UPDATE: Route reversed. Protest Walk Jan. 6 on Gaston Ave. and Junius Street in Dallas.

UPDATE: The route will be reversed starting at 2400 Gaston Ave.

This is the next event, Jan. 6, 2018, 2pm starting at 7340 Gaston Ave. Walks will be done once a month in Dallas on the streets.

This is the "No Confederate Streets" page.

https://www.facebook.com/events/303683380120314/

The walk will be down Gaston Ave. until the end, then switch over and walk back up north east on Junius Street. I will be taking video of the entire walk. I am thinking of a Ricoh V camera.

UPDATE: The walk will be UP Gaston Avenue then down Junius Street.

I will be writing people on the street before hand to express support. I will be sending them a bibliography and a paper on why the street names need to be changed.

This is the link for Gaston Ave.

http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/gaston-avenue.html

This is the link for Junius Street.

http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/junius-street.html

Junius W. Peak besides being a Confederate soldier was a Ku Klux Klan member during Reconstruction in Dallas. Neo-Confederates celebrated the KKK in Reconstruction as the heroic effort of the ex-Confederate solider.

Both web pages have historical resources and they have a two-page bibliography on slavery and violence against African Americans in American history.

I will be including with my letter the bibliography and a position paper on why changing Confederate named streets is important.

http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/why-changing-the-name-of-confederate-streets-is-important.html

For both streets I am mapping historical items to individual addresses.

For Junius Street is it violence against African Americans.

For Gaston Ave. it is Moses Roper's slave narrative of his escapes. His sufferings along the way constitute a sort of stations of the cross.

You can view the tables of the mappings at the street web pages.

I will be filling in the tables and updating them over the next few months. The tables themselves also have resources that a person could look up on the web or read.

Once I get video of my walk, I will be producing a video in which the issues of neo-Confederates, Reconstruction KKK, and other topics can be explained in the video of the walk.

I am doing this as a project of remembering.

Along with the bibliography and position paper there will be a letter which I have yet to write. I will post it in this blog posting when it is finished.

I am thinking of asking people along the way to express their support either by walking with me or having at their house or on their lawn a symbol of support. I am thinking of maybe a poster of E.G. Porter, a Dallas African American who was attacked for trying to be a juror.

Or some symbol to represent support.

I am also studying street name changes in South Africa where they are getting rid of apartheid street names. Contacting some scholars, getting some papers, reading articles.

Christmas dawn protest of Dallas Plantation Christmas. UPDATE: UPDATE 2: Sunspot video interview at Arlington Hall.

UPDATE 2: Sunspot video interviewed me and you can see it on Facebook at this link.

https://www.facebook.com/sunspotvideo/videos/1561764790572078/

UPDATE:

We did the event. An activist DFW group Round Table showed up and did a video interview.

This is my first video attempt. I am going to be using the Tripod next video. The video is also on the Facebook event page and will be put up on the www.templeofdemocracy.com page in the Dallas section.

This is the event starting at 7:20 am. dawn.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1740278132945526/

Will be reading slave narratives from this book.

 

In our letter published in the Dallas Morning News, at this link. https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2017/08/04/dallas-confederate-memorials-scream-white-supremacy

We had this to say:

"Organizations that meet at the replica plantation house show contempt for African-Americans as well. When the owners of properties like The Claridge, 21 Turtle Creek, 3525 Turtle Creek, The Mayfair, The Vendôme and The Wyndemere take part in lighting up Lee Park, we see how the upper classes of Dallas embrace a duplicate Robert E. Lee plantation and adorn it to celebrate the birth of Christ. What does it say about the Dallas Christian community that this doesn't raise a cry of disgust?"

This is how Dallas celebrates a Confederate Christmas at the one-third replica Arlington Hall. This is not just an old building, it was built to celebrate Robert E. Lee.

We have a web page on Arlington Hall also. http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/arlington-hall-and-oak-lawn-park.html

There is a web page on Arli

Following the example of the American Anti-Slavery Society mailed every residence in the Mayfair a letter asking them to support changing the name Lee Parkway to something else.

Click on photo to see the entire image. The Mayfair page is at:

http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/mayfair.html  At this page you can read all 142 pages.

This is the Lee Parkway page. http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/lee-parkway.html

Went to the post office on Dec. 21, 2017 and mailed 142 individual letters to each residence of the Mayfair condominiums. This was a followup after a Lee Parkway Protest.
http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2017/11/protest-at-lee-parkway-dallas-texas.html#.Wj_Qld-nGiM

Click on image to see the entire image.

Each letter was different in that it referenced a different account of slavery and contained a page or two photocopy of the account from a book of slavery narratives. The letter also had a one page bibliography of books on slavery.

The books used were, “American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses,” editor Theodore Dwight Weld, 2011, A DocSouth Book Edition, Univ. of North Carolina, originally published in 1839 by the American Anti-Slavery Society and “Slave Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews, and Autobiographies,” edited by John W. Blassingame, Louisiana State University Press 1977.

These books are available. https://lsupress.org/books/detail/slave-testimony/ for Blassingame's book. For "Anti-Slavery As It Was," there are reprints, but you can also download it from http://www.archive.org. You can download it as a PDF or in other formats.
https://archive.org/search.php?query=title%3A%28American%20slavery%20as%20it%20is%29

It was based on a mailing campaign of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1835 where the Society mailed anti-slavery pamphlets to leaders in the slave states. A mob attacked the post office and burnt the Society's mail in the street. This is a link to the story.

http://postalmuseumblog.si.edu/2010/07/americas-first-direct-mail-campaign.html

It was also based on "Saturday Night Live" skit "Tech Talk" spoofing critics of the iphone5.

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/tech-talk-iphone-5/n27749?snl=0


This is part of a larger project mapping narratives of slavery to addresses on streets named after Confederates in Dallas. There will be a pdf file of the map for download. On the backside will be the assignments of the slave stories.

I will be walking the streets named after Confederates and will be writing people along the streets asking them to join in.

The first two streets will be Gaston Ave. and Junius Street. Junius was a Klansman in Dallas during Reconstruction and so the historical narratives assigned to Junius will be those of white terror attacks on African Americans during Reconstruction. I am going to be using this source.

http://freedmensbureau.com/texas/index.htm

The web pages for Gaston Avenue and Junius Street are still under development but these are the URLs.

http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/gaston-avenue.html

http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/junius-street.html

The page for Ervay Street is an example of a more developed web page. You will notice that the street pages will often supply historical information.
http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/ervay-street.html

I will be publishing a position paper on Confederate named streets.

This is the Facebook page for De-Confederating Dallas.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1983418798539308/

On Dec. 25th at dawn I will be reading slave narratives at Lee Parkway and around Arlington Hall in protest of Dallas monument to a plantation Christmas. I will have a separate posting on it.

Will the residents of Mayfair reconsider their position? They might. I can't preclude that they won't give it their consideration. I think though a message has been sent out that the superficial narratives crafted by the Mayor's Task Force on Confederate monuments will not be accepted by everyone and they will be challenged.

This is one of the 142 letters. You can read all of them at the page for Mayfair given previously. The bibliography I mailed follows the letter.

December 19, 2017

Edward H. Sebesta

Resident

Dear Resident:

This letter is inspired by a campaign of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AAS) in 1835 in which they mailed anti-slavery printed materials to leaders in the slave states. It is also inspired to some extent by the very famous Saturday Night Live comedy skit, “Tech Talk,” about the iphone5 in response to the Mayfair resident complaints about the inconvenience of having Lee Parkway name changed.

I think that there is a failure in Dallas to understand the importance of changing the name of streets named after Confederates since antebellum slavery remains too much an abstraction and not enough a horror that happened to real people. So I enclose a short account, “L.M. Mills’ Story,” pp. 502, from Blassingame’s “Slave Testimony,” LSU Press. It tells of the vile degradations of slave trading. On page 504 is this account, “At Glasgow, Mo. I saw a woman sold away from her husband. She had a two month old baby in her arms and was crying. A driver asked what she was bellowing about. She said she didn’t want to leave her husband. He told her to shut up, but she couldn’t and he snatched her little baby from her and threw it into a pen full of hogs.” This account might be something to consider while you gaze down on the one-third Arlington Hall replica, a monument to Dallas’ plantation mentality.

I also enclose a bibliography of books on slavery to provide an opportunity to learn about the history of slavery. My plan is to try to assign a slave story, or an appropriate story from history, to every address on a Confederate named street in Dallas. For Cabell Drive I have gotten a list of the members of the 1st Kansas USCT killed at Poison Springs, for Junius Street a very long list of African Americans murdered in Reconstruction Texas.

However, let’s not forget the grievances expressed by the Mayfair Residents Nov. 1, 2017 at city hall. (http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/mayfair.html) I have been informed that the City of Dallas will automatically change the address for your water bill. Many bills you get have a box in front in which you can check for address changes which you write on the back. Further the post office will continue to deliver mail using the old address for some time. Hopefully this will provide a relief from any night terrors you might have over the address change.

I think if you take the suffering of millions of slaves seriously, if their lives mattered to you, a street named after a Confederate would be intolerable as would be an obscure Himmler alley even though that alley might out of the way, short, and not be known to the general public.

There is an opportunity to learn from the South African experience where they have changed over 800 places named after apartheid leaders. A list of links to news articles is at http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/street-name-changes-in-sou….

On November 1, 2017 the president of the Mayfair HOA could have stated that the Mayfair residents support this great historic change happening in the former slave states and though it would be a minor inconvenience they would like to see the Lee Parkway name changed.

A person might assume that no one wants to live on a street named after someone who fought to preserve the loathsome institution of slavery. A person might assume that residents on a street named after a person who fought to preserve slavery would be repulsed by the name that and they would want it changed whether anyone else was concerned or not. Evidently the residents aren’t that bothered by a street named after Robert E. Lee nor that repulsed. Instead on November 1, 2017 the president of the Mayfair HOA and five others confirmed the worst stereotypes of what the attitudes of affluent white Dallas residents might have.

I think also the November 1, 2017 Mayfair speakers before the Dallas city council have provided a window into the mentality of Dallas elites. We should not be surprised that the racial issues of our city persist generation after generation. If a street name is too much a bother, can it be expected that any challenging effort will be taken to address Dallas’ racial issues?

Given the obvious expressed indifference to the moral issues involved in the Lee Parkway name I don’t think it is surprising that juries again and again let police officers get away with the murder of African Americans.

However, the future is still to be made. The Mayfair HOA could ask the city to expeditiously change the name of Lee Parkway. They could set an example for the city and indeed the nation.

James Mellon’s dedicates his 1988 book, “Bullwhip Days: The Slaves Remember,” with the following, “For All The Slaves, White and Black, Living and Dead, And Especially For Those Whose Suffering Was Never Known Or Has Been Forgotten.” Perhaps over this holiday season you can reflect on the suffering of the slaves.

Sincerely Yours,

Edward H. Sebesta

This is the bibliography:

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BOOKS ON SLAVERY – Compiled by Ed Sebesta 12/11/2017.


1. “The Slave Trade,” by Hugh Thomas, 1997, Simon and Schuster. An excellent book on the slave trade from late medieval times to the 19th century. Reveals that the so-called age of exploration was driven by the slave trade and not very much by spices.

2. “The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition,” by Manisha Sinha, 2017, Yale University Press. Excellent book.

3. “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave & Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” by Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs, with introduction by Kwame Anthony Appiah. Modern Library Edition.

4. “Narrative of the Live of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave,” by Frederick Douglass, with related documents, edited by David W. Blight, 2016, Bedford Series in History and Culture, Bedford/St. Martins.

5. “Arguing about Slavery: John Quincy Adams and the Great Battle in the United States Congress,” William Lee Miller, originally Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. for hard cover and Vintage Books for paperback. A dramatic reading.

6. “Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery,” by Leon F. Litwack, originally published by Alfred A. Knopf in hardcover and then paperback Vintage Books, 1979. All of Litwack’s books are engaging and well worth reading.

7. “Frederick Douglass,” by William S. McFeely, W.W. Norton & Co. 1991.

8. “The Trials of Anthony Burns: Freedom and Slavery in Emerson’s Boston,” by Albert J. von Frank,” 1999, Harvard University Press.

9. “The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism,” by Edward E. Baptist, Basic Books, 2016.

10. “Slave Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews, and Autobiographies,” edited by John W. Blassingame, Louisiana State University Press 1977.

11. “American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses,” editor Theodore Dwight Weld, 2011, A DocSouth Book Edition, Univ. of North Carolina, originally published in 1839 by the American Anti-Slavery Society.

12. “Help Me to Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery,” The John Hope Franklin Series in American History and Culture,” Heather Andrea Williams, 2012.

Nathan Bedford Forrest Statue removed in Memphis, Sons of Confederate Veterans efforts for naught.

The Nathan Bedford Forrest statue and the Jefferson Davis statue were both removed and the land on which they stood sold.

There are TWO major issues here. One is the impact of the statue removal. The other is the removal of the statue in defiance of the Tennessee Historical Commission.

Some news coverage.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/21/us/memphis-confederate-bedford-davis-statues/index.html

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/confederate-statues-removed-memphis-sells-public-parks-51926430

http://www.wbir.com/article/news/local/memphis-removing-confederate-statues-from-downtown-parks/51-501227211

It has gotten attention from some international media.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/21/memphis-tennessee-citizens-cheer-overnight-removal-of-two-confederate-statues

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42441875


PART ONE:

This is very important for multiple reasons.

First, the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) invested a lot of effort to keep this statue in place and the statue is being removed anyways. Second, it should tell the Sons of Confederate Veterans that they really don't have much influence in keeping a statue in place nor any real support in an urban public.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans just have the courts where they can make up claims and get them dismissed promptly.

This is really going to demoralize the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Also, it is going to affect the composition of their membership since with Confederate monuments coming down, membership in the SCV is not going to be normalized and the membership remaining will be more extreme as the members who really aren't that much into neo-Confederate ideology leave.

Third the vote for removal was unanimous and included both statues. It sets a precedence that the goal is to get a complete de-Confederation of the city and that it is something everyone should support. It rejects foot dragging like in Dallas and half-way measures like in Dallas.

Fourth, the Nathan Bedford Forrest statue in Memphis was the most important monument to Forrest. It was a large metal monument, probably bronze, and it was in a major city.

Fifth, it makes all the other efforts to memorialize Forrest seem anomalous. In various locations where there are items to memorialize Forrest, the local municipalities accommodation or support of memorializing Forrest will be less acceptable and recognized as the racist agenda that it is.

Sixth, it gets the ball rolling in Confederate monument removal moving again. It puts more pressure on Dallas and also Richmond where I think the establishments thought the issue was going to die down and they could just stall some more or hope it goes away. The Richmond establishment's retention of Confederate monuments will really show Richmond's true nature.

As each statue comes down elsewhere it will become more and more apparent that Richmond's establishment mentally live in a metaphysical Confederacy in which Richmond is the capital.

PART TWO:

It seems that this statue removal was done by a legal means to avoid a Tennessee law put in place to keep Confederate monuments in place.

Earlier the Tennessee Historical Commission issued a denial of the request to remove the statues. It is becoming fairly common story that the local and state historical societies and commissions are defenders of the Confederacy. Here we have Preservation Dallas with its maneuvers to keep the Confederate memorial in Pioneer Park. Their name really should be Preservation White Dallas.

What judge will be willing to make the ruling to put it back up?  What will happen if city council members are jailed? What would be the public's response to an attempt to put a statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest back up? It could put the nation into turmoil. I can only imagine the Republicans in Tennessee are thinking carefully about what they do and the 2018 elections, especially after Roy Moore has gone down to defeat.

I am sure that there are Alabama mayors and city council members paying close attention to Memphis and what happens next.

If this method of removing the Confederate statues works, I think there will be renewed calls in other Tennessee cities to remove monuments. Elected officials who point to Tennessee law will have pointed out to them the example of Memphis and be told, "Where there is a will there is a way."

De-Confederation is still unfolding. It may seem stopped, but things are happening here and there and there are only pauses.

Republican Moore defeated by Democrat Doug Jones is super Republican State. Neo-Confederacy, Steve Bannon defeated

I stay up last night until 100% of the precincts were in to make absolutely sure that Roy Moore was defeated. Turns out that Doug Jones defeated Roy Moore by 1.5% so there won't be an automatic recount. Roy Moore didn't concede but started talking about God being in control. Well maybe God is in control and he wanted Moore defeated.

https://www.politico.com/interactives/elections/2017/alabama/special-election/dec-12/?lo=ap_b1

However, before celebrating too much, Roy Moore did win with the white electorate. It was the turn out of the African American community which saved us. Moore won white voters "by more than-2-to-1 margin, 68 to 30 percent," according to the article of the following link.

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/13/alabama-jones-moore-exit-polls-294159?lo=ap_c1

The article referenced by the above link said that African Americans voted for Doug Jones by "96 to 4 percent." Hopefully Doug Jones appreciates fully that fact. Perhaps the Republicans are not going to defend the Confederacy so much.

This is a big loss for Steve Bannon whose Breitbart has campaigned strongly in defense of Confederate monuments as well as for Donald Trump who has also campaign strongly in defense of Confederate monuments.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/i-think-bannon-made-an-ass-of-himself-republicans-rejoice-in-breitbart-chiefs-alabama-humiliation


This is Politico's take on the election. Key item is that Republicans are now fearing what the 2018 mid-terms will bring. Though it is a long ways away.

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/13/alabama-senate-jones-moore-takeaways-294163

I can tell you that it has energized Democrats. Locally on Facebook they see 2018 mid-terms as having a tremendous potential.

David A. Love in "The Grio" reports on Roy Moore

Mentioned in this article in The Grio.

David A. Love has been kind enough to reference my work on the Confederate Christian nationalists and give a link to the pdf of our paper at the Canadian Review of American Studies at the Univ. of Toronto.

https://thegrio.com/2017/12/12/alabama-senate-race-future-of-south/

Roy Moore perhaps might be our first neo-Confederate U.S. Senator

The following article by Matthew Sheffield brings to the public's attention that Alabama Republican U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore is a neo-Confederate.

https://www.salon.com/2017/12/12/never-mind-the-sex-scandals-roy-moore-is-a-son-of-the-confederacy/

The public is going to discover that there is an ideology against the 17th Amendment which has U.S. Senators directly elected and not selected by state legislators.

The public is going to discover that there is an ideology against women voting.

The public doesn't realize to the extent neo-Confederate ideology is percolating through the conservative movement.

This development is not without precedent. It used to be Republican office holders pandered to or joined the Council of Conservative Citizens and many were interviewed in the Southern Partisan.

The mainstream media wasn't interested. They were concerned about shaking out an extra electoral vote in some former Confederate state.

"Virginius Dabney and the Problem of the White Moderate"

An excellent article by

https://altrightorigins.com/2017/10/25/problem-white-moderate/

What is interesting is that even though the evidence is overwhelming about the racism of Virginius Dabney, there is someone who is willing to obscure and mislead regarding the historical record.

I am glad to see that Phil Magness, a history professor at Berry College, is being called out on this.

Dixie Outfitters article, "Donald Trump As President Of The Confederacy."

The capitol letters are exactly as used in the title. Dixie Outfitters are a neo-Confederate retailer of pro-Confederate merchandise.

They have published a lengthy  article, "Donald Trump As President Of The Confederacy" online at this URL.

https://dixieoutfitters.com/2017/07/14/donald-trump-as-president-of-the-confederacy/

I think in some sense they are correct.

Sons of Confederate Veterans Votes a resolution of thanks to Donald Trump

In the Nov./Dec. 2017 issue of Confederate Veteran, the official journal of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), is a resolution passed at the 2017 National Convention of the SCV held in Memphis, TN.

This is the resolution is as follows:

Resolution 3

A  Resolution Regarding President Donald Trump

WHEREAS, the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, has shown his recognition of the importance to society of the preservation and teaching of the history of the United States and of honoring the heroism of all military veterans, including Confederate veterans as American veterans, and

WHEREAS, President Trump has been an example to all citizens by pledging a portion of of his salary as President for the maintenance and enhancement of National Battlefield Parks, and especially most recently the Battle of Sharpsburg National Park in Maryland, and continuing to honor the presidential tradition of honoring Confederate veterans in Arlington Cemetery.

THEREFORE, the history honor society, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, expresses its gratitude and appreciation to President Trump for his commitment to American history and all veterans.

Submitted by David R. McAllister, Judah P. Benjamin Camp 2210, Tampa, Florida.

Dallas, Texas goes for a Confederate Jesus

This is the event on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/events/201595480384028/

The house is a one-third replica of Robert E. Lee's Arlington Hall. It isn't just an old plantation home being re-purposed. It was build in the 20th century to glorify the Confederacy and Robert E. Lee.

Dallas doesn't need a plantation Christmas or a Confederate Jesus. It says a lot about Dallas Christianity that this isn't considered an outrage.

Kevin Levin really upset with Henry Louis Gates

Henry Louis Gates is a fool and Kevin Levin is right to go after him with tongs.

These are two recent blogs by Kevin Levin. 

http://cwmemory.com/2017/11/09/henry-louis-gatess-betrayal-of-bryant-gumbel-and-history/

http://cwmemory.com/2017/11/07/henry-louis-gates-and-pbs-fall-for-black-confederate-myth-again/

However, I raised the issue about Henry Louis Gates in 2011 and was denounced by Kevin Levin.

http://cwmemory.com/2011/09/14/a-quick-response-to-edward-sebesta/

I attributed this attack to Kevin Levin's reflexive establishmentarianism. That is, if they are people in positions in the historical establishment they are to be accepted and not criticized. 

It should be remembered that Gates had a beer with a police officer who abused him. 

Gates isn't the first Harvard African American with a friendly attitude towards the Confederacy. Rev. Peter J. Gomes also was friendly towards the Confederacy and tried to get Confederate soldiers inscribed at the Harvard Memorial Church sometime ago. It was going to be done during the summer but I wrote  a great many African Americans there and in the end it was thwarted. After that the African American students were wised up to the effort, which was seen as a sneak effort during the summer, there was no chance for it to happen, but that doesn't mean there wasn't an effort. 

By the way, PBS televised Ken Burns Civil War series, so they will broadcast any sort of rubbish.

Protest at Lee Parkway, Dallas, Texas, Saturday, Nov. 4th 2-5pm across from the Mayfair

We have a protest planned at Lee Parkway, Dallas, Texas, Saturday, Nov. 4th 2-5pm.

We will be across from the Mayfair condominiums.

This is the launch of our grass roots campaign to de-Confederate Dallas.

We have made up signs and have people signed up to go.

I have had a TV reporter interview me about our planned protest so I think there will be broadcast coverage.

Six residents of the Mayfair complained about Lee Parkway, named after Robert E. Lee being changed because it was too much of a bother, including the president of the Home Owners Association.

This is the link to the video at You Tube of the six Mayfair residents complaining before the Mayor of Dallas and Dallas city council when they were receiving public input. The video was originally three segments since the Mayfair residents didn't do their whining one after the other.

The link to the video is:

https://youtu.be/-HUvN7vB5ec

Click on the video to see the entire video. SET VOLUME TO MAXIMUM.



CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO SEE THE ENTIRE IMAGE.

Notice the rhinestones for the "i"s.

How real is the Texas Nationalist movement.

The Texas Nationalist movement has a Facebook page with 224,133 likes and 215,304 following it as of this morning 11/3/2017.

https://www.facebook.com/texasnatmov/

That is fairly impressive. There are web pages with a lot of content. The link below is to one page and you can then view a lot of material and other online pages from there.

https://texasnationalist.com/

However, exactly what is the extent of the Texas Nationalist Movement in terms of people.

I haven't found a board of directors or similar grouping for the organization. Is there an executive committee? Is there an editorial committee for their publications?

Has there been a statewide convention of members and delegates?

When did the head of the Texas Nationalist movement get elected? When is the term of office up? How are elections for the leadership conducted? More broadly how is the leadership selected? Is there a body that appoints the leaders?

The organization is still worth tracking. Even if it is largely a one person show it is still getting out to the public a secessionist message. It appears from reports that there is support for this organization by foreign powers.

If a real Texas secession movement gets underway it is likely that this organization will be pushed aside, but it will have performed a function of paving the way for a Texas secessionist movement. If there is a real movement, and I mean a movement of a significant number of people, I suspect that they will want to elect their leadership.

So far, Texas secession seems to be nothing more than online gripping. Despite all the Facebook likes the Texas nationalist movement was unable to get enough signatures to get a secession measure on the ballot in Texas.  The number of required signatures were 68 thousand some. Roughly a quarter of their Facebook likes.

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2015/12/texas-nationalist-movement-petition.html#.WfxmoWhSyiM

On the other hand, Boys State in Texas decided to vote for the secession of Texas.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/06/26/in-a-first-texas-boys-state-votes-to-secede-from-the-union/?utm_term=.9423d43de525

As I reported earlier pressure applied to the Texas Republican Party nearly got secession in their 2016 platform. It lost by only 16 to 14.

These are some blog postings with more details.



With Donald Trump being president and his slogan being about making America great again, the Texas Nationalist movement seems to be stalled.

However, it would be wrong to dismiss the Texas Nationalist movement. They are putting out arguments for secession and they are building up a body of narratives of grievance. They are establishing awareness of their efforts and have people in various degrees of contact with them.

The future is opaque. It could happen in the course of events that there will be some sudden real interest in secession by reactionaries in Texas. For example the election of a Democrat to the presidency. These potential secessionists will find a ready made set of narratives to use for their efforts and a number of individuals who have given it some thought and are educated in the arguments for secession.

Secessionism in the body politic is like a herpes virus. It is there and usually unnoticed until the body politic is stressed and then there are sores. In 2016 it seemed that Texas secession might erupt.

http://www.chron.com/news/politics/election/article/Poll-Three-out-of-five-Texans-support-secession-9146807.php

One big question avoided by the Texas Nationalist movement is what about the regions, counties, cities, etc. that don't want to secede from the United States. I have raised this before.

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2016/06/some-considerations-about-texas.html#.WfxoD2hSyiM

https://www.facebook.com/TexansTruetotheUnion/posts/1748950508659231

They also think that you can break up the nation with a 50.1% majority. A constitutional amendment takes 3/4 vote of states. I would think that you would want a super majority to make sure you don't make decisions based on transitory passions.

If it is all about determination I say that each county and city can have a say also. Secessionists are always localists for their particular national project but nationalists against any secessionists in their proposed nation. I wrote up a "Forever American Declaration." I am sure someone might write up something better.

https://www.facebook.com/TexansTruetotheUnion/photos/a.1734954363392179.1073741827.1686197881601161/1740219879532294/?type=3&theater

If there is a vote for secession the urban regions of Texas will likely be against it and expect their U.S. government to protect them and the U.S. government will be more than willing to do so. Similarly reprisals against American citizens in other parts of Texas.

The Texas nationalist movement is a right wing movement in a state that is increasingly not right wing, but has a right wing government sustained by gerrymandering. Texas nationalism is really a reactionary project by those who don't see a future political success in the United States for their reactionary agenda. There isn't a Texas nationalism as the Texas nationalist movement defines it across the general public.

Texas is changing. I think that a lot of Republicans are not willing to face that they might be a minority party in the future, so there are all these voter restriction laws being struck down by the courts. So I think when the change starts coming there might be a panicked irrational response that would provide an opening for Texas secessionists. The objective would be to have an independent state with likely voter qualifications that would maintain reactionary control. I wouldn't be surprised that a poll tax might be proposed, even property qualifications.

As of this time the Texas nationalist movement is fairly dormant, but it is there and there is a lot of potential for trouble in the future.

By the way there is a Facebook page against Texas secession.

https://www.facebook.com/TexansTruetotheUnion/

2 + 2 = ? The arithmetic of the Texas Nationalist Movement.

The Texas Nationalist movement, which I think has at least more than 10 members, has a web page with the headline, "HUGE!! 68% of U.S. Voters Open to Secession in Zogby Poll!"

Must be a sale on exclamation marks at Walmart.

https://texasnationalist.com/news/huge-68-of-u-s-voters-open-to-secession-in-zogby-poll

There is a link to this poll.
http://johnzogbystrategies.com/new-poll-on-americans-support-for-secession-webinar-on-tribal-analytics-and-trump-report-card/

The poll actually is about whether the Federal government should compel a seceding state to remain in the United States, but not whether the respondent supports secession.

Over Labor Day Weekend, a nationwide poll of 800 likely voters, conducted by John Zogby Strategies asked, among other questions, which view is closer to their own on the topic of secession; Statement A: If a majority of residents within a given state prefer to have the final say over their destiny without the control of Washington D.C. then let them have it – it is their right. Statement B: If residents within a given state were to take such a drastic measure and secede from the United States, the federal government would be justified in sending in the military to prevent secession from taking place.

There is a difference in the question of whether I would like a piece of chocolate cake versus whether I think people should be compelled to eat chocolate cake.

So in terms of whether the military should be called out, 32% agree. As to those who would just let the state go, 39% agree, and 29% are unsure. So in reality 39% of the voters support a state deciding to secede to not be compelled to remain in the United States. The polls doesn't ask if a person believes their state should secede.

So there isn't a ground swell for secession, there are people who don't believe a state should be compelled to remain.

You need to always be very careful in reading postings by the Texas Nationalist movement.

The question needs to be asked if a majority of a state wanted to secede but majorities in sections or regions didn't want to secede should these regions and sections be compelled to secede.

The think about secession is once adopted it has no logical stop. The logical conclusion is that the people on the 3400 block of East Swampy Avenue don't want people outside 3400 block of East Swampy Avenue  to tell them what to do, and the odd numbered houses are getting a little fed up with the even numbered houses on the block.

This might be very amusing but in the 2016 Texas Republican Party convention in Dallas, Texas the platform committee only voted down a secession plank by 16 to 14 with one abstaining. For a party that claims that it is patriotic you would think it would be 31 to 0.

Incidentally the Facebook against Texas secession is at this link.

https://www.facebook.com/TexansTruetotheUnion/

Latino Victory Fund ad attacks Republican Party pandering to neo-Confederates

The Latino Victory Fund has an ad against Ed Gillespie, Republican candidate for Virginia governor.

Ed Gillespie has made campaigning for Confederate monuments a major theme in his current campaign for Virginia governor and his prior campaign for the U.S. Senate.

These are links to the add on different platforms.

This is the Facebook page ad. This will work well to share on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/latinovictory/videos/1473881229333516/

This is a Twitter link

https://twitter.com/latinovictoryus/status/924972736996364289

This is the You Tube link.

https://youtu.be/bYb2ZiQzL4M

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO SEE THE ENTIRE VIDEO




Of course the conservative movement is screaming about this video.

However, going way back into the 1980s Republican Party members have been pandering to the neo-Confederate movement.  U.S. Senators Trent Lott, John Ashcroft, Thad Cochrane, Jesse Helms interviewed in the Southern Partisan.

Trent Lott stated in the Southern Partisan that the Republican Party was the party of Jefferson Davis's descendants.

Then Texas U.S. House Representative Phil Gramm interviewed in the Southern Partisan and also explained that the Republican Party  is the party for those who used to vote Democrat before the Civil Rights Era. Texas U.S House Representative Dick Army also interviewed in the Southern Partisan.

Trent Lott and many many Republicans were involved with the Council of Conservative Citizens.

Now Donald Trump and his administration is opposed to removing Confederate statues.

However, the facts here don't seem to be an obstacle for the conservative movement to squeal like stuck pigs over the revelation, somewhat allegorically, what the reality is.

Breitbart, which has pandered to white resentment and pro-Confederates hypocritically runs the headline, "Shameless: Latino Victory Fund Ad Features Ed Gillespie Supporters Chasing Minority Children."

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/10/30/shameless-latino-victory-fund-ad-features-ed-gillespie-supporters-chasing-minority-children/

Fox News has reported it.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/10/30/democratic-campaign-ad-implies-ed-gillespie-supporters-are-confederates-who-attack-minority-kids.html


Daily Caller is not happy either.

http://dailycaller.com/2017/10/30/latino-victory-ad-ties-gillespie-to-neo-nazis/

This is somewhat hypocritical also. J. Arthur Bloom Opinion Editor of the Daily Caller"

I blogged on him since he went on a tear about my campaign against churches hosting neo-Confederate events.  These are two blogs on it.

This was his comment on his website.

Church-bullying piece of shit Ed Sebesta is naturally thrilled with the campaign. (He tattletaled to the Episcopal Church’s presiding bishop recently about southern parishes allowing the Sons of Confederate Veterans to use church space, and considering the apostate bishop Jefferts-Schori’s heavyhanded and litigious tendencies, it wouldn’t be beneath her to intervene.)


http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2014/06/daily-caller-jordan-bloom-opinion.html#.WfhyLWhSyiN

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2014/08/daily-caller-opinion-editor-j-arthur.html#.WfhyP2hSyiM

The National Review isn't happy either.

The National Review might re-read its own magazine from the 1950s and 1960s and some of the really ghastly stuff they wrote. I will have to count up some day how many editors of the National Review ended up writing for the Southern Partisan.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/453236/latino-group-ad-gillespie-supporters-want-run-down-little-children

Infowars has cover it. George Soros is supposedly involved.

https://www.infowars.com/shock-video-trump-supporter-mows-down-dreamers-in-soros-funded-ad/

Rush Limbaugh calls the ad disgusting.

https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2017/10/30/disgusting-ad-run-against-ed-gillespie-in-virginia/

Washington Times runs this article.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/oct/31/ed-gillespie-slams-latino-victory-ad-as-a-new-low/

They use to run a column by Samuel Francis. Their former editor interviewed in the Southern Partisan. They are fairly consistent supporter of the Confederacy.

Newsmax also.

https://www.newsmax.com/Politics/campaign-election-ad-latino-victory-fund/2017/10/30/id/823019/

This brings up an interesting question. It seems that the radical right wants their supporters to be aware of this ad.  They are giving it a lot more publicity than it might otherwise get. I suppose that it could be said that they are reporting the news and I think that is true also.

Gillespie is running ads trying to associate his opponent with Latino gangs.

The mainstream media is also reporting this ad, excepting the New York Times which is to be expected. Probably the New York Times is talking to "Mudcat" Sanders.

The Washington Post ran an article on it with the video advertisement.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/virginia-ad-features-minority-kids-chased-by-truck-with-gillespie-sticker-confederate-flag/2017/10/30/7311fdda-bd6f-11e7-97d9-bdab5a0ab381_story.html?utm_term=.78533f3b90e8

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported on the ad.

http://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/government-politics/latino-group-s-ad-depicts-confederate-flag-waving-gillespie-supporter/article_20404443-a2c0-51e7-b2a7-6a603e00e940.html

I wonder if Richmond mayor Levar Stoney is regretting his choice to shill for Confederate monuments earlier in the year.

The discussion post-New Orleans, post-Charlottesville, and now with Ed Gillespie running for Virginia Governor it is becoming really clear who Levar Stoney is.

Politico mentions the ad in an article but doesn't have a link to it. The primary topic is U.S. Senator Rubio from Florida campaigning for Gillespie.

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/30/rubio-gillespie-northam-virginia-244350

CNN mentions the ad and has a link to the Washington Post article with the ad.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/31/politics/virginia-governor-trump-ed-gillespie-ralph-northam/index.html

ABC news has it.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/va-attack-ad-shows-minority-children-chased-truck/story?id=50821176

However, I am not finding it at other news sites.

The Virginia Flaggers are reporting it.

https://www.facebook.com/378823865585630/videos/1138975612903781/

Various Sons of Confederate groups shared it.

https://www.facebook.com/SCVOKDIV/posts/1504599709593213


https://www.facebook.com/groups/90539604190/permalink/10155357220489191/


Clearly the Republican Party is continuing to become more and more the party of the Confederacy as former Republican Mississippi U.S. Senator Trent Lott said it was.

Letter to Mike Rawlings about two overlooked Confederate monuments in Oak Lawn Park

I had a hand out about the overlooked monuments in Oak Lawn Park, formerly Robert E. Lee Park which I gave to the Task Force on Confederate monuments and there was not consideration of it.

So I sent a letter with the information to Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings. CLICK ON IMAGE TO SEE ENTIRE IMAGE.

With the letter was a 2 page document about the overlooked Confederate monuments in Oak Lawn Park. I have the document following this letter. Copies of this letter along with the documentation was sent to all 14 city council members.

                                                                                    October 15, 2017

                                                                                    Edward H. Sebesta

                                                                                    

                                                                                    edwardsebesta@gmail.com

Mayor Mike Rawlings

City of Dallas

Mayor and City Council City of Dallas

1500 Marilla St.

Dallas, TX 75201

Dear Hon. Rawlings:

I brought to the attention of the Task Force two Confederate monuments in Oak Lawn. I don’t see any reference to them in the Task Force on Confederate monuments final report.  In enclose the information which I gave them.

The whole claim of “Black Confederate soldiers” is a laughingstock in Civil War historical circles and among historians in general.

If we are going to go through the process of de-Confederating the city of Dallas I think we need to do a complete job.

Also, the retention of a “Black Confederate soldier” marker will make Dallas a laughingstock as a city that has such a monument and which can’t seem to really engage on the issues of race.

I hope you have these monuments removed. The fact that they use circumlocutions is no excuse for their retention.

                                                                                    Sincerely Yours,

                                                                                    Edward H. Sebesta

CC:

Office	Name	Address	Address
Mayor Pro Tem	Dwaine Caraway	Mayor and City Council	Dallas City Hall
Deputy Mayor Pro Tem	Adam Medrano	Mayor and City Council	Dallas City Hall
District 1 Council Member	Scott Griggs	Mayor and City Council	Dallas City Hall
District 3 Council Member	Casey Thomas II	Mayor and City Council	Dallas City Hall
District 5 Council Member	Rickey D. Callahan	Mayor and City Council	Dallas City Hall
District 6 Council Member	Omar Narvaez	Mayor and City Council	Dallas City Hall
District 7 Council Member	Kevin Felder	Mayor and City Council	Dallas City Hall
District 8 Council Member	Tennell Atkins	Mayor and City Council	Dallas City Hall
District 9 Council Member	Mark Clayton	Mayor and City Council	Dallas City Hall
District 10 Council Member	B. Adam McGough	Mayor and City Council	Dallas City Hall
District 11 Council Member	Lee Kleinman	Mayor and City Council	Dallas City Hall
District 12 Council Member	Sandy Greyson	Mayor and City Council	Dallas City Hall
District 13 Council Member	Jennifer Staubach Gates	Mayor and City Council	Dallas City Hall
District 14 Council Member	Philip T. Kingston	Mayor and City Council	Dallas City Hall

This is the document I enclosed with the letter. 

TWO OVERLOOKED MONUMENTS TO CONFEDERATES IN OAKLAWN PARK

                                                                                        – Ed Sebesta 9/14/2017

There are two items in Oak Lawn Park which serve as monuments to Confederate soldiers.

       1) There is this monument to alleged Afro-Confederate soldiers in Oak Lawn Park.

The text in all capital letters reads:

THIS MEMORIAL WAS DEDICATED ON MAY 25, 1993 TO HONOR AND COMMEMORATE THE SACRIFICES OF AFRICAN – AMERICANS OF SOUTHERN HERITAGE WHO SO VALIANTLY SERVED IN THE CIVIL WAR.

The term “Southern Heritage” is to indicate persons of African ancestry who supported the Confederacy.

The whole myth of Confederate soldiers of African ancestry is a laughingstock among Civil War historians and this plaque makes Dallas a laughingstock. The fact that the Dallas Park & Recreational Dept. is involved with this and allowed this brings into question their participation in any review or proposal for Dallas parks. This is about 24 years ago, but it needs to be asked if the park system has progressed.

Click on images to see entire images. 

2

              2) There is this plaque for a fountain in Oak Lawn Park.

Click on images to see the entire image. 

The text in all capital letters (excluding the list of names) reads:

THIS FOUNTAIN WAS PRESENTED TO THE CITY OF DALLAS BY THE DALLAS SOUTHERN MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION ON MARCH TWENTY-SECOND, NINETEEN HUNDRED SEVENTY AS A MEMORIAL TO SOUTHERN HEROES OF ALL WARS

Though the Confederacy isn’t mentioned, the Confederacy is included with the phrase “ALL WARS” and asserts that these Confederate soldiers were “HEROES.”

It can also be seen why this Fountain has the appalling sectional restrictions to only “SOUTHERN HEROES.” If it was “AMERICAN HEROES” it would apply to those who for fought for America during the Civil War, i.e. union soldiers.

DISPOSITION:

1.       These monuments need to be removed.

2.      These monuments need to be in a museum. These plaques as well as the ones of the Robert E. Lee statue base in Lee Park shows how Dallas elites and the city accommodated the proponents of the Confederacy well into the very late 20^th century.

FURTHER NOTE:

Since these two items were missed by the Task Force, I would suggest that there be a review of whether all Confederate monuments, memorials, etc. have indeed been identified.