One of the persons who shot at the Black Lives Matter protesters in Minneapolis has the Bonnie Blue Confederate flag. UPDATE:

One thing that persons sympathetic to the Confederacy do and think it is clever is fly the Bonnie Blue flag. It is a lesser known flag of the Confederacy.

It has a deep blue field with one large five pointed white star in the center. Most people don't realize it is a Confederate flag and so it is a way of signaling Confederate sympathies in plain view to other Confederate enthusiasts without the public knowing about it.

Well, until now.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10203983484164732&set=pb.1151731044.-2207520000.1448488049.&type=3&theater

This is a picture on the Facebook page of a Lance Scarsella. Reports says that from information on the page it seems to indicate that this is the same Lance Scarsella arrested in the matter of Black Lives Matter protesters in Minneapolis. The comment by Scarsella is that it isn't the flag of Somalia.

As reported in Gawker activists found this Facebook page and noticed the Bonnie Blue flag.

http://gawker.com/minneapolis-protest-shooting-suspect-has-a-confederate-1744627811

After today if you think you are going to fly the Bonnie Blue flag and not have people realize it is a Confederate flag, you are very wrong.

With friends like this, the Confederacy doesn't need enemies.

The Confederacy was a violent insurrection over white supremacy and slavery, it shouldn't be surprising that persons who are violent and white supremacists fly the Confederate flag.

Also, there is a fraternity which I have seen flying the Bonnie Blue flag in Dallas and I wonder if they will continue to do this.

UPDATE:

http://www.startribune.com/county-attorney-gets-deadline-extension-for-charges-against-men-accused-of-shooting-north-side-protesters/353970681/

There was a video on YouTube which has been taken down showing the white group involved filming the #Black Lives Matter group, including one of the shooters, saying all sorts of racist trash with two Confederate flags.

SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS Lt. Commander-in-Chief on the deaths of African Americans at the hands of the police

In the March/April 2015 issue of the Confederate Veteran, page 8, Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) Lt. Commander-in-Chief Thomas V. Strain Jr. has the following commentary one what is obviously about the recent cases where African Americans have died at the hands of the police.

The United States are enduring some very troubling times currently. We have young men with no guidance attacking law-abiding citizens and law enforcement officers in the streets of this country. Moreover, when the officers do what is necessary in many cases to remedy the situation and protect the innocent, they are being called murderers. Following this, we have people taking to the streets, rioting and looting local businesses all in the name of "peace and tranquility." This is after the officers are investigated and all the facts prove they had no other recourse than to use deadly force to resolve the situation. After such findings, the riots and looting commence once again. This is not a black-and-white issue: it is a right-versus-wrong issue. 

To make matters worse, a certain group of self-appointed leaders, who wish to prosper from the very people they claim to be helping, don't speak of peace, and instead call for riots and more violent acts. When the few people who have the courage to stand and speak against these actions and offer truly peaceful solutions, encouraging all concerned to sit down and discuss the real problems, they are automatically labeled a racist. 

Then Lt. Commander-in-Chief Strain says:

You are probably wondering what this has to do with the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and the answer is a simple one.

The question occurs to me, how is this an issue of Confederate heritage? Strain Jr. explains as follows:

Reconstruction is where the very seeds were planted for such situations and in those years is found the root causes of where much of this began. Once all power was usurped from the States and transferred to a central government which would later take the form of a "direct democracy," it was expected this same government would use the power of its vast centralized offices to create a form of dependency -- in return for votes, of course. And, as Thomas Jefferson said in his notes on the State of Virginia, "Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition." 

This should tell people that the SCV is a right wing political organization and not just an organization of historical sentimentalists. Before news media and legislators they may talk about "heritage" but these excerpts should make it obvious that the SCV has a political agenda.

And I suppose it is sort of obvious, but the SCV doesn't seem to be getting the message that #BlackLivesMatter.

Sons of Confederate Veterans Lt. Commander-in-Chief on Michael Brown and Eric Garner and the #BlackLivesMatter campaign.

Sons of Confederate Veteran (SCV) Lt. Commander-in-Chief Thomas V. Strain Jr. in the March/April 2015 issue of the "Confederate Veteran" magazine, official publication of the SCV on pages 8-9, is contemptuous of the #BlackLivesMatter campaign.

Strain comments:

"The United States are enduring some troubling times currently. We have young men with no guidance attacking law-abiding citizens and law enforcement officers in the streets of this country. Moreover, when the officer what is necessary to in many cases to remedy the situation and protect the innocent, they are being called murderers."

Strain feels that the police are vindicated by government investigations. The real problem Strain feels are leaders in the African American community and others demonstrating against these deaths.

Strain asserts:

"This is not a black-and-white issue: it is a right--versus-wrong issue."

Strain then complains about civil rights leaders and writes:

"To make matters worse, a certain group of self-appointed leaders, who wish to prosper from the very people they claim to be helping, don't speak of peace, and instead call for riots and more violent acts."

Strain doesn't mention the #Blacklivesmatter campaign by name but it is very clear in the article that he is talking about that campaign.

Strain then writes:

"You are probably wondering what this has to do with the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and the answer is a simple one."

Indeed people might ask the same question.

Strain explains:

"Reconstruction is where the very seeds were planted for such situations and in those years is found the root causes of where much of this began."

Strain explains that Reconstruction usurped the power of the states and resulted in a centralized state with "direct democracy" which results in dependency and social problems.

The rest of the article goes on to claim that Reconstruction was an oppression of the South and for SCV members to fight for the historical truth about the Confederacy and Reconstruction.

Yet, though it is quote clear that the SCV has a racial agenda and isn't just a "heritage" organization, there are those Civil War historians who insist on calling the SCV a "Southern heritage" group and deny that there is a neo-Confederate movement.

"Los Angeles Times" article about Abraham Lincoln uses term "Black Lives Matter."

It seems that the concept that "Black Lives Matter" might be getting more use in the historical profession. John Barr, author of "Loathing Lincoln" has posted this on his Facebook page.

The Op-Ed is titled, "How Abraham Lincoln said that Black Lives Matter," by Martha Hodes. The link follows:

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0301-hodes-lincoln-second-inaugural-20150301-story.html

Hopefully people who are concerned that human life matters will perceive historians who in their thinking Black lives don't matter.

Martha Hodes' website is http://marthahodes.com/.

An earlier blog I had on the topic about Black lives matter in history is at:
http://newtknight.blogspot.com/search?q=matter#.VPJXs_nF_UU

#BlackLivesMatter in history and historians who don't get this.

#BlackLivesMatter is a hash tag used in regards to public policy and practice involving policing and the justice system where obviously Black lives don't seem to matter much. The choking death of an African American man in a arrest involving the sale of a few loose cigarettes in New York City is an example where it seems that Black lives were disposable.

In the last few days I began to realize that #BlackLivesMatter could also be a call to change the practice of historians, to study and write history understanding that #BlackLivesMatter.

For example biographers and historians who minimize the racist policies of Woodrow Wilson are those for whom Black lives don't matter.

More specifically among those involved in Civil War history for whom Black lives don't seem to matter it would be those avoid recognizing the racial agenda of some of those involved in Civil War history. It would be those who make excuses for the Museum of the Confederacy and its historical practice. It would be calling neo-Confederate groups "Southern heritage" groups. It would be being involved in commemorations at Confederate monuments. It would be those Civil War historians that seek to minimize slavery as the cause of the Civil War.

It would also apply to some of our public school textbooks.

It would certainly apply to those use minimizing language over conflicts over Confederate symbols, like journalists who use terms like "flag flap." Would they every use the term "history hissyfit" over holocaust denial, absolutely not.

It would apply to churches that host neo-Confederate groups.

It would be for those who don't have necessarily a hostility towards African Americans, but for whom African Americans don't count for anything, for whom they are a nullity.

It would be those for whom African Americans are "them" and not a part of "us."

I think one reason that for some Black lives don't matter is that in the teaching of history all too often Black lives don't matter and people internalize this message.

I call upon all historians to take the stand that #BlackLivesMatter in the writing of history. To not be silent when other historians' practice of history shows that for them Black lives don't matter. The hashtag would be #BlackLivesMatterInHistory.

For related reading www.templeofdemocracy.com/breaking.htm.