Looking for a symbol for Southern USA communism

I'd think that any breakaway Southern republic--even a Communist one--would somehow acknowledge the Stars and Bars, perhaps with some suitable nod toward racial equality. The Confederate Flag not only has more emotional resonance in the South than any other icon, but Southern socialists might actually find some inspiration in the history of the Confederacy:

Although southerners rebelled against growing centralization of the federal government, they had no qualms about establishing a strong national state of their own. Scholars have classified the Confederate central government as a form of "war socialism." The Confederacy owned key industries, regulated prices and wages, and instituted the most far-reaching draft in North American history. The Confederacy employed some 70,000 civilians in a massive (if poorly coordinated) bureaucracy that included thousands of tax assessors, tax collectors, and conscription agents. The police power of the Confederate state was sometimes staggering. To ride a train, for example, every passenger needed a special government pass…Political scientist Richard Franklin Bensel writes that "a central state as well organized and powerful as the Confederacy did not emerge until the New Deal and subsequent mobilization for World War II. (source)

While we tend to associate the South with states rights and small government, this attitude toward the government is (was?) deeply rooted in shielding itself from Northern policies, not in an attitude toward the value of government per se. This is a major theme in the historiography of Southerners like Andrew Jackson and John Calhoun.

Southern approval of social spending carried through the first half of the 20th century (and arguably continues to this day). Never forget that the South was the basis of the New Deal coalition, with the Gulf Coast particularly strong for FDR (darker blue = more Democratic):

And FDR was the moderate candidate heading into 1936. Huey Long, Louisiana born and bred, was known for wanting to "share the wealth":

Some historians believe that pressure from Long and his organization contributed to Roosevelt's "turn to the left" in 1935. He enacted the Second New Deal, including the Social Security Act, the Works Progress Administration, the National Labor Relations Board, Aid to Dependent Children, the National Youth Administration, and the Wealth Tax Act of 1935. In private, Roosevelt candidly admitted to trying to "steal Long's thunder."

Or as Tyler Cowen puts it:

One implication is that the United States kept "small government" for an artificially long period of time, due to North-South splits and the resulting inability to agree on what a larger government should be doing.

At the beginning of the 20th century, revolutionary imagery was dominated by a completely different symbol set. The Red and Black flags were popular, having origins early in the 19th century left.

The star, fist, sabot (wooden shoe) and after 1905 black cat also had a place.

But prior to 1919, revolutionary imagery was not dominated by Bolshevik symbols. The development of Hammer & Sickle imagery needs to be contextualised in terms of the massive problems the Bolsheviks had in the countryside, for example, exterminating the cream of the rural workers and left-rural peasants movements.

Would this be true of Florida in 1900? Unlikely. Look at IWW imagery, same period, revolutionary left politics, American in origin.

OK, now that the question is a bit more general I can attempt a brief answer - sorry for mainly citing Wikipedia, from where I am sure you can find better sources if you want to.

First, the Hammer and sickle were "conceived during the Russian Revolution". Hence, you might not want to use them if your point of departure is 1898. The article Symbols of communism has some other symbols.

The article Flag of the Soviet union has a gallery of other communist flags. The star seems by far to be the most common symbol (and is the symbol used on the most popolous nominally Socialist country today, China)

The Red flag appears to be the oldest, dating back to at least to the Revolutions of 1848.

Flags of the Soviet republics has more Communist flags, heavily inspired by that of the Soviet union.

Let me finish by some symbolism I found in the above articles:

Angola: Cogwheel, machete and star (if you wanted to pick something "off the shelf" (which you probably wouldn't) this would perhaps be the one to use?)

Irish citizens' army: Ursa minor and a plough (and a sword?)

Khiva SSR: Hammer, sickle, star, crescent, and some other thing (utensil? crop?)

Estonian SSR: hammer, sickle, star, and the sea