Majority of Southern Voters Consider Confederate Flag a ‘Symbol of Racism’

A majority of Southerners consider the Confederate flag a symbol of racism rather than a token of “Southern pride,” a new poll found.

Fifty-five percent of voters in the South said they associated the flag with racism, compared to 36 percent who said they instead saw it “more as a symbol” of Southern pride, according to a Quinnipiac University Poll survey released Wednesday.

That figure closely aligned with the voters polled nationwide, 56 percent of whom said they consider the Confederate flag a symbol of racism.

Thirty-five percent of national respondents said the flag more closely represented Southern pride to them, the poll found.

That’s a significant change from polling as recent as last month that found 44 percent of registered voters nationwide saw the flag as a symbol of Southern pride, compared to 36 percent who said they primarily saw it as racist, according to a Morning Consult/Politico survey.

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