The debate over the Confederate flag has come north. With institutions such as the one that mounts the New York State Fair taking stands on whether the Confederate flag should be allowed to be flown and sold in at public events, the discussion is not only being played out in Southern states, but also all over the country.

The issue arose again in June after the killing of nine African Americans in a historical black church in Charleston, SC by a young man who liked to pose with the Confederate flag. After a debate, lawmakers eventually voted to remove the flag from the statehouse in Columbia, and did so on July 10. Further, other Southern lawmakers have said it’s time to move Confederate flags to museums, and giant businesses such as Amazon, Walmart and Ebay have announced they will stop selling the flag and items emblazoned with its emblem.

All of this, however, has not settled the central question of what this particular flag represents.

According to a USA Today/Suffolk University poll released on June 30, 42% expressed the view that the flag does not represent racism, but instead represents Southern heritage, and 42% said it does represent racism and slavery.

Even so, another poll released a few days earlier by HuffPost/YouGov found that a clear majority believed it was the right thing to do for the South Carolina Legislature to take the flag down from the statehouse. A story explaining the poll said, “Just 24% of Americans now support displaying the Confederate flag in public places, down 12 points from just three months ago. Only 19% say Southern states should fly the Confederate flag on the grounds of a state capitol or other government building.”

The two polls show that Americans are clearly conflicted on the question and also suggest that there is much misinformation surrounding the flag. The flag that is now known as the Confederate flag was never actually used as a national flag for the Confederate States. Multiple sources say it was created in 1861 as the battle flag of Northern Virginia.

After the Civil War, the flag was used to honor fallen Confederate soldiers and at veterans’ events and not much more. But it took on new meaning in the middle of the 20th century.

According to PBS “News Hour” (www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/8-things-didnt-know-confederate-flag) “In 1948, the newly formed segregationist Dixiecrat Party adopted the flag as a symbol of resistance to the federal government.” Flag supporters say the flag, and the Civil War, were not initially about slavery but instead states’ rights. Those who oppose the flag say the right the Southern states wanted to protect in the war was the right to own slaves, and the rights they wanted to protect a century later were segregation and Southern forms of racism.

In the ‘50s, again from “News Hour,” “The flag became an important part of segregationist symbolism, and was featured prominently on the 1956 redesign of Georgia’s state flag, a legislative decision that was, likely at least partly, a response to the Supreme Court’s decision to desegregate schools two years earlier.”

In 1966, the Confederate flag was raised over a public building in Charleston, SC, 100 years after the end of the Civil War; again it was seen, at the time, as a reaction to the Civil Rights Movement. Now, almost 50 years later, state lawmakers voted to take it down because it was, rightly or wrongly, too closely associated with the killing of African Americans in that Charleston church.

Taking a look at the history of the flag, especially over the past 70 years or so, it’s hard to conclude that the symbol is not inextricably tied up with this country’s history of slavery and racism.

Private citizens have a right to fly the Confederate flag at their home, just as they have a right to fly just about any flag, should they so choose. And it’s not hard to imagine, that when thought of as simply a rebel flag, that is, a flag representing those fighting the tyranny of a stronger opponent who would bend the rebels to their will, many people in this country might adopt an idealized view of the flag.

But perhaps the most important view of the flag in this debate belongs to those who are most directly impacted by the legacy of racism and slavery in this country. In the USA Today/Suffolk University poll mentioned earlier, more than 75% of African Americans said they thought the flag was racist and should not be displayed in public.

Those who are thinking of flying the Confederate flag might want to consider that before sending it up the flagpole.