Major protest against the Sons of Confederate Veterans in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Major protest against the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV). About a 100 people in the protest and the police are called out. This is publicity the Embassy Suites hotel probably don't want for their brand.

https://www.wral.com/police-line-brier-creek-parking-lots-to-keep-protesters-back-from-sons-of-confederate-veterans-meeting/18984041/

This is the article in the local major daily.

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article240765851.html

It got coverage in other TV markets.

https://www.wilm-tv.com/police-line-brier-creek-parking-lots-to-keep-protesters-back-from-sons-of-confederate-veterans-meeting/

The question some people might ask is whether that is a place at which they would like to work. How valid the corporation's non-discrimination policies might be questioned.

Doing more searching I find that the effort opposing the SCV got coverage in the Charlotte Observer.

A prior blog posting I did on this topic where I show that the effort got national attention is:
http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2020/02/stephen-d-lee-conference-protested.html#.XlveI6ieGiM

Sons of Confederate Veterans events aren't automatically going to get a free pass anymore.

Stephen D. Lee Conference Protested/ National and local news coverage.

Follow up post on the protests is at:

https://newtknight.blogspot.com/2020/03/major-protest-against-sons-of.html#.XlvfqqieGiM

For the longest time the press didn't want to deal with neo-Confedeacy.

However, that has all changed with Charlottesville protest.

One big change is that fighting neo-Confederacy is in the news in mainstream media. Stories which would never of gotten covered are now getting coverage.

For example The Root which was owned by the people who owned the Washington Post and is now owned by Universion Communications has run this story about the Stephen D. Lee Conference in Raleigh, NC. The headline is, "What Better Way to Celebrate the Last Day of Black History Month Than ... a Confederacy Honoring the Confederacy?"

https://www.theroot.com/what-better-way-to-celebrate-the-last-day-of-black-hist-1841993934

The popup tab says Hilton Hotels to Host Confederacy Conference. I am sure that isn't the branding the Hilton Hotel group wants.

Hilton Hotels is mentioned in the headline for this article in the Huffington Post. This article was also run on MSN news site. So it got fairly high national visibility.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hilton-hotel-sons-of-confederate-veterans_n_5e591a47c5b6450a30bd5b81

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/hilton-hotel-to-host-neo-confederate-group-conference-on-last-day-of-black-history-month/ar-BB10wNj9

Blavity has this article. Hilton Hotels mentioned. This is a newsite oriented towards the African American community.

https://www.blavity.com/conference-for-neo-confederates-to-be-held-at-north-carolina-hilton-on-final-day-of-black-history-month?category1=news

It made the local major city daily. The Hilton Hotel is mentioned.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article240670326.html

This is the bad publicity that a hotel chain really doesn't want. Also, imagine the employees that have to tell friends and family that they spent a few days being servants for neo-Confederates.

After awhile hotel chains are going to wonder if this is the image they want.

With friends like this, you don't need enemies dept.: Republican party election official asked to resign over his racial comments and pro-Confederate comments.

http://www.wral.com/ncarolina-elections-board-weighs-dumping-official-over-posts/14970618/

Butner made national news last year for Facebook postings extolling the Confederacy, denouncing gays and lesbians, and blasting demonstrators protesting the priorities of Republican legislative leaders and Gov. Pat McCrory.

On Facebook, Butner displayed a photo taken at one demonstration in Raleigh and noted the black participants. "I GUESS THE WHITE FOLK COULD NOT GET OFF BECAUSE THEY WERE TOO BUSY BEING PRODUCTIVE GOOD CITIZENS," Butner wrote in 2013.
1
Butner also commented on Twitter about Oprah Winfrey receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom: "@Oprah WELL YOU GOT YOUR MOF THANKS TO YOUR BLACK PREZ AND A LOT OF WHITE WOMEN. CAN YOU EVER DO ANYTHING ON YOUR OWN?"

Butner was chairman of a local housing agency at the time and a public housing resident complained anonymously to a U.S. Housing and Urban Development official in Greensboro. Butner did not seek reappointment when his term ended in August 2014.
Read more at http://www.wral.com/ncarolina-elections-board-weighs-dumping-official-over-posts/14970618/#vsqPlsOwHeqT1u7o.99

United Daughters of the Confederacy can't find a church for their 2015 Convention

The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) can't find a church for their 2015 convention.

This is the link for the information about the upcoming convention.

http://ncudc.org/2015.html

They are going to have the service in the hotel in which they are meeting.

I wrote the pastor of the Edenton Street United Methodist Church and though he claimed that his church had never agreed to be the host for the UDC service they weren't going to host the UDC. However, the UDC had the Edenton Street United Methodist Church listed in their original 2015 web page which is archived at the Internet archive as follows:

https://web.archive.org/web/20130611041742/http://ncudc.org/2015GeneralConv.html

Of course it might be that the service is being held at a church in Raleigh, NC.

I had written a coalition of churches that claimed to be for social justice, they didn't want to deal with it, but I suspect that they also made a note not to host the UDC.

The Campaign for 2015, getting churches and other mainstream institutions to give up the Confederacy and stop enabling neo-Confederated groups

The major focus for 2015 will be to get churches and other mainstream organizations to stop enabling neo-Confederate groups.

The campaign with the churches is documented at www.templeofdemocracy.com. You can look at the over view of the campaign, or the campaign by denominations and cities. The letters written and responses will be reported on those pages.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) will be having their national convention in Richmond, Virginia and the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) is having their national convention in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The Edenton United Methodist Church pastor has written me and told me that they are not hosting the UDC and that he doesn't know why his church showed up on the North Carolina Division UDC website as being a hosting church. I don't know whether to believe him. I am not saying that he isn't to be believed, but I don't think the North Carolina Division UDC would have the Edenton United Methodist Church as its location for its service if it didn't have some idea that it was going to meet there.

Last year I had a lot of time devoted to developing a presentation I could take on the road and present and getting together a working set of equipment for the presentation. This year a lot more time will be devoted to this campaign.

United Daughters of the Confederacy realizes that they are an embarrassment to the churches

The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) has realized that they are an embarrassment to the churches. They are going into stealth mode.

If you view this web page http://www.ncudc.org/2015GeneralConv.html today (3/16/2014) about the North Carolina Division of the UDC you will notice that they are planning on having a church service for their 2015 reunion at a church in downtown Raleigh, NC.

However, if you go to the Internet archive and view their web page as it was on Jan. 1, 2014:

https://web.archive.org/web/20131109190519/http://www.ncudc.org/2015GeneralConv.html

The above link stopped working, try this link below.

https://web.archive.org/web/20130611041742/http://ncudc.org/2015GeneralConv.html

You would see that they are planning to have their memorial service at Edenton Street United Methodist Church.

I have a printed out Google Cache page showing that as late as Jan. 22, 2014 the web page mentioned Edenton Street United Methodist Church. http://esumc.org/

Edenton Street United Methodist Church also runs The Gathering which is at this link. http://estreetgathering.net/ They are current with the trends, they are multiracial, and it might be that they are sharing space occasionally with the UDC.

The Edenton Street United Methodist Church has a concert for Black History Month:  http://esumc.org/news-item/concert-for-black-history-month/ and they were listed as the church for the North Carolina Division UDC.

There is no reason that the UDC would hide the fact that they are meeting at the Edenton Street United Methodist Church unless they realized their accommodation by the Edenton Street United Methodist Church would be an embarrassment to the Edenton Street United Methodist Church.

It might be argued that the church name was dropped from the North Carolina UDC web page for the 2015 reunion so Ed Sebesta wouldn't know about it. Certainly that is one reason. But if the UDC's presence at the Edenton Street United Methodist Church wasn't embarrassing my writing to the church would have no effect and my being aware of this reunion at Edenton Street United Methodist Church would have no effect. If the Edenton Street United Methodist Church thought hosting the UDC was a good thing they would put it on their website.

There are two important things in this recent development.

1. The UDC has realized it is an embarrassment to churches. They are starting to pull the names of the churches from their schedules to spare the church embarrassment. The UDC is acknowledging that they are an embarrassment through their actions and demonstrating through their actions that they realize that a large fraction of the public has a negative perception of them and that their public association with a church would undermine the church's reputation. Also by keeping the name hidden of the church they plan on meeting at they communicate to the membership that they are undesirables.

2. The UDC has listed what churches they will be meeting at as one of the positive features of their conventions. If they stop listing the church they give up a selling point of the convention.

3. As they cover up their involvements with churches they start writing themselves out of the historical record.

At some point the UDC will be pulling the name of the churches from their published schedules for the upcoming conventions and won't be mentioning the churches in their reports for the convention.

Additionally once they start sneaking about to have their memorial services at a church they then make the church a collaborator. It can't be imagined that the church leadership would be unaware that the memorial service is being conducted in such a way to avoid pubic scrutiny as the church leadership observes that their church name is not listed on the UDC schedule and as the topic of churches' hosting neo-Confederate groups becomes more and more a matter for discussion among the public. The church leadership thus transitions from being an witting passive host to being an active supporter of the UDC.

Also, if something is being done covertly, secretly, isn't it a mystery, a subject of interest? Isn't their a potential of an expose'? Doesn't it become a dirty secret?

Also, if the UDC knows that there is a developing controversy over this matter, but they conceal it from the church they plan to meet at, how will the church feel when they find out that they were kept uninformed?

Has the Edenton United Methodist Church cancelled the North Carolina UDC memorial service at their church? I don't know. I got an unsolicited email from someone claiming to be a member of the church. Later he said that the church had cancelled, but the person wasn't using one of the church's email addresses. When I asked that there be confirmation by the church I didn't hear back. I emailed the same person at his official Edenton United Methodist Church email and I didn't hear back. So I sent a certified letter asking him to confirm the emails sent. So far haven't heard back but it is too soon to say whether I am going to hear back or not.

However, the North Carolina UDC convention website does mention that it is going to be  local church. If the UDC was actually rejected I think that neo-Confederate would be complaining all over the Internet.

If I don't hear back I am writing the staff of the church by certified mail. I will also be giving reasons why they shouldn't host the UDC.

At this time I can't say whether the North Carolina UDC convention will be happening at the Edenton Street United Methodist Church in 2015 or not, but I have I have a long time between now 2015 to find out.

So far I am not hearing much back from the churches except when they want to tell me they aren't involved, or won't be involved. Except in one case, I am not getting anyone defending the practice of hosting neo-Confederate groups. If the churches thought it was a good thing they would be defending it. They know it is a dirty secret also. (I will be blogging about the church leader who defended the practice.)

I will be blogging on the Edenton United Methodist Church matter as things develop.

I am already winning in this campaign. The campaign is documented at www.templeofdemocracy.com/churchesoftheconfederacy.htm.