The confederate flag controversy is small compared to other issues such as the recent murders in Charleston and ongoing investigation into police brutality but many are seeing the successful vote to take down the flag as a step in the right direction.

The South Carolinian Senate voted 42-3 in favor of taking the flag down Thursday, June 24. It was taken down for good the next day.

Kathleen Hilliard, Associate Professor in the History Department and Larry McDonnell, Assistant Professor in the History Department, agree that it is only the first step for the country after the Charleston murders and other headlines of institutionalized racism over the past year.

The flag was raised over the South Carolinian Statehouse in 1961 to mark the centennial of the Civil War. Except, this flag was the 20th century version, in a rectangular shape and is a combination of the square battle flag and the second naval jack.

“It’s a political flag,” McDonnell said. “The separation of church and state is something even the confederacy understood. At the center of that flag is the St. Andrews cross, it’s a religious symbol, they never would have put a religious symbol on their flag.”

“They raised the flag in 1961 as resistance to desegregation and the Civil Rights movement.” Hilliard said.

This flag was taken down and replaced by the square battle flag and placed next to a monument commemorating fallen confederate soldiers in front of the Statehouse until June 10, when it was removed permanently.

“They do this slogan, ‘Heritage not hate’ but there’s no heritage that doesn’t involve hate. It’s a heritage of hate.” McDonnell said. “Hate is one thing, but what if I don’t hate those people but I can make a lot of money off of them, wreck their families, tear apart their country- but my children will live well and that’s what Europeans and Americans chose to do… and there’s just something really evil about that.”

Hilliard says that even Iowan teachers make excuses for slavery. That it was just the way it was, or compared to the working class in the north it wasn’t that bad.

“You have to think of the psychology of slavery.” Hilliard said. “The fear every day of knowing your child is not your own… even if you did have clothes what does it matter?”

As a Canadian, McDonnell weighed in saying, “The civil war is the most glamorized and romanticized war and I don’t think it’s a tremendous achievement that this country managed to kill three quarters of a million of its own people for something other than destroying slavery.”

The politics surrounding the Civil War are complicated and there is no simple answer, but Hilliard and McDonnell both say that the majority of historians are offended by the confederate flag because of the inherent nature in which it is a symbol of racism.

Racism and inequality still exist today even within our modern American context. Removing the the confederate flag will not be the last page in history concerning the continuing fight for justice.

“Taking down the flag doesn’t mean anything if everyone sees it as a final step. It needs to be the first step to addressing inequity.” Hilliard said.

Iowa State may not be flying a confederate flag, but it still has some questions faculty and students need to answer.

“I walk into a class of 300 students and only 2 of them are black. Where are they? We need to ask ourselves these questions on campus.” McDonnell said.

As teachers at Iowa State, Hilliard and McDonnell are ready to start talking with students about the controversy over the confederate flag using it as a baby step into the bigger issues of inequity and racism.

“I think it’s great that we as a nation have taken down the confederate flag. I’m proud of my southern heritage but the flag doesn’t define being southern.” Catherine Brown,  a senior in marketing said.

Jordan O’Brien, a Senior in Kinesiology and Health, said he is glad the flag was taken down.

“I believe the flag being taken down will be a good step for South Carolina to start relieving racial tension. But it’s only the first step.”