“Rebel” Flag

Beginning with NASCAR races in the early 1950s, the Confederate flag became a totem of self-styled “rebels” and “good ol’ boys,” including motorcycle riders, truckers, and southern rock bands. The type reached its apogee with the highly-rated television show, “The Dukes of Hazzard” (1979-1984) and one of its “stars,” the enormously popular 1969 Dodge Charger named the “General Lee” with a flag emblazoned on its roof.

Images:Program for the Southern 500 stock car race, 1966
The Confederate flag was associated intimately with the NASCAR stock car racing series virtually from its birth in 1949 and was part of the iconography of signature races such as the Southern 500 at Darlington, South Carolina.
Courtesy of the International Motor Sports Hall of Fame, Talladega, Alabama

TV Tray
This tv tray featured the cast and other stars of the “Dukes of Hazzard.”
ACWM Collection, 1993.034.30

Beer Can
This beer capitalized on the “Dukes of Hazzard” vogue of the early 1980s.
ACWM Collection, 1993.014

Truck in Rearview Mirror
The Confederate flag “bug screens” on freight-hauling trucks, like the one pictured, were a familiar sight to travelers on American highways in the late 20th century. By the 1970s, the Confederate flag had become a totem of the independent trucker as well as the biker, “redneck,” and “good ol’ boy.”
Photograph by Peggy Peattie