MOBILE, Ala. — In the aftermath of the Charleston Shooting, many have turned their attention from the 9 victims of the deranged racist to the Confederate battle flag and other symbols of the Civil War. Now a new symbol is in the crosshairs.
Mobile, Alabama’s oldest city, was once the capital of the French colony of Louisiana, and much like its cultural sister New Orleans, prominently features many of the emblems of that country even today. Now some are targeting the fleur-de-lis—one of the most recognizable French symbols—as racist.
According to slave historian Dr. Ibrahima Seck, slaves in the colony of Louisiana would be branded with the fleur-de-lis if they were caught running away.
“As an African I find it painful, and I think people whose ancestors were enslaved here may feel it even harder than I do as an African,” Seck said of the symbol.
The momentum to remove any remnants of the Confederacy from Southern culture has increased dramatically in the last several weeks, even growing to prompt the Birmingham city government to remove a 110-year-old memorial erected by the Daughters of the Confederacy from city property, and the Memphis city government to propose disinterring Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest.
But Tulane University professor Terence Fitzmorris says the fleur-de-lis should not be compared to the Confederate battle flag.
“The fleur de lis was the symbol of a monarchy. The United States of America was a slave-holding republic, not just the south. Where do you stop? Do you get rid of all symbols?”
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— Elizabeth BeShears (@LizEBeesh) January 21, 2015
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