This House would ban the display of the Confederate flag on public property.

Between the years of 1861 and 1865, over 600,000 people were killed in the course of the American Civil War. The first truly industrial war, it was also the first conflict in history to involve such horrific innovations as trench warfare. It would be an oversimplification to attribute the war to any single cause, as various tensions separately and jointly served to move the states which would go on to form the Confederacy to secede. One such disagreement centered on the proper balance between "slave states" and "free states". Equally significant were bitter conflicts of economic interest between agrarian Southern states and more industrial Northern states.

While the Confederacy possessed vastly more competent tacticians than the Union, the considerable logistical advantages enjoyed by the latter eventually proved decisive. However, though the integrity of the United States was preserved, many private individuals as well as public officials still elect to fly the Confederate battle flag. Whether this is done out of a harmless sense of regional pride or other, more sinister motives is open to question. Given the strong connotations of racial intolerance which the Confederate flag bears for so many, it is by no means a symbol to be taken lightly.