The official flag of the Confederate States of America is not a racist symbol.
Up until sometime in the late 1960s, or early 1970s, the Union flag was the dominant flag symbol used by the Ku Klux Klan (the group these Confederate flag opponents seem to base all their views by). The Southern Parties of the Southwest does not sanction, nor condone, Ku Klux Klan activities, whether political or religious. As with religion, the Southern Parties of the Southwest does not promote any particular denomination of Christianity, but does advocate Christian ideals.
Slavery was still being practiced heavily in the North during the war of Northern aggression. The White House was under construction with slave labor. (Grant owned slaves during the war -- Lee did not!)
Then, why is the Union flag not attacked more? Abraham Lincoln's family owned slaves, and Lincoln had proposed a settlement with the C.S.A. that would pass a constitutional amendment which would protect and continue slavery if the South would come back into the Union. Instead, in 1864, a year before the war ended, the Confederate States of America began deliberating about abolishing slavery. Early in 1861, the Confederate States of America had constitutionally forbidden further importations of African slaves. In March 1865, the Congress of the Confederate States of America passed a bill authorizing recruiting Negroes into the C.S.A. Army and some slave owners and small communities began granting freedom to those who enlisted in the Army. Yet, the North continued slavery during 1865 and well after the war ended.
The South never sent a single ship from its docks in the slave trade -- all slave trading by American ships came from the North.
The real flag of slavery is the United States Stars and Stripes because that is the flag of the United States, which in its original Constitution of 1789 contained provisions for slavery. Northern interests, especially in New York, profited greatly on slave trade with British ships.
Charles Goodson, chairman, Southern Parties of the Southwest