Collapse of the Confederacy continues. Neo-Confederates freak out. / What do I do next? /UPDATE

In the past I would be blogging about each monument controversy or issue regarding the Confederacy.  Now there are so many monuments going down and Confederate symbols being removed I am overwhelmed. Also, what really do I have to offer in commentary? They are going down without really any opposition. I am somewhat stunned by it all. I think maybe they overlooked this and I find they haven't, maybe there overlooked that, and I find they haven't. There is stuff I never heard of or I had forgotten about and it is being dealt with. 

One of my activities is to track how Breitbart reports on contested history, monuments, historical memory, etc and I have a fairly comprehensive set of Breitbart articles filed away. But the problem is that it is overwhelming me. I print them out in the morning, some more around noon, and then in the evening and staple them and then hand write their date on them so I can organize them and find them easily. I have selected Breitbat since they represent the ideology of the White House and they seem to comprehensively cover the issues of interest. 

Also, I am helping out local activists. One set wants to rename Lamar St. in Dallas to Botham Jean Boulevard. The other wants to rename Woodrow Wilson High School in the Dallas school district. 

And I am on to something really huge concerning Dallas. It will rewrite a part of American history and explode the establishment view of the Dallas past. Taking a lot of time, but it won't be long before I am finished. Maybe in August.

So I have been really busy. 

No doubt the school text books which pander to the Lost Cause and have uncritical accounts of thee Confederacy a free pass will not be acccepted for much longer. 

With the upcoming elections it is likely that Confederate monuments in national parks will be subject to review.

I still have a few tasks left to bring down the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV). Some churches still pander to them, JROTC is working with them, and the UDC is still giving gifts at U.S. Military academies. All this will need action. But the SCV and UDC memberships are disappearing with age anyways just like the Civil War Round tables. It remains to be seen that I need to do much at all. I might want to focus more on personal things now that the neo-Confederate movement is crashing and coming to an end. 

I am sure there will be odds and ends to do in 2021, but this is bringing up what will be next for me. After Neo-Confederacy is demolished what do I do? 

It might be argued there will be odds and ends to follow up on. However, the few counties or cities with Confederate monuments will likely have their own local groups dealing with it and I won't need to be involved. 

As I have said in earlier blogs, the few places which still have Confederate monuments will increasingly be seen as backward and creepy. When there are a couple hundred Confederate monuments in a state, any one monument won't cause much comment or stand out. When there are only five left or three, they will be in the news as the last Confederate monumnts in the state and the source of never ending news as the struggle continues over them and gives the locations a really bad repubation. 

For a city or county the fact that they have become that creepy place in movies, will sink in when they lose competition for a processing or manufacturing plant or distribution depot or some facility. It will sink in when businesses there have difficulty in attracting talent and holding talent. 

So the remaining monumentts will likely take care of themselves. 

I think by the end of 2021 I will have the neo-Confederates out of the establishment also 

So what I am doing and I am already transitioning to it, is work on the racialization of the landscape as a whole and not restricted to only Confederate items or even Confederate and slavery related items, but everything. 

I have done a first draft theorization about landscape reparations. I am theorizing about street names. I am developing a set of tactics. 

Anti-Neo-Confederate may become fairly inactive, not now, and not soon, but at some point I am going to be working on the issues of secession a lot, especially when the secession movements take off in response to Trump not being re-elected. And I will be working on deracializing the landscape. Those might be new blogs, and this blog will remain for the record and not be very active. I haven't decided that is the plan, but it might be the plan in the future. 

So in conclusion, I am somewhat stunned, and after I wrap up dealing with the neo-Confederates I am going to move on to new challanges. 

UPDATE: 

The story is about a giant corporation doesn't want to locate major facility in town with Confederate monument. You can be assured that every chamber of commerce at some point will be thinking about this or cases like this. Every board member of some government economic panel for development will be hinking about this. 

https://www.thetimesnews.com/story/news/2020/08/24/ups-supports-moving-alamnace-county-confederate-monument/3414199001

Collapse of the Neo-Confederacy and what will happen to remaining Confederate statues. /UPDATE

Confederate statues are coming down everywhere. They are being removed all over the place.

There are so many that I am overwhelmed trying to keep up.

One important trend has emerged. It used to be just prominent statues in major city centers that were the focus of efforts for removal. Now it more minor Confederate statues, statues in less prominent locations.

Most importantly it is statues in smaller cities and towns, the effort isn't confined to major metropolitan centers. Also, as major cities get rid of their Confederate monuments entirely it is becoming a mark of being provincial or a small town with a small view when you have a Confederate monument.

Suddenly you are seeing the next tier of smaller cities start looking at getting rid of their Confederate monuments and even smaller municipalities. This is going to put a lot of pressure on smaller towns to get rid of their Confederate monuments.

As more and more Confederate monuments are removed, the ones that remain will seem more and more anomalous. As larger towns get rid of their monuments, small towns which retain monuments will mark themselves as backward. People won't want to move to such a place. A factory will find it an impediment to hiring skilled professionals and technical help. Other towns competing for a factory or other commerical establishment will mention that their rival has a Confederate monument.

When there are three or four or five possible locations to choose from it will be easy to discard a place that still retains a Confederate monument.

As these forces drive small towns to get rid of Confederate monuments those towns which still then retain Confederate monuments will look especially backward and menancing. And it doesn't seem at the present much pressure will be needed to get smaller towns to get rid of Confederate monuments. They seem to be coming down in small towns fairly frequeently.

In the future perhaps even horror fiction will adopt the idea of a small town out of the way having a Confederate monument as a sign of evil lurking there.

If you have a tomato festival or hay festival or antique festival a Confederate monument will be discouraging.

Also, the neo-Confederate groups themselves will appear to be more and more fringe. A couple decades ago they were people who sort of pushed a romance of reunion type of interpretation of the Civil War. Those type of people are no longer in control. Now the type of people who are running the show are like the Chief and Deputy Chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) Heritage Committee. They are the authors of several really fringe neo-Confederate works and this is there website. http://www.kennedytwins.com/

They are also an aging group of people whose membership's average age is increasing.

Also, defenders of the Confederacy have become very partisan and aligned themselves with one political party over the other. Also, the Democrats have decided that being anti-Confederate is a politically winning position to take. Donald Trump has emerged as the great champion of the Confederacy.

It used to be the centrist Democrats were scared of being seen as critical of the Confederacy and it was Jimmy Carter who got Jefferson Davis his citizenship back. Those days are gone. The Democrats are finding Confederate things that even I didn't know existed to be removed.

With Donald Trump's disastrous management it looks like the Republicans are headed towards an electoral disaster.

I think the Confederate monuments at the national parks will be the focus after the election.

The Confederacy is imploding at a rate that just astounds me. It is an implosion which is self-reinforcing for the reasons just given. By Nov. 2020 having a Confederate monument still will mean either there is a court case and the city is prevented from immediately acting, or it means that your town is really creepy.

UPDATE: 

The story is about a giant corporation doesn't want to locate major facility in town with Confederate monument. You can be assured that every chamber of commerce at some point will be thinking about this or cases like this. Every board member of some government economic panel for development will be hinking about this. 

https://www.thetimesnews.com/story/news/2020/08/24/ups-supports-moving-alamnace-county-confederate-monument/3414199001

Landscape Reparations. Deracializing the landscape

One of the problems I think with getting rid of Confederate monuments, Confederate named streets is that they are looked at in isolation, instead of considering the entire landscape and realizing it is a white landscape and realizing that there needs to be Landscape Reparations. By the way there is this Facebook page to join if you want to deracialize the landscape.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/661267871019209/

This is my first postcast on the topic.It is the first Version. I am just starting to think through the issue of Landscape Reparations and I am putting out some ideas, but I also ask the listener to share their ideas. (This doesn't mean I am interested in the rantings of white nationalists.) I think the biggest barrier is people thinking that nothing can be done.



This is the companion piece. I will have more podcasts on what can be done regarding the white landscape.

What we need to do to bring down Confederate monuments pod cast.

Though Confederate monuments are coming down, it is largely outside the former Confederate states where there are the most Confederate monuments. Many former Confederate states have passed laws to prevent Confederate monuments from being removed. This podcast discusses what we need to do to remove Confederate monuments. We need to organize, we need to develop tactics, we need to self-educate and educate others. We have the Facebook page Deracialize the Landscape to connect activists together.



Again sharring podcasts or VLOGS and Facebook postings to others gets the word out. Liking is okay, but it doesn't inform others.

When your concept of patriotism is really a form of white nationalism.

The American Legion indexes Confederate monuments. Click on the link.

https://www.legion.org/memorials?keywords=confederate&location=&sort=created_desc&submit=View

Does the American Legion understand that if the Confederate effort was successful there would be a fractured America. When your idea of patriotism is really white nationalism this type of idea of including Confederate memorials would make sense. 

This is 2019 and it isn't as if the issue of Confederate monuments hasn't been in the news. 

SB1663 IS DEAD! NEO-CONFEDERATE DEFEATED!

Yes. SB1663 is dead.   It seems the Sons of Confederate Veterans haven't siezed the narrative.

https://twitter.com/lmcgaughy/status/1130271572684627968?fbclid=IwAR2HQLP91v66mB3aA4xouM42w4esI8KlNeFjtLGBj8_o17qhjrXE81rrKuc

https://youtu.be/3GwjfUFyY6M

BREITBART reports that Robert E. Lee was a poor military leader and cruel to slaves. /HOLY MOLY GERALD HORNE IS QUOTED! NEO-CONFEDERACY IS GOING DOWN!

I about fell out of my chair reading this article this morning. (4/27/2019). The neo-Confederacy is going down!

This is the article.

https://www.breitbart.com/news/ap-explains-trump-revives-debate-about-robert-e-lee/

I check Breitbart every morning to see how they process historical memory in their politics. I have about 3 to 4 linear feet of printouts of their articles.

So with the title, "AP Explains: Trump Revives Debate About Robert E. Lee," I expected a long article about how great Robert E. Lee was and how the left hates America, etc. etc.

I was quite surprised to see that instead the article was highly critical of Robert E. Lee.

On slavery the article explains:

"Documents show Lee was cruel to his slaves and encouraged his overseers to severely beat slaves captured after trying to escape. Historian Elizabeth Brown Pryor said in a 2008 American Heritage article that Lee was angry about the slaves’ demands for freedom and 'resorted to increasingly harsh measures to maintain control,' breaking up most slave families. One slave at Arlington, Pryor noted, called Lee, 'the worst man I ever see.'"

Again, this isn't The Guardian, or The Root, or The Grio, or some liberal/left publication, it is Breitbart.

As for his performance as a soldier the article states:

"Lee eventually commanded troops in the field, winning battles largely because of an incompetent Union Gen. George McClellan, according to historians."

There is more than this quote explaining how Lee was a poor military commander.

The Lost Cause mythology is torn apart. Confederate monuments are associated with the rise of racism and the Ku Klux Klan.

HOLY MOLY GERALD HORNE IS QUOTED!

By the early 20th century, Northern state politicians — fearing deadly violence over black civil rights in the South — caved to pressure from Southern leaders to cast Lee in a more conciliatory light, said Gerald Horne, a professor of history and African-American studies at the University of Houston. “The South showed it would shed blood,” Horne said.

These are the books by Gerald Horne sold on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Gerald-Horne/e/B001HCVSVK?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1556384783&sr=8-1

Interestingly neo-Confederate Marshall DeRosa is quoted to take apart Lee's military record. I don't think the Abbeville Institute is going to be happy over that. Maybe DeRosa is bailing out of the neo-Confederate movement or is working on an exit strategy. DeRosa I will come up with a web page for you so your Confederate service isn't forgotten.

Of course this article might be a fluke. Or Breitbart might retreat is their support base is upset. Even if they do retreat, they might have the strategy of just not covering the issue and avoiding the issue.

As for African American conservatives who have supported the Confederacy or neo-Confederacy or Lost Cause rememberance as part of their careers, what is their situation after this shift by Breitbart? In the new strategy to get African Americans to support conservative causes, these pro-Confederate African American conservatives are not useful because they have this Confederate baggage. They will be dumped.

WHY?

In 2015 and 2016 and afterwards there were many many articles in Breitbart in defense of Confederate monuments, suddenly there is this reversal.

I think the conservative movement has decided that the neo-Confederacy is a lost cause in terms of 21st century politics. If they are going to have a conservative African American movement like Breitbart's Blexit, the Confederacy needs to be left behind.  If they are going to have some politics supporting racial hierarchy having the Confederacy attached to it makes it obvious which would defeat that politics.

I think it has been observed that campaigning on supporting the Confederacy doesn't win elections. There have been some candidates which have run on defending the Confederacy and they have lost elections and cost the Republicans important offices.

Also, Christianity is more and more centered outside the Western world and the Confederacy is not going to be a selling point there when Christianity is in competition with other religions.

In America Christianity finds its strongest support in minority communities.

These changes are manifested in the Southern Baptist Convention apology over slavery some years back and in 2017 (or 2018?) rejection of the Confederate flag.  Evangelical Christians are leaving the Confederacy behind and are finding it an obstacle in the way of their aspirations for the future.

Robert E. Lee is totally gone from Turtle Creek Park, Oak Lawn name gone also. Dallas Southern Memorial Association EAT DIRT

Years ago after testifying to have the Dallas Southern Memorial Association (DSMA) a reporter wanted to interiew me. So we sat at a table to talk, The members of the Dallas Southern Memorial Association sat at the table next to us. So we moved to another table and they followed to a table next to us with triumphant grins on their faces.

My message to the DSMA today is EAT SHIT!

This was the inscription on one of the benches for the Robert E. Lee monument. CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO SEE THE COMPLETE IMAGE FULL SIZE.

The inscription reads "NO CALUMNY CAN EVER DARKEN HIS FAME FOR HISTORY

Continuing. HAS LIGHTEN UP

Continuing  HIS IMAGE WITH HER EVERLASTING LAMP

These are scenes of the location today.

This is a view from the opposite direction.

It seems that racist garbage isn't going to be celebrated forever.

Of course there is more to be done. I have recently typed up an inventory of what remains to be done in Dallas.

See this other blog focused on Dallas itself. https://dallaslandscape.blogspot.com/

And the Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1983418798539308/

Kaufman County Confederate Injustice Center

When you drive down to Kemp, Texas you go past Kaufman, Texas which is the Kaufman County seat.  (This is my blog on the billboard near Kemp,Texas. https://dallaslandscape.blogspot.com/2019/03/billboard-in-kaufman-county-near-kemp.html)

So after I did my photo documentation of the neo-Confederate anti-Dallas billboard I returned and stopped by the Kaufman County Confederate Courthouse. The court house is a bracket shape wrapped around this court yard.

You will notice that there are a lot of glass windows. So after I did a lot of photo documenation of the monument and its inscrptions and took pictures from a variety of angles etc. I went inside the court house to take pictures of the monument from the inside of the building. I thought that the building was purely administrative and I would be able to get a few photos from inside the building showing the historical context that the Kaufman administration exists within.




So I went inside and started taking photos on the 2nd floor. When I got to the 2nd floor I realized I was in the room in which people wait before being admitted to the court room.

As jurors and witnesses wait they gaze upon a monument to the Confederate soldier.

It is a Confederate Injustic Center.

They did not permit any photos of the court rooms so I was not able to take photos of the court rooms, but this space is on the first floor and shows the windows on the first floor facing the Confederate monument.

The windows that you see on the side wings of the court room are the same. So during a trial the judge, the jury, the lawyer can easily gaze upon the Confederate monument.

The monument has night time illumination. (Lights indicated by the red arrows.)

This is so the monument can be illuminated at night so that the Confederacy can be glorified and be a beacon representing Kaufman County's core values.

Not so enduring anymore

The title of the book is "Confederate Monuments: Enduring Symbols of the South and the War Between the States. 

Not so enduring anymore. 

Speaking in Austin, Texas this Saturday about the Hood Brigade Monument. It is about white supremacy.

This Saturday I will be in Austin, Texas speaking about the Hood Brigade Monument and how it is about white supremacy.

This is the event.

https://www.facebook.com/events/240412070082742/

They are getting some fairly significant speakers at the event. 

I have copies of all the dedication speeches for all the Confederate monuments on the Texas Capitol grounds. 

My speech will explain how this monument, and others like it are erected for the purpose of supporting a system of white supremacy. My analysis of the dedication speeches for this monument would apply to most any Confederate monument in the nation. 

I am hoping that once people understand how to analyze the dedication speeches for this monument they will realize it applies to nearly every Confederate monument. 

For the Hood Brigade I also have this book. I will be showing it at the rally.  Chock a block full of stuff. I have some quotes following the picture. 

This is an extract from the ANNUAL ADDRESS OF COLONEL R. J. HARDING, President of Hood's Texas Brigade Association, AT CORSICANA, TEXAS, Reunion, Wednesday, June 28, 1905, starting on page 176 of the above book. 

The son of our glorious Hood got up a regiment of immunes. Anyone eligible that had ever had a contagious disease, yellow fever, smallpox, mumps or itch. Mississippi sent her quota promptly and McKinley insulted them by appointing the most despised negro in the State—John Lynch—their paymaster. Our boys would never receive their pay
from him.

I will say nothing about Teddy, except that he is rather coon-flavored. He seems to be trying to reform. [Bold face added.]

The book has other pungent racist items.

You can view or download the book at this direct link in several formats.

https://archive.org/details/unveilingdedicat01chil

Once you download the book, search words to use would be "coon" "negro" "inferior" 

What will be interesting is to show that the dedication speakers are a bunch of lying scammers. This is what John Bell Hood thought the War of the Rebellion was about. In fact the dedication speeches really show a bunch of scam artists engaged in all sorts of nonsense to push a political agenda. CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO SEE THE WHOLE THING. 

O.R. Ser. 1 V. 39 Bk. 2 Page 419-422.

I am also planning on driving down early the day before and taking photo documentation of all the Confederate stuff on the Capitol grounds. 

I hope to have a set of photos like I did in Dallas of the Confederate War Memorial.

http://templeofdemocracy.com/dallas-convention-reflections.html

Take 'Em Down NOLA. Rationalizations of statue defenders Item #4

After I left the Mitch Landrieu book signing I ran into a person outside the museum who as critical of Take 'Em Down NOLA (TEDN). Being an older white guy often people will make assumptions about my opinions.

This person's argument against TEDN was that the members of TEDN were "transplants."

I pointed out that in our legal system there weren't hereditary castes nor privileged voters, and that everyone living there in New Orleans was a citizen with rights.

Of course the person didn't accept this, he said how would I like it if people came to my place to change my culture or some such thing.  A little Xenophobia is the basis of his argument.

If I moved someplace and something there was really stupid I would speak out. If it was something like cottage cheese pie in West, Texas. (That is West, Texas not West Texas, on the way to Waco.) I am not going to be that critical. Local favorite, awful, but let it go, I don't have to eat it.  But I think, and I have opinions, and I can choose to express them. I will be sensitive to feelings where possible, but I don't think locality enables stupidity.

What you learn is that people with banal white nationalist views don't want to recognize that they are white nationalists and come up with all sorts of inane arguments.

The tactic of discussing whether they are transplants or not is to avoid discussing the issues involved with Confederate monuments. The person discusses these other topics to avoid discussing the Confederacy or realizing his or her white nationalist views.

We need to confront these various rationalizations by the following

1. Point out that they are means to avoid discussing the issue.

2. Call it banal white nationalism.

Florida State Senate votes to replace statue of Confederate general in U.S. Capitol with civil rights leader.

The Florida state senate has voted to remove a Confederate general from the U.S. Capitol.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-florida-statue-20180131-story.html

Each state has a right to place two statues in statuary hall in the Old Capitol building. One of Florida's statues is Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith and will be replaced by African American civil rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune.

The vote was 37 to 0. It is likely that the Florida House will get a majority to remove the statue.

There are several Confederate leaders and generals in Statuary Hall. Once one statue is removed, it will leader others in other states with Confederate leaders in Statuary Hall to ask that their state remove Confederate statues.

https://www.aoc.gov/capitol-buildings/national-statuary-hall

However, the website doesn't mention who is Confederate or not and you also have to pull up information state by state.

Kirby will not be the first Confederate removed, Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry, Alabama's statue, was replaced by Helen Keller in 2009. However, this change may not have been so much motivated by getting rid of a Confederate but putting a much more well known figure in DC.

Here is a list of the statues.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sculptures_in_the_National_Statuary_Hall_Collection

Again it doesn't say that the individual is a Confederate. There is a link for each individual. I see six or seven Confederates there including Kirby.

This removal also keeps the process going to eliminate Confederate statues. As soon as the removal of Confederate statues recedes form the public's attention, another removal somewhere brings it to the public's attention again and inspires someone somewhere to get rid of their Confederate statue.

Also, it brings to the public's attention that there is a whole new venue to act in removing Confederate statues.

As the statues are removed the normalization of the Confederacy will be less and less and the remaining statues, as I have said before, will seem more and more anomalous.

As there are fewer and fewer Confederate statues in major cities and then fewer Confederate statues in lesser cities, citizens in cities that still have Confederate statues are going to question their leadership as to why they still have Confederate statues. I think that this issue will raise to the surface the nature of the leadership in these cities that still have Confederate statues in 2020.

At some point a Confederate statue in the town square will be associated with a rural place that is backward and undesirable. At some point a factory or business won't be located somewhere because a Confederate statue will be seen as making it difficult to recruit potential employees to work there.

At that point there will be real pressure to get rid of Confederate statues in even the most rural conservative parts of the nation.

Dallas African American Republican Taft Thompson defends Confederate monuments and Donald Trump.

This is a video from the Dallas Women League of Voters panel on Confederate monuments 11/30/2017. I have put together the segments that Dallas Republican Taft Thompson spoke, as well for contrast the comments of Rev. Maxie Johnson. A short segment by Buddy Apple is included where he backs up Thompson.

I used Movie Maker to segment and then stitch together segments.

There is the introduction where the topic of the panel was introduced and the bios of the panelists were given.

Taft Thompson speaks at 3:10 and 9:40.  They are quite something else.

Not the party of Lincoln anymore, not the party of Frederick Douglass anymore.

Jim Schutze of the "Dallas Observer" ridicules people who make excuses to keep Confederate monuments

Jim Schutze in this article doesn't use the term "banal white nationalism" but it is obvious he understands the concept if only in his own terms.

http://www.dallasobserver.com/news/trumps-shithole-remarks-were-exactly-what-we-needed-10256390

This is one quote.

We are masters of denial. We always have a cover story. Last September, when Dallas was in the throes of debate over removing a memorial to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, one of my own great awakenings as a reporter was to the fact that Dallas apparently is home to a large population of militant monument removal fiscal hawks. 

These are people who are not racist, according to them, and who say they have no feelings whatsoever about the Civil War or slavery. Their great concern in life, their cause, their noble crusade is that no Civil War memorial shall be removed at a cost one penny greater than the proper going rate for Civil War monument removals. 

Who knew?

Another quote:

And lastly, for weeks after the removal finally was accomplished, the removal hawks were busy spotting all kinds of social needs, from better public schools to free mental health care, that could have been paid for with the money they felt had been squandered on the removal. One of them asked me, “How many hot meals for the elderly could have been paid for with that money?” Isn’t that wonderful? Suddenly they’re all Mother Theresa. 

Look, I hope what I am saying here does not come across as making me out to be the cool guy. Sometimes we white folks do that — make fun of other white people for being racially clueless as a way of making ourselves look cool. I assure you, I suffer no such delusion. Where racial cluelessness is concerned, I think we have more than enough to go around.

I think a lot of people are recognizing these arguments for what they are. Excuses. 

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.

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.

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.