
(0.40)
Age
0.51
0.07
(0.81)
(0.87)
Education
-0.79
-1.34*
(0.70)
(0.73)
Income
0.34
-0.55
(0.82)
(0.86)
N
124
127
F-statistic
0.99
1.70
*** p < 0.001; ** p < 0.01; * p < 0.05; cell entries are ordered logistic regression coefficients
(standard errors in parentheses); cut points suppressed. The omitted variable for Southern
identity is “non-Southerner.” All variables are coded from 0 to 1. Black respondents only.
[Note the small sample size.]
42
Table C3. Racial Attitudes and Black Warmth Toward Southerners
2008 ANES survey
Southern respondents
non-Southern respondents
0.85**
-0.16
-(0.28)
-(0.21)
-Racial Resentment
-0.01
-0.19*
-(0.12)
-(0.09)
Party ID (Rep.)
-0.16
-0.10
-0.05
-0.05
(0.09)
(0.09)
(0.10)
(0.10)
Limited Government
-0.10
-0.14
-0.13
-0.15
(0.10)
(0.12)
(0.09)
(0.09)
Age
0.13
0.18*
0.11
0.13
(0.10)
(0.11)
(0.11)
(0.10)
Male
-0.03
-0.03
-0.06
-0.05
(0.04)
(0.04)
(0.04)
(0.04)
Education
0.05
0.02
-0.20
-0.13
(0.18)
(0.19)
(0.16)
(0.16)
Income
-0.06
0.02
0.08
0.11
(0.10)
(0.10)
(0.09)
(0.09)
Employed
-0.03
-0.05
-0.04
-0.06
(0.08)
(0.10)
(0.09)
(0.08)
Constant
0.38
0.74***
0.81***
0.73***
(0.24)
(0.22)
(0.17)
(0.15)
N
89
88
94
96
R-squared
0.21
0.08
0.10
0.12
*** p < 0.001; ** p < 0.01; * p < 0.05; cell entries are ordinary least squares regression
coefficients (standard errors in parentheses). All variables are coded from 0 to 1. Black
respondents only.
White/Black Therm. Diff.
43
Table 1. Predictors of Support for Confederate Flag
2004 Georgia Survey Data
Prefer
Confederate
Flag
Knowledge of Southern History
-1.05*
(0.45)
Close to Southerners
0.52
(0.31)
Racial Resentment
2.31**
(0.87)
Oppose Interracial Dating
0.42
(0.35)
Denial of Racial Disadvantage
1.75**
(0.66)
Limited Government
-0.32
(0.35)
Party ID (Rep.)
-0.23
(0.48)
Male
-0.04
(0.32)
Age
-0.88
(0.75)
Education
-1.42*
(0.66)
Native Georgian
0.30
(0.32)
Rural
0.75*
(0.36)
Own Home
-0.38
(0.46)
Constant
-0.03
(0.70)
N
254
R-squared
0.22
*** p < 0.001; ** p < 0.01; * p < 0.05; cell entries are logistic regression coefficients (standard
errors in parentheses). All variables are coded from 0 to 1. White respondents only.
44
Table 2. Predictors of Support for Confederacy
2014 Winthrop Survey Data
Feel Positive
Should Flag Fly
Toward Flag
Converted Southerner
0.76*
1.28***
(0.36)
(0.37)
Native Southerner
1.39***
1.71***
(0.33)
(0.32)
Racial Resentment
1.84***
1.67***
(0.31)
(0.29)
Party ID (Rep.)
1.82***
1.31***
(0.35)
(0.33)
Male
-0.32
-0.01
(0.22)
(0.19)
Age
-0.08
1.04*
(0.49)
(0.46)
Education
-1.40***
-1.42***
(0.44)
(0.38)
Income
-1.52**
-1.32**
(0.50)
(0.44)
N
447
305
F-statistic
8.15
10.52
*** p < 0.001; ** p < 0.01; * p < 0.05; cell entries are ordered logistic regression coefficients
(standard errors in parentheses); cut points suppressed. The omitted variable for Southern
identity is “non-Southerner.” All variables are coded from 0 to 1. White respondents only.
45
Table 3. Racial Prejudice Predicts White Warmth Toward Southerners
2008 ANES Survey
Southern respondents
non-Southern respondents
0.40***
-0.05
-(0.10)
-(0.11)
-Racial Resentment
-0.16**
-0.13**
-(0.05)
-(0.04)
Party ID (Rep.)
0.06
0.04
0.01
-0.01
(0.04)
(0.04)
(0.03)
(0.03)
Limited Government
0.02
0.02
0.00
-0.01
(0.03)
(0.03)
(0.03)
(0.03)
Age
0.10*
0.11**
0.09**
0.09**
(0.05)
(0.05)
(0.04)
(0.03)
Male
-0.09***
-0.08***
-0.05**
-0.05**
(0.02)
(0.02)
(0.02)
(0.02)
Education
-0.04
-0.03
0.08
0.16*
(0.09)
(0.09)
(0.07)
(0.07)
Income
0.12**
0.09*
-0.03
-0.04
(0.05)
(0.05)
(0.04)
(0.03)
Employed
0.02
0.03
0.06**
0.07**
(0.05)
(0.04)
(0.03)
(0.03)
Constant
0.46***
0.57***
0.50***
0.40***
(0.11)
(0.10)
(0.09)
(0.07)
N
348
355
521
520
R-squared
0.13
0.12
0.04
0.07
*** p < 0.001; ** p < 0.01; * p < 0.05; cell entries are ordinary least squares regression
coefficients (standard errors in parentheses). All variables are coded from 0 to 1. White
respondents only.
White/Black Therm. Diff.
46
Figure 1. Predictors of Confederate Flag Support
2004 Georgia Survey Data
1a. Predicted probability of support for the Confederate flag
1b. Predicted Probability of Support for the Confederate Flag
47
Figure 2. Racial Attitudes and Confederate Flag Support
2014 Winthrop Survey Data
2a. Predicted Probability of Strongly Feeling That the Confederate Flag Should Fly
2b. Predicted Probability of Feeling Very Positive Toward the Confederate Flag
48
NOTES
Significantly, the “heritage” perspective tends to conflate Southerness with White Southerness, and support for the
Confederate cause with both. In a region with millions of non-White residents and many longstanding and everdeveloping subcultures, this is clearly a mistake. Outside this particular analysis, we reject this view in favor of a
less monolithic appreciation of Southern cultures (e.g., Hatcher et al., 2012). Even the appellation of “White
Southerness” is too simple, as not all Whites supported the Confederacy, today or during the Civil War—and not all
Confederates were White. Of course, this broader, complex, reality means that the flag supporters’ case would fail
even before we begin, because their definition of Southern culture is far too narrow and is itself steeped in
appreciation of a cause that is itself much more closely tied to White supremacy than many other Southern
traditions. With this in mind, our results should be interpreted as analytically conservative—our statistical and
narrative decisions accept for the moment the somewhat dubious premises: that support for the Confederate banner
might be associated with something called “Southern heritage;” that Southern heritage’s basis was forged in the
martial activities of the Civil War; and that this heritage is not itself saturated in White supremacy or racial
prejudice. Our analysis below demonstrates that even that generous case does not withstand empirical scrutiny.
2
See also Brown v. Board of Education (1955).
3
9– Since the 1930s, Southern Democrats in Congress (and elsewhere) routinely make a rhetorical connection
between efforts at integration, which would subvert the Southern racial order, and nefarious communist plots, which
would subvert the nation’s capitalist order. See, for example, Sitkoff (1978).
4
Ironically, the ACC and fellow proponents of the 1956 flag change argued that the previous flag had “no particular
significance,” despite the fact that the old version, adopted in 1879 and basically a copy of the official but lessknown “Stars and Bars” flag of the Confederacy, was specifically commemorated “the Confederate men and women
who had given their lives in the American Civil War (Atlanta Constitution 1955). See also Azarian and Fesshazion
(2000).
5
See also Pou (1956).
6
Azarian and Fesshazion agree, observing that “no one in 1956, including the flag’s sponsors, claimed that the
change was in anticipation of the coming anniversary. Those who subscribe to this argument have adopted it long
after the flag had been changed,” (2000, p. 22).
7
It should be noted that the pre-1956 (and current) flag, adopted in 1879 “at the request of…a Confederate Veteran”
(Atlanta Constitution 1955) is also a Confederate design very close to the official “stars and bars” national flag of
the Confederacy but is not well-known as such and thus generally lacks the racial and discriminatory connotations of
the St. Andrew’s cross design (see Martinez 2008).
8
This is the prevailing view, though it is not certain that it is correct. Some claim that it was raised on April 11,
1961 (see Webster and Leib, 2001).
9
See Hutchings and Piston (2011) for a discussion of prejudice.
10
We analyzed the responses of Black respondents separately, finding that none of the factors theorized to motivate
White support for the Confederate flag influence Black attitudes toward the flag. However, the N for Black
respondents was very small (60), so we suggest caution in interpreting the results. Table C1 in appendix C presents
the full results.
11
These results are consistent with findings from a poll ten years before the one analyzed here; Reingold and Wike
(1998) surveyed 826 Georgians in the fall of 1994, asking questions about support for the Confederate emblem,
racial attitudes, and Southern identification. They find that racial attitudes are associated much more strongly with
support for the Confederate emblem than is Southern identity.
12
We analyzed the responses of Black respondents separately, finding that none of the factors theorized to motivate
White support for the Confederate flag influence Black attitudes toward the flag. It is worth noting that Black
respondents who identify as Republican are significantly more likely to support the flying of the Confederate flag,
and to report positive feelings toward the Confederate flag, than are non-Republican Black respondents. However,
given the small sample sizes (n = 124, n = 127), we suggest caution in interpreting the results. Table C2 in appendix
C presents the full results.
13
We analyzed the responses of Black respondents separately, finding that Southern Black respondents who feel the
most warmly towards Whites relative to Blacks also feel the most warmly towards Southerners, while no such
relationship for non-Southern Blacks exists. Further, non-Southern Blacks who score highly on the racial resentment
scale are marginally significantly more likely to express warm feelings toward Southerners. Again, though, given
the small sample sizes (n = 88–96), we suggest caution in interpreting the results. Table C3 in appendix C presents
the full results.
1
49
14
These results are consistent with numerous research findings indicating a large impact of prejudice in other
domains, such as vote choice and turnout in elections with Black candidates (e.g., Krupnikov and Piston, 2015a;
Krupnikov and Piston, 2015b; Krupnikov and Piston, 2016; Krupnikov et al., 2016). This is especially disturbing
given that the conditions for prejudice reduction are extremely limited (Lupia et al., 2015).
50