--- title: Photos: When the Confederate Flag Seemed Like a Mere Fad description: When the flag saw an increase in popularity in the early 1950s, LIFE chalked it up to a simple fashion statement canonical: https://time.com/3931754/confederate-flag-fad/ author: Eliza Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-23T15:23:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:02:53.078Z og:title: Photos: When the Confederate Flag Seemed Like a Mere Fad og:description: The flag saw an increase in popularity in the early 1950s og:url: https://time.com/3931754/confederate-flag-fad/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt06756bb44b503efa/698857df524fc0414cdf33c1/150623-confederate-flag-10.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2100 og:image:height: 1181 og:image:alt: Confederate Flag 1951 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Photos: When the Confederate Flag Seemed Like a Mere Fad twitter:description: The flag saw an increase in popularity in the early 1950s twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt06756bb44b503efa/698857df524fc0414cdf33c1/150623-confederate-flag-10.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # When the Confederate Flag Seemed Like a Mere Fad > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture recommendation newsletter, edited by culture editor Eliza Berman. Twice a week it surfaces the books, shows, films and ideas TIME's editors think are worth your attention, and explains why. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Does TIME have a culture newsletter? Yes. Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters.  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Jun 23, 2015 3:23 PM UTC  Caption from LIFE. University of Maryland students display 1864 flag, battle flags. Caption from LIFE. University of Maryland students display 1864 flag, battle flags. Mark Kauffman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Jun 23, 2015 3:23 PM UTC In the wake of the massacre of nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., last Wednesday, pressure has mounted for the removal of a Confederate battle flag from the grounds of that state’s capitol. On Monday, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley [declared](http://time.com/3930715/south-carolina-governor-nikki-haley-confederate-flag/) her support for its removal. Elsewhere, a Mississippi lawmaker has [called](http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2015/06/22/petition-mississippi-confederate-flag/29113157/) for the elimination of the Confederate emblem from that state’s flag, and Walmart [announced](http://time.com/3931323/walmart-confederate-flag/) that it will stop selling merchandise featuring the flag. The flag has long been [a controversial emblem](http://time.com/3928411/south-carolina-confederate-flag-charleston-church/): its defenders often see it as a symbol of Southern heritage, while opponents find it an offensive reminder of a history of racism and slave ownership that has no place on government property. In 1951, LIFE Magazine reported that the Confederate flag was having something of a renaissance, not only flying in its original form but also appearing on items of clothing, car decals and highball glasses. The magazine hypothesized the reasons behind its resurgence: --- > “” --- But one possible reason is conspicuously absent, at least in the context of today’s discussions: the coming of the civil-rights movement. President Truman had advanced the cause of equality in some ways—he was responsible for integrating the military by executive order, for example—so readers at the time could have guessed what “an anti-Truman gesture” might have been a euphemism for, but the story manages not to mention racial tensions at all. The history of the flag is, of course, much more complicated than a flash-in-the-pan fashion statement. It was less than five years later that LIFE [dispatched a photographer](https://books.google.com/books?id=6kcEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA39&dq=%22thomas+stanley%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ZHSJVarVJNXLsATQvqTYAQ&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22thomas%20stanley%22&f=false) to a Virginia hearing on several bills that defied the _Brown v. Board of Education_ desegregation decision, where she found segregationists standing outside the legislative chambers waving the Confederate flag as part of a campaign against school integration. [Historians](http://time.com/3930464/south-carolina-confederate-flag-1962/) have pointed to the flag’s symbolism at that point in time as a conscious rebuke to desegregation. LIFE’s take on the flag’s popularity not only oversimplified its significance, but it also misjudged by calling it a fad—which is, by definition, short-lived. As debates about its place in American society continue more than 60 years later, it’s clear that it’s been much more than that. _Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter_ [_@lizabethronk_](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk)_._  University of Maryland students waving the Confederate flag. Mark Kauffman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Daughters of Confederacy show how the flag should be saluted. Mark Kauffman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Flag factories like this one in Washington are swamped with orders for flags from tiny ones for dime-store sale to 5-by-8 foot silk ones at $100 each. Mark Kauffman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Three make a blouse. Mark Kauffman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Girls wearing hats displaying the Confederate flag. Mark Kauffman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  31st Division Band displaying the Confederate flag. Mark Kauffman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "I'm against Truman," explained Ed Tracy in buying flag in a shop in Westfield, N.J. One Washington store has sold 10,000 flags in the last year. Mark Kauffman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Dam Yankee's car would enrage Daughters of the Confederacy, who have spoken out bitterly against using flags like fox tails on cars' radiator caps. Mark Kauffman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Southern Senators' employes and visitors wear new Confederate tie. Reborn gag: "Save your Confederate money—the South will rise again." Mark Kauffman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. University of Maryland students display 1864 flag, battle flags. 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