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The emblem can be found on products of all sorts – from album art to curtains. It is painted on the roof of one of television’s most famous cars, the 1969 Dodge Charger, the General Lee, in The Dukes of Hazzard.Spencer Platt/Getty Images

What does its design mean?

Designed in 1861 in the first year of the American Civil War by military aide William Porcher Miles, the flag was rejected as a national flag for the new Confederate States of America but adopted by the Army of North Virginia as its battle flag. Its design was inspired by secessionist flags with variations of an upright cross (similar to England's St. George's cross) with 15 stars to represent each of the slaveholding states. The cross was made diagonal to appear less "ecclesiastical," as Miles wrote, and the 13 stars in its cross denote the Confederate states. During the Civil War, the flag was cut into a square to save fabric.

When was it first flown?

The flag was distributed on Nov. 28, 1861, to soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia led by General Robert E. Lee. It was used on the battlefield because of confusion between the official Confederate flag – the stars and bars – and the U.S. stars and stripes. Factions of the U.S. military made up mostly of Southerners used it in the Second World War, where it drew the title of the "Rebel Flag."

One faction that flew the emblem called itself the Rebel Company during the Battle of Okinawa in Japan.

When did it become a symbol of discrimination?

For a long time after the Civil War, the presence of the flag was muted in the South and was associated closely with Confederate veterans. In 1948, the Dixiecrats, a political party formed to oppose desegregation, brought the flag back to prominence. It was adopted throughout the 1950s and 1960s as an emblem of opposition to the civil-rights movement. In 1956, Georgia incorporated it into its state flag. In 1961, it was erected above the state Capitol in Columbia, S.C., on the centennial of the beginning of Civil War, in what was seen as an act of defiance. Since then, its presence has been the subject of debate. In 2000, a boycott of South Carolina by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) led to it being moved from atop the Capitol to a memorial on the front lawn. The battle flag was featured in the flags of seven different states. They all removed it, except Mississippi, where a proposal to do so was defeated in a referendum in 2001.

How have white supremacists used it?

The Ku Klux Klan adopted the flag during the civil-rights movement to oppose desegregation. The flag's use by the white supremacist group added to its notoriety as a racist symbol. The flag was featured this year on pamphlets distributed by the KKK in Selma, Ala., on the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, in which state police broke up a civil-rights march with batons and tear gas.

How is it used in popular culture?

The emblem can be found on products of all sorts – from album art to curtains. It is painted on the roof of one of television's most famous cars, the 1969 Dodge Charger, the General Lee, in The Dukes of Hazzard. State-sponsored license plates in Virginia include the flag, but its Governor announced they will soon be phased out.

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