Georgia Division Sons of Confederate Veterans declare a LITTLE MARY PHAGAN DAY in Georgia.
I am not making this up. I just got the news. This is the link to the web page announcing the Little Mary Phagan Day.
http://gascv.org/little-mary-phagan-day-in-georgia/
I have written about the Sons of Confederate Veterans promoting the book, "The South Under Siege" by Frank Conner. It is an anti-Semitic book and recently they have very strongly promoted it and they are selling it.
They have come up with some Confederate "heritage" tie in.
I think though it is very possibly part of their agenda regarding Jewish people. Conner's book portrays the Civil Rights movement as a Jewish conspiracy against the South. The case of Mary Phagan's murder is remembered since in resulted in the lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish person who moved to Georgia from Brooklyn, New York.
It is a day of infamy in the history of Georgia.
The "Daily Beast" has an article about the lynching of Leo Frank. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/02/america-s-only-anti-semitic-lynching.html.
Of course the Georgia Division SCV will deny that it has some anti-Semitic baggage. They will claim that they are just remembering a young woman who was murdered.
UPDATE:
I was informed that the Ku Klux Klan was organized very shortly after the Mary Phagan case. The hysteria over the murder, inflamed by the governor, lead to an environment where the Ku Klux Klan was born.
Friday, May 29, 2015
Saturday, May 23, 2015
AMAZING COVERAGE: John Sims' Flag burning and burying event getting major media coverage, such as the "Wall Street Journal." UPDATING AS RESULTS COME IN
John Sim's event to burn and bury a Confederate flag in every former Confederate state is underway.
The twitter hash tag is #13flagfunerals
The Wall Street Journal has a major article on the upcoming event.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/battle-stirs-over-confederate-flag-1432332336
3,628 shares on Facebook alone.
It has also been covered at Grio.
http://thegrio.com/2015/05/22/artist-john-sims-burn-bury-confederate-flag/
35,000 people have liked the article.
On the Blaze 4,600 people have done Facebook shares.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/05/22/that-part-of-our-history-needs-to-be-buried-college-professor-plans-memorial-day-event-to-burn-the-confederate-flag/
Confederate flag burnings are scheduled on Memorial Day in New Orleans, Florida, Georgia, and Missouri.
This is his Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/john.sims.39142?fref=photo
This is his web page.
http://www.johnsimsprojects.com/home4.html
The twitter hash tag is #13flagfunerals
The Wall Street Journal has a major article on the upcoming event.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/battle-stirs-over-confederate-flag-1432332336
3,628 shares on Facebook alone.
It has also been covered at Grio.
http://thegrio.com/2015/05/22/artist-john-sims-burn-bury-confederate-flag/
35,000 people have liked the article.
On the Blaze 4,600 people have done Facebook shares.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/05/22/that-part-of-our-history-needs-to-be-buried-college-professor-plans-memorial-day-event-to-burn-the-confederate-flag/
Confederate flag burnings are scheduled on Memorial Day in New Orleans, Florida, Georgia, and Missouri.
This is his Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/john.sims.39142?fref=photo
This is his web page.
http://www.johnsimsprojects.com/home4.html
Sunday, May 17, 2015
Given Medal and Award by African American Civil War Museum. Not garbage from the Museum of the Confederacy. UPDATED:
Saturday, May 16, 2015, I was given a medal and an award by the African American Civil War Museum.
I was down in Washington, DC for the Sesquicentennial celebration of the Grand Review that was held this weekend.
During a lecture I was called up before the audience in the front of the auditorium and given the medal and award. It was a complete surprise.
I am deeply appreciative of being given the award and medal and treasure them.
After seeing the parade and getting the award I really realized how wretched an award from the Museum of the Confederacy (MOC) is and how appalling it is that people accept awards from the MOC.
UPDATE: http://www.blackcommentator.com/441/441_museum_confederacy_sebesta_guest_share.html
This is the first posting I have ever done from my cell phone and I just didn't know how to copy in a link. So the above is the link to the four part expose of the MOC.
I wrote an essay about the MOC but haven't done much with it. I think it is about time I do. I also think that it's appalling that the African American Civil War Museum struggles on a shoe string budget but the MOC has so many resources.
I was down in Washington, DC for the Sesquicentennial celebration of the Grand Review that was held this weekend.
During a lecture I was called up before the audience in the front of the auditorium and given the medal and award. It was a complete surprise.
I am deeply appreciative of being given the award and medal and treasure them.
After seeing the parade and getting the award I really realized how wretched an award from the Museum of the Confederacy (MOC) is and how appalling it is that people accept awards from the MOC.
UPDATE: http://www.blackcommentator.com/441/441_museum_confederacy_sebesta_guest_share.html
This is the first posting I have ever done from my cell phone and I just didn't know how to copy in a link. So the above is the link to the four part expose of the MOC.
I wrote an essay about the MOC but haven't done much with it. I think it is about time I do. I also think that it's appalling that the African American Civil War Museum struggles on a shoe string budget but the MOC has so many resources.
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Shabby book for neo-Confederate Tom Landess, "Life, Literature, Lincoln: A Tom Landess Reader."
I recently ordered "Life, Literature, Lincoln: a Tom Landess Reader," for my research. I thought it would be good to have a book of Tom Landess' writings and some biographical information. Tom Landess wrote a lot for Southern Partisan and was a significant figure in the neo-Confederate movement. The book was edited by Clyde N. Wilson & Mary Beth Landess.
It is a shabby book. That is to say it is physically poorly done. It is poorly edited.
The book is a print-on-demand book, which is allowable. The problem with print-on-demand books is that the print is somewhat glossy so you have to be careful regarding your lighting, that it be diffuse so the print is easily readable. However, did Chronicles magazine decide they weren't going to risk even a short printing run? Was there no money to do so? It is an inexpensively printed book and I will want to make sure I don't stress the book's binding.
However, the real shoddiness of the book is the contents of the book. There is a series of items written by Tom Landess. However, there is no indication where and when the item was first printed. The essays exist ahistorically in the book, abandoned outside the stream of time. An important element of Tom Landess' intellectual history is missing. You have no idea of his scope or impact, the byways or highways he traveled.
The University of Missouri was reorganized in 2013 and maybe they are no longer publishing books by or about racist crackpots, such as they did regarding M.E. Bradford. So without a university press, books like this book of the writings of Tom Landess is what is in store for other neo-Confederates when they pass away, if they get any book at all.
One thought I had was that the editors were embarrassed by where Landess had been published, but Wilson's foreward mentions as a positive accomplishment that Landess wrote much of Southern Partisan. Perhaps by not having the time and place of publication Wilson thought he would make Landess timeless and not dated. Instead it is lost in time. We just know that the material was likely written after high school graduation and before his death.
Maybe the Southern Agrarian, M.E. Bradford strategy of forming a Southern nationalism drawing on a historical narrative of the Confederacy is drawing to a close and this book is the first manifestation. There still is the Abbeville Institute, it will be interesting to if it is there in 15 years when a lot of its contributors pass away.
I am thinking more and more that in the future neo-Confederacy will be largely confined to the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Outside them there largely won't be a neo-Confederate movement.
One thing is that scholars now recognize neo-Confederacy when they see it and neo-Confederacy has a name, and there is less and less toleration for it. The Southern Studies of people like John Shelton Reed is recognized for what it is. Academic publications and presses just aren't going to be interested anymore.
It is a shabby book. That is to say it is physically poorly done. It is poorly edited.
The book is a print-on-demand book, which is allowable. The problem with print-on-demand books is that the print is somewhat glossy so you have to be careful regarding your lighting, that it be diffuse so the print is easily readable. However, did Chronicles magazine decide they weren't going to risk even a short printing run? Was there no money to do so? It is an inexpensively printed book and I will want to make sure I don't stress the book's binding.
However, the real shoddiness of the book is the contents of the book. There is a series of items written by Tom Landess. However, there is no indication where and when the item was first printed. The essays exist ahistorically in the book, abandoned outside the stream of time. An important element of Tom Landess' intellectual history is missing. You have no idea of his scope or impact, the byways or highways he traveled.
The University of Missouri was reorganized in 2013 and maybe they are no longer publishing books by or about racist crackpots, such as they did regarding M.E. Bradford. So without a university press, books like this book of the writings of Tom Landess is what is in store for other neo-Confederates when they pass away, if they get any book at all.
One thought I had was that the editors were embarrassed by where Landess had been published, but Wilson's foreward mentions as a positive accomplishment that Landess wrote much of Southern Partisan. Perhaps by not having the time and place of publication Wilson thought he would make Landess timeless and not dated. Instead it is lost in time. We just know that the material was likely written after high school graduation and before his death.
Maybe the Southern Agrarian, M.E. Bradford strategy of forming a Southern nationalism drawing on a historical narrative of the Confederacy is drawing to a close and this book is the first manifestation. There still is the Abbeville Institute, it will be interesting to if it is there in 15 years when a lot of its contributors pass away.
I am thinking more and more that in the future neo-Confederacy will be largely confined to the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Outside them there largely won't be a neo-Confederate movement.
One thing is that scholars now recognize neo-Confederacy when they see it and neo-Confederacy has a name, and there is less and less toleration for it. The Southern Studies of people like John Shelton Reed is recognized for what it is. Academic publications and presses just aren't going to be interested anymore.
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Presidential Questionnaire mailed to announced candidates
I have mailed to the announced presidential candidates the questionnaire which I posted on this blog. You can read it here.
http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2015/05/questionnaire-for-2016-presidential.html#.VVJ3Y_lViko
Along with the questionnaire I sent a cover letter and a copy of Bill Clinton's letter of congratulations to the United Daughters of the Confederacy with a note asking that when president not to do this. A web article documenting Bill Clinton's letters to the UDC is: http://www.blackcommentator.com/274/274_clinton_udc.html
The candidates I sent the questionnaire to were:
Democratic:
1. Bernie Sanders.
2. Hillary Clinton
Republican:
1. Carly Fiorina
2. Marco Rubio
3. Rand Paul
4. Benjamin Carson
5. Mike Huckabee
6. Ted Cruz
As more candidates announce their candidacy I will be writing them. I will be publishing the results at www.templeofdemocracy.com.
http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2015/05/questionnaire-for-2016-presidential.html#.VVJ3Y_lViko
Along with the questionnaire I sent a cover letter and a copy of Bill Clinton's letter of congratulations to the United Daughters of the Confederacy with a note asking that when president not to do this. A web article documenting Bill Clinton's letters to the UDC is: http://www.blackcommentator.com/274/274_clinton_udc.html
The candidates I sent the questionnaire to were:
Democratic:
1. Bernie Sanders.
2. Hillary Clinton
Republican:
1. Carly Fiorina
2. Marco Rubio
3. Rand Paul
4. Benjamin Carson
5. Mike Huckabee
6. Ted Cruz
As more candidates announce their candidacy I will be writing them. I will be publishing the results at www.templeofdemocracy.com.
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Thomas Fleming no longer president of the Rockford Institute. Still editor of "Chronicles" but some changes
Thomas Fleming is no longer the president of the Rockford Institute in Rockford, Illinois. He is still the editor of Chronicles Magazine. He is important in the neo-Confederate movement for coming up with the idea for the Southern League, now known as the League of the South. http://www.leagueofthesouth.com but is no longer a member.
He also was a founder of Southern Partisan, but left it after a couple years. Chronicles magazine under his leadership was a forum for neo-Confederates such on John Shelton Reed and others.
With the May 2015 issue of Chronicles magazine I notice that his article is just two pages. In the past it used to go to three pages mostly even though the print was denser.
Maybe it is just a shorter article. Or maybe Chronicles is going to be leaving the Confederate States of America. Though I do see a full page ad for the Abbeville Institute on the inside of the backcover. And there is announced a book "Life, Literature, and Lincoln" of the writings of Tom Landess.
However this could be the residual of Fleming's leadership and in the coming months there a different focus on hating Muslims, gays, minorities, liberals without the distraction of Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy. Perhaps even in reactionary circles the "sell by date" for the Confederacy is past.
As the cliche says, "Time will tell."
Fleming's great project, neo-Confederate secession failed, there is just the laughable remnant of the League of the South. He can spend his forthcoming years raging against the future or to be more precise the Renaissance and what came after.
If society has huge troubles he will fell vindicated, even if his beliefs are irrelevant to these possible future problems, he will rationalize that the problems are because society didn't heed his warnings.
If I ever have a traffic accident, I suppose I could have avoided it by using a horse, or by staying home and not going anywhere.
As some reactionaries pass away or out of influence it is wrong to assume that a movement is passing away. Thomas Fleming and others like him continue a stream of thought going back centuries. There are younger people who will take his place. Though they may not be from the same background. I think the cohort of reactionary professors who still don't accept the civil rights movement are passing away.
In the larger scheme of things there will always be this movement for a hierarchical society will always continue and there will be a never ending struggle as long as humanity lives. Some times will be better, and lets hope the future brings a more equitable society and progress, but there will still be a struggle. There will always be a reservoir of reaction in society.
He also was a founder of Southern Partisan, but left it after a couple years. Chronicles magazine under his leadership was a forum for neo-Confederates such on John Shelton Reed and others.
With the May 2015 issue of Chronicles magazine I notice that his article is just two pages. In the past it used to go to three pages mostly even though the print was denser.
Maybe it is just a shorter article. Or maybe Chronicles is going to be leaving the Confederate States of America. Though I do see a full page ad for the Abbeville Institute on the inside of the backcover. And there is announced a book "Life, Literature, and Lincoln" of the writings of Tom Landess.
However this could be the residual of Fleming's leadership and in the coming months there a different focus on hating Muslims, gays, minorities, liberals without the distraction of Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy. Perhaps even in reactionary circles the "sell by date" for the Confederacy is past.
As the cliche says, "Time will tell."
Fleming's great project, neo-Confederate secession failed, there is just the laughable remnant of the League of the South. He can spend his forthcoming years raging against the future or to be more precise the Renaissance and what came after.
If society has huge troubles he will fell vindicated, even if his beliefs are irrelevant to these possible future problems, he will rationalize that the problems are because society didn't heed his warnings.
If I ever have a traffic accident, I suppose I could have avoided it by using a horse, or by staying home and not going anywhere.
As some reactionaries pass away or out of influence it is wrong to assume that a movement is passing away. Thomas Fleming and others like him continue a stream of thought going back centuries. There are younger people who will take his place. Though they may not be from the same background. I think the cohort of reactionary professors who still don't accept the civil rights movement are passing away.
In the larger scheme of things there will always be this movement for a hierarchical society will always continue and there will be a never ending struggle as long as humanity lives. Some times will be better, and lets hope the future brings a more equitable society and progress, but there will still be a struggle. There will always be a reservoir of reaction in society.
"Dallas Morning News" editorializes against schools with Confederate names and for contextualizing statues.
The Dallas Morning News editorialized against Confederate monuments and place names. The article is online.
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20150508-editorial-time-to-place-confederate-statues-in-context.ece
Nearly 25 years earlier the Dallas Morning News was against my effort to de-Confederate Dallas. In particular my asking that the Robert E. Lee statue be taken out of Lee Park in the Turtle Creek neighborhood.
At the time there were a lot of characters that supported reactionary Dallas.
There is Beth Silver, a reporter for Dallas Morning News, hopefully she is not doing the same type of reporting for the Associated Press as she did in her reports about the Robert E. Lee statue. She has gotten a place in history as an enabler of racism.
There is Rufus Shaw, a person who liked to pose as an African American radical, spoke out against the statue until the Dallas elite gave him his marching orders and then voted for the Robert E. Lee statue to remain. He is now dead. He and his wife committed suicide. Something about shady dealings.
There is Sandra Crenshaw who also likes to promote herself as some type of African American champion. But when called upon by the white establishment in Dallas she came to the defense of Robert E. Lee.
Domingo Garcia who originally forwarded my request to the Park Board, later has been a very quiet representative.
The head of the Dallas NAACP came to the defense of the Robert E. Lee statue.
I wrote up a history when the event happen and the interesting part of the story isn't that a reactionary Dallas came to the defense of the Robert E. Lee statue, or the Dallas Morning News, an abode of reactionary creepy crawlies worked to defend the statue. It is the story of the minority leadership in Dallas which came to the defense of Robert E. Lee.
Martin Luther King said that when he visited Dallas the black leadership slammed the door in his face. The spirit of S.M. Wright still lives in Dallas, Texas.
The Robert E. Lee story is a story of minority members doing the bidding of white racist Dallas while at the same time posing as if they were champions of the African American community. In the end the Dallas elites decided they don't want this Confederate stuff and it is from the top that it is going, and not because of any minority push in Dallas. I am sure when the removal comes a lot of African American while give fine speeches with fine phrases, but they will just be providing a show for the efforts of the Dallas elites.
There is no human rights commission for the city of Dallas. Occasionally it has come up and the minority leadership of Dallas makes excuses why they can't get one instituted. Fort Worth has a human rights commission and has had for at least 40 years or more.
So when you see some minority leader in Dallas posing as some champion, ask yourself, where is the Dallas Human Rights Commission?
There is a Police Review Board but it was gutted. If there was a police shooting of an unarmed African American in Dallas the African American leadership would say all sorts of things for the camera and make all sorts of demands on the Police Review Board, but they wouldn't do anything to make sure the Police Review Board could actually do anything.
Nor is it likely that they will ever do anything substantial about police treatment of minority members.
The Confederate glorification may go, but it remains to be seen if Dallas will ever get a human rights commission or restore the Police Review Board to effectiveness. What is really happening is that the Confederate glorification is an embarrassment to the Dallas elites. It is seen as potentially negatively impacting real estate development in Dallas which is Dallas' highest moral value.
I think there is actually some value to these statues. They warn visitors and others that Dallas is a reactionary town with race problems. When the statues are removed Wicks who is the publisher of D Magazine and editor of American Conservative magazine will still be publishing D Magazine. Ron Dreher will still be writing for Dallas Morning News and American Conservative magazine.
The University of Dallas will still be honoring M.E. Bradford.
I am not focusing on tracking fringe in the Dallas establishment as much as I used to, but I think that it is still interwoven in it.
So the prominent statues and Confederate place names do serve as a warning to people about what type of town Dallas is.
I have a file box of the articles and all the papers relating to the case. I will have to go through them and write up the history.
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20150508-editorial-time-to-place-confederate-statues-in-context.ece
Nearly 25 years earlier the Dallas Morning News was against my effort to de-Confederate Dallas. In particular my asking that the Robert E. Lee statue be taken out of Lee Park in the Turtle Creek neighborhood.
At the time there were a lot of characters that supported reactionary Dallas.
There is Beth Silver, a reporter for Dallas Morning News, hopefully she is not doing the same type of reporting for the Associated Press as she did in her reports about the Robert E. Lee statue. She has gotten a place in history as an enabler of racism.
There is Rufus Shaw, a person who liked to pose as an African American radical, spoke out against the statue until the Dallas elite gave him his marching orders and then voted for the Robert E. Lee statue to remain. He is now dead. He and his wife committed suicide. Something about shady dealings.
There is Sandra Crenshaw who also likes to promote herself as some type of African American champion. But when called upon by the white establishment in Dallas she came to the defense of Robert E. Lee.
Domingo Garcia who originally forwarded my request to the Park Board, later has been a very quiet representative.
The head of the Dallas NAACP came to the defense of the Robert E. Lee statue.
I wrote up a history when the event happen and the interesting part of the story isn't that a reactionary Dallas came to the defense of the Robert E. Lee statue, or the Dallas Morning News, an abode of reactionary creepy crawlies worked to defend the statue. It is the story of the minority leadership in Dallas which came to the defense of Robert E. Lee.
Martin Luther King said that when he visited Dallas the black leadership slammed the door in his face. The spirit of S.M. Wright still lives in Dallas, Texas.
The Robert E. Lee story is a story of minority members doing the bidding of white racist Dallas while at the same time posing as if they were champions of the African American community. In the end the Dallas elites decided they don't want this Confederate stuff and it is from the top that it is going, and not because of any minority push in Dallas. I am sure when the removal comes a lot of African American while give fine speeches with fine phrases, but they will just be providing a show for the efforts of the Dallas elites.
There is no human rights commission for the city of Dallas. Occasionally it has come up and the minority leadership of Dallas makes excuses why they can't get one instituted. Fort Worth has a human rights commission and has had for at least 40 years or more.
So when you see some minority leader in Dallas posing as some champion, ask yourself, where is the Dallas Human Rights Commission?
There is a Police Review Board but it was gutted. If there was a police shooting of an unarmed African American in Dallas the African American leadership would say all sorts of things for the camera and make all sorts of demands on the Police Review Board, but they wouldn't do anything to make sure the Police Review Board could actually do anything.
Nor is it likely that they will ever do anything substantial about police treatment of minority members.
The Confederate glorification may go, but it remains to be seen if Dallas will ever get a human rights commission or restore the Police Review Board to effectiveness. What is really happening is that the Confederate glorification is an embarrassment to the Dallas elites. It is seen as potentially negatively impacting real estate development in Dallas which is Dallas' highest moral value.
I think there is actually some value to these statues. They warn visitors and others that Dallas is a reactionary town with race problems. When the statues are removed Wicks who is the publisher of D Magazine and editor of American Conservative magazine will still be publishing D Magazine. Ron Dreher will still be writing for Dallas Morning News and American Conservative magazine.
The University of Dallas will still be honoring M.E. Bradford.
I am not focusing on tracking fringe in the Dallas establishment as much as I used to, but I think that it is still interwoven in it.
So the prominent statues and Confederate place names do serve as a warning to people about what type of town Dallas is.
I have a file box of the articles and all the papers relating to the case. I will have to go through them and write up the history.
Saturday, May 09, 2015
Court Street United Methodist Church Scheduled to host Children of the Confederacy in Lynchburg, Virginia
COURT STREET UNITED METHODIST CHURCH SCHEDULED TO HOST CHILDREN OF THE CONFEDERACY
The Children of the Confederacy (CofC) is a group run by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) to teach children that the Confederacy and its leaders were glorious.
They have an annual convention. The next is scheduled in Lynchburg, Virginia.
The Court Street United Methodist Church is scheduled to host the CofC Thursday, July 16, 2015 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm.
I am looking for someone in the area to help me in convincing them not to host. I think that if they knew that it was likely to come to the public's attention they would probably dis-invite the CofC.
I wrote them this certified letter:
April 25, 2015
Rev. Dr. Mark A. Tinsley
Court Street United Methodist Church
621 Court Street
Lynchburg, VA 24504
Dear Rev. Dr. Tinsley:
I am an investigative researcher of the neo-Confederate movement. I am published internationally in peer reviewed academic journals and by university presses as well as in Black Commentator. I enclose a copy of my online curriculum vitae which is also available athttp://www.templeofdemocracy.com/curriculum-vitae.html.
Recently I had a byline for an article at Politico, http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/04/civil-war-american-south-still-loves-confederacy-116771.html#.VU4Fu_lVikp
I am writing regarding your hosting the Children of the Confederacy 61st Annual General Convention memorial event on Thursday, July 16, 2015. This is an organization run by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) to indoctrinate young people that the Confederacy was glorious and not that it was an effort to perpetuate slavery and white supremacy. I enclose documentation that your church is chosen for this event.
Please find enclosed an article from the Richmond Free Press regarding churches hosting the 2014 UDC National Convention in Richmond, Virginia. In the article is the account of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church deciding that even though they have hosted the UDC eight times since 1994, they disinvited the UDC in 2014 and will not be hosting them in the future. This is the church that was attended by Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. The article is online at http://richmondfreepress.com/news/2014/nov/07/confederates-hold-service-downtown-church/
The United Methodist Church is the denomination 2nd most frequently hosting UDC national convention events and the only Methodist denomination hosting UDC national events. The African Methodist Episcopal Church, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and the Christian Methodist Church have not hosted since 1990 a single national convention of even of the UDC or the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV). In fact I haven’t run across these other three denominations ever hosting a neo-Confederate event of any type at any time. I enclose two bargraphs of denomination hosting mentioned.. You can see these bargraphs online at http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/churches-of-the-confederacy.html.
This is somewhat surprising that the United Methodist Church hosts any neo-Confederate groups given that John Wesley was an abolitionist.
Given that it may well be that the Episcopal Church is going to stop hosting neo-Confederates, the United Methodist Church runs a risk of going forward starting in 2013 of becoming one of the leading denominations hosting neo-Confederate groups.
One concern I have developed in investigating neo-Confederate groups is how they are enabled by mainstream organizations such as corporations, churches, government bodies and others. So I have decided to ask these groups to reconsider their relations with specific neo-Confederate groups. It is all well and good that I have written on extremist Confederate Christian nationalist for the Canadian Review of American Studies. (http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/uploads/3/5/2/3/3523099/confederatechristiannationalism.pdf), but I have realized that the enabling of a racist historical consciousness in the general public and racist neo-Confederate groups by mainstream churches is as detrimental to America as these fringe churches.
The UDC has a lengthy history of supporting white supremacy going back to the early 20th century shortly after they had finished organizing. You can see many primary documents regarding their racism atwww.confederatepastpresent.org and use the search term “daughters.”
However, their racism is not confined to the past. This is an organization that currently runs a Red Shirt Shrine to glorify a violent white supremacist group in 19th century South Carolina and of which they are proud of as documented in the June/July 2001 UDC Magazine article, pages 23, 24, and the cover of their magazine. In an article in the Dec. 2012 UDC Magazine, pages 11-14, is an appalling racist article in which the infamous post-Civil War Black Codes of the former Confederate states are defended, African American men are represented have been potential rapists, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution is argued to be misguided, freed African Americans are asserted to have been incompetent to be citizens. The article asserts, “Newly liberated Negroes were not prepared for their freedom…” In a Nov. 2007, UDC Magazine article, page 15 article the pro-KKK book “Southern By the Grace of God,” is recommended as a “treasure” to be given to members’ children. These are but three contemporary examples of the UDC’s racism. Documentation enclosed.
The British academic, Michael Billig in his landmark book, “Banal Nationalism,” discusses the fact that the discussion of nationalism usually revolves around extremists to the exclusion of seeing the banal nationalism in everyday life. Billig contrasts the focus of the usual analyst of nationalism to the analyst of banal nationalism as follows:
The analyst of banal nationalism does not have the theoretical luxury of exposing the nationalism of others. The analyst cannot place exotic nationalists under the microscope as specimens, in order to stain the tissues of repressed sexuality, or turn the magnifying lens on to the unreasonable stereotypes, which ooze from the mouth of the specimen. In presenting the psychology of a Le Pen or Zhirinovsky, ‘we’ might experience a shiver of fear as ‘we’ contemplate ‘them’, the nationalists, with their violent emotions and ‘their’ crude stereotyping of the Other. And ‘we’ will recognize ‘ourselves’ among the objects of this stereotyping. Alongside the ‘foreigners’ and the ‘racial inferiors’, there ‘we’ will be – the ‘liberal degenerates’, with ‘our’ international broadmindedness. ‘We’ will be reassured to have confirmed ‘ourselves’ as the Other of ‘our’ Other.
By extending the concept of nationalism, the analyst is not safely removed from the scope of investigation. We might imagine that we possess a cosmopolitan broadness of spirit. But, if nationalism is a wider ideology, whose familiar commonplaces catch us unawares, then this is too reassuring. We will not remain unaffected. If the thesis is correct, then nationalism has seeped into the corners of our consciousness; it is present in the very words which we might try to use for analysis. It is naïve to think that a text of exposure can escape from the times and place of its formulation. It can attempt, instead, to do something more modest: it can draw attention to the powers of an ideology which is so familiar that it hardly seems noticeable. [Billig, Michael, Banal Nationalism, Sage Publications, London, 1995.]
I extend Billig’s concept to a concept of banal white nationalism. My paper on it is online at http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/breaking-the-white-nation.html. The presentation of racist groups in sensational media reports are of largely marginal individuals who we will socially never run into, who have belligerent attitudes and behaviors, use racial slurs, have poor middle class decorum, and who perhaps wear funny clothes. Like Billig’s extremists, they reassure us that we aren’t racist since we are not like them. However, if we realize that racist attitudes and practice need not be confined to belligerent individuals shouting racial slurs or confined to physical assaults, we should not be so self-assured ourselves and have to examine a much wider range of practices and consider if we are involved. Suddenly it can be people that we know and who socially circulate in the circles in which we circulate.
The UDC as a well-mannered genteel group is largely not perceived as racist despite their ongoing practice as mentioned earlier in this letter.
I am writing you to ask you to not lend your facilities to the UDC for their 2015 Children of the Confederacy convention or for any unit of the UDC for any event. When a church lends their facility to the UDC or other neo-Confederate organization besides enabling them by giving them the use of their facility they also lend the prestige of their denomination and often a prominent historical church.
Sincerely Yours,
Edward H. Sebesta
United Daughters of the Confederacy can't find a church for their 2015 Convention
The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) can't find a church for their 2015 convention.
This is the link for the information about the upcoming convention.
http://ncudc.org/2015.html
They are going to have the service in the hotel in which they are meeting.
I wrote the pastor of the Edenton Street United Methodist Church and though he claimed that his church had never agreed to be the host for the UDC service they weren't going to host the UDC. However, the UDC had the Edenton Street United Methodist Church listed in their original 2015 web page which is archived at the Internet archive as follows:
https://web.archive.org/web/20130611041742/http://ncudc.org/2015GeneralConv.html
Of course it might be that the service is being held at a church in Raleigh, NC.
I had written a coalition of churches that claimed to be for social justice, they didn't want to deal with it, but I suspect that they also made a note not to host the UDC.
This is the link for the information about the upcoming convention.
http://ncudc.org/2015.html
They are going to have the service in the hotel in which they are meeting.
I wrote the pastor of the Edenton Street United Methodist Church and though he claimed that his church had never agreed to be the host for the UDC service they weren't going to host the UDC. However, the UDC had the Edenton Street United Methodist Church listed in their original 2015 web page which is archived at the Internet archive as follows:
https://web.archive.org/web/20130611041742/http://ncudc.org/2015GeneralConv.html
Of course it might be that the service is being held at a church in Raleigh, NC.
I had written a coalition of churches that claimed to be for social justice, they didn't want to deal with it, but I suspect that they also made a note not to host the UDC.
Friday, May 08, 2015
Southern Nationalist Network website is supposedly shut down because it is claimed that it has been a big success
The www.southernnationalist.com website has shut down.
The person who ran it claimed that the website was shut down for this reason:
You look at photos of the League of the South/SNN demonstrations and you realize that there aren't a lot of people at the demonstrations.
Or perhaps there wasn't any money to pay the bill. Even if you were going on to another activity you would retain ownership of the existing site to refer people to your new site or activity.
I don't think the SNN's demise is a great advance. It didn't seem to be accomplishing much. I thought because they were protesting they might get recruits. Direct action, protests often get people involved. But it seems there isn't seem to be any public support for the SNN's agenda.
The person who ran it claimed that the website was shut down for this reason:
"Over these past 5 years demonstrations have been held to rally folks to the idea of independence for Dixie. Many people have become serious Southern nationalists. Due to this rise in activity SNN will be shutting down; in order to begin a new phase that will inspire even more folks to get involved in the movement."So because the website was successful it is being shut down and the ownership given up. I would like to suggest another possibility, the SNN wasn't going anywhere.
You look at photos of the League of the South/SNN demonstrations and you realize that there aren't a lot of people at the demonstrations.
Or perhaps there wasn't any money to pay the bill. Even if you were going on to another activity you would retain ownership of the existing site to refer people to your new site or activity.
I don't think the SNN's demise is a great advance. It didn't seem to be accomplishing much. I thought because they were protesting they might get recruits. Direct action, protests often get people involved. But it seems there isn't seem to be any public support for the SNN's agenda.
Thursday, May 07, 2015
Questionnaire for the 2016 Presidential Candidates
This is a draft of the questionnaire that I have planned to send out. The cover letter will explain that possible answers are not confined to the four answers given, but that they can write their own reply as they see fit. I plan on having supporters write candidates asking them to respond if they haven't responded.
- As president would you consider appointing a
person to the position of United States Attorney General who is a member
of a neo-Confederate organizations such as the Sons of Confederate
Veterans, League of the South, United Daughters of the Confederacy, and
the Council of Conservative Citizens?
Yes, No, Undecided,
Other. (Circle One.)
- As president would you consider appointing a
person to be a commissioner for the United States Commission on Civil
Rights who is a member of a neo-Confederate organizations such as the Sons
of Confederate Veterans, League of the South, United Daughters of the
Confederacy, and the Council of Conservative Citizens?
Yes, No, Undecided,
Other. (Circle One.)
- As president would you consider nominating a
person for a Federal judgeship who is a member of a neo-Confederate
organizations such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans, League of the
South, United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Council of
Conservative Citizens?
Yes, No, Undecided,
Other. (Circle One.)
- As president would you consider for the head of a
law enforcement agency of the Federal government a person who is a member
of a neo-Confederate organizations such as the Sons of Confederate
Veterans, League of the South, United Daughters of the Confederacy, and
the Council of Conservative Citizens?
Yes, No, Undecided,
Other. (Circle One.)
- As president would you consider choosing for your
cabinet a person who is a member of a neo-Confederate organizations such
as the Sons of Confederate Veterans, League of the South, United Daughters
of the Confederacy, and the Council of Conservative Citizens?
Yes, No, Undecided,
Other. (Circle One.)
- As president would you consider nominating a
member of a neo-Confederate organization such as the Sons of Confederate
Veterans, League of the South, United Daughters of the Confederacy and the
Council of Conservative Citizens for an ambassadorship?
Yes, No, Undecided,
Other. (Circle One.)
- As president would you consider appointing a
member of a neo-Confederate organization such as the Sons of Confederate
Veterans, League of the South, United Daughters of the Confederacy and the
Council of Conservative Citizens to the National Endowment for the Arts.
Yes, No, Undecided,
Other. (Circle One.)
- Do you oppose the involvement of neo-Confederate
organizations such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans, League of the
South, United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Council of
Conservative Citizen in the Reserve Officer Training Corps or the Junior
Reserve Officer Training Corps?
Yes, No, Undecided,
Other. (Circle One.)
- Do you oppose the U.S. military’s practice of working
with neo-Confederate organizations such as the Sons of Confederate
Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy?
Yes, No, Undecided,
Other. (Circle One.)
- Do you think a state has a right to secede?
Yes, No, Undecided, Other.
(Circle One.)
- Do you think that nullification is legitimate?
Yes, No, Undecided, Other.
(Circle One.)
- Do you support the 13th Amendment to the
Constitution?
Yes, No, Undecided, Other.
(Circle One.)
- Do you support the 14th Amendment to the
Constitution?
Yes, No, Undecided, Other.
(Circle One.)
- Do you support the 15th Amendment to the
Constitution?
Yes, No, Undecided, Other.
(Circle One.)
- Are you a member, regular, associate, honorary,
or otherwise of a neo-Confederate organization such as the Sons of
Confederate Veterans, League of the South, United Daughters of the
Confederacy, and the Council of Conservative Citizens?
Yes, No, Undecided,
Other. (Circle One.)
- During your administration as president would you
send a wreath to the Arlington Confederate monument?
Yes, No, Undecided,
Other. (Circle One.)
- Would you fly or display a Confederate flag at
the White House or any other presidential residence?
Yes,
No, Undecided, Other. (Circle One.)
- Would your presidential administration allow a
Confederate monument to be erected on Federal property?
Yes, No, Undecided,
Other. (Circle One.)
- As president would you declare a day, week or
month a special time to commemorate the Confederacy or a Confederate
leader?
Yes, No, Undecided,
Other. (Circle One.)
- As president would you support the naming of a
Federal bridge, building, park, ship, vehicle, military base or some other
Federal public structure or place for purpose of honoring a member of the
Confederacy?
Yes, No, Undecided,
Other. (Circle One.)
- While president would you participate in a
celebration, observance, or ceremony to honor, memorialize, or celebrate
the Confederacy or a member of the Confederacy or send a representative to
do so?
Yes, No, Undecided,
Other. (Circle One.)
- Would your presidential administration support
having Civil War battlefield parks explain the role of slavery in the
Civil War?
Yes, No, Undecided,
Other. (Circle One.)
- Would you place in the White House or some other
place of presidential residency pictures or memorials of Confederate
leaders?
Yes, No, Undecided,
Other. (Circle One.)
- Would you invite to the White House any
neo-Confederate groups such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans, United
Daughters of the Confederacy, League of the South or the Council of
Conservative Citizens?
Yes,
No, Undecided, Other. (Circle One.)
- Would you invite to an event any neo--Confederate
groups such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans, United Daughters of the
Confederacy, League of the South or the Council of Conservative Citizens?
Yes,
No, Undecided, Other. (Circle One.)