In 1965, South Asian students attended a July 4 rally in Louisiana to see how the holiday was celebrated. But the event was put on by white-supremacist Citizens' Councils, and some in the Confederate flag-waving crowd chased and assaulted the students. Watching Gov. Haley wrestle with the divisiveness over that flag brought back memories for Elaine Parker Adams, who also fled the crowd that day.
The current battle over the Confederate flag — and the role of Indian-American governors in it — brings back memories of violence committed against South Asians under that very flag at an Independence Day rally organized by the white-supremacist Citizens' Councils in Louisiana 50 years ago. (Image from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History website.)