Trump back in the news for taking stand to keep Confederate monuments

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/26/trump-ed-gillespie-tweet-monuments-244205

The above is the link to the article.

These are the links to his tweets related to Confederate monuments.

Kathleen Harnett-White and her article about Texas and secession in "Texas Republic" magazine is in the news. IMPORTANT UPDATE

Earlier this week I supplied Andrew Kaczynski the article that Kathleen Hartnett-White wrote for Texas Republic magazine about Texas being better off as an independent republic.

The article is online at this link:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/26/politics/kfile-hartnett-white-texas-independent-republic/index.html

You collect things and it sits on the shelf for years and years and you wonder if it will ever serve any purpose and 20 years later it does.

Do not confuse Texas Republic magazine with the Republic of Texas movement. Texas Republic was a publication of the Lynn Landrum Society. William Murchison did an interview for Southern Partisan magazine to introduce the magazine to its readers. It was a magazine for the right-wing in the Texas conservative establishment. In Texas the magazine wasn't fringe. Last issue was published in 1996.

The first issue was in dedicated to M.E. Bradford, a professor at the University of Dallas who spent his life trying to undermine civil rights in America. Bradford was the leading intellectual for the neo-Confederate movement and was a major figure in getting it started.

I sent Kaczynski some writes I did on the magazine also.

It should not be surprising that at the 2016 Texas State Republican Party convention that the vote against secession was only 16 to 14. It should not be surprising that Boys State in Texas voted for secession.

IMPORTANT UPDATE:

You can read the article that Kathleen Hartnett White wrote for Texas Republic at this link.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4118046-KHW.html

OTHER UPDATES:

The story of Kathleen Hartnett White's essay in Texas Republic magazine is beginning to get some traction in the media. These are some other sites carrying the story.


https://www.rawstory.com/2017/10/trump-environmental-pick-once-claimed-texas-would-be-better-off-if-the-state-seceded-to-avoid-regulations-report/

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/357410-trump-environmental-nominee-texas-would-be-better-off-as-an

Letter to Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings about the replica Robert E. Lee Mansion at Oaklawn Park

The replica of the Robert E. Lee Park wasn't even considered by the Task Force on Confederate Monuments.

An error here in the letter. Stratford Hall is the home of the Lees of Virginia and Arlington Hall is the home of Robert E. Lee. Lee was born in Stratford Hall.

This letter was sent certified to Rawlings along with copies to all 14 Dallas 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 regret to see that the Task Force on Confederate Monuments didn’t include the one-third replica of Lee’s plantation house, Stratford, at Oak Lawn Park in its deliberation.

The replica Stratford was understood to be an important part of promoting the idea that Robert E. Lee was a hero by the Dallas Southern Memorial Association (DSMA).

The DSMA in the forwards written by their presidents explain sometimes directly and sometimes less directly that the purpose of Robert E. Lee Park was to oppose the civil rights movement.

The replica Stratford is not a plantation house in general but a specific plantation house where slavery was practiced and the plantation house of Robert E. Lee. It serves to normalize both Robert E. Lee and antebellum slavery in the United States and excuse Robert E. Lee’s practice of slavery.  I enclose an account of Lee having runaway slaves punished, and how horrible the use of salt and brine in these punishments were. These are the terrors in history than plantation weddings ignore.

I see no good reason why this wasn’t included in the agenda of the Task Force on Confederate monuments. It is a Confederate monument. In fact it is worse than Confederate statues since when it is used people are directly engaged in it.

I don’t think the city of Dallas should be engaged directly or indirectly in the plantation wedding business and this replica plantation house needs to be addressed. It also should not be addressed as is done in some cases by having some token African American cultural event.

                                                                        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 account which I enclosed with the mailing.

Robert E. Lee Has His Slaves Whipped and Brine Poured Into the Wounds

The following account if from the book, “Slave Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, and Interviews, and Autobiographies,” edited by John W. Blassingame. It is published by Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge 70893.

[Page 467]

Newspaper and Magazine Interviews, 1864‑1938

WESLEY NORRIS

Interviewed, 1866(?), b. Virginia, Enslaved: Virginia

It has frequently been represented by the friends and admirers of Robert E. Lee, late an officer in the rebel army, that, although a slave­holder, his treatment of his chattels was invariably kind and humane. The subjoined statement, taken from the lips of one of his former slaves, indicates the real character of the man:

"My name is Wesley Norris; I was born a slave on the plantation of George Parke Custis; after the death of Mr. Custis, Gen. Lee, who had been made executor of the estate, assumed control of the slaves, in number about seventy; it was the general impression among the slaves of Mr. Custis that on his death they should be forever free; in fact this statement had been made to them by Mr. C. years before; at his death we were informed by Gen. Lee that by the conditions of the will we must remain slaves for five years; I remained with Gen. Lee for about seven­teen months, when my sister Mary, a cousin of ours, and I determined to run away, which we did in the year 1859; we had already reached Westminster, in Maryland, on our way to the North, when we were apprehended and thrown into prison, and Gen. Lee notified of our arrest; we remained in prison fifteen days, when we were sent back to Arlington; we were immediately taken before Gen. Lee, who demanded the reason why we ran away; we frankly told him that we considered ourselves free; he then told us he would teach us a lesson we never would forget; he then ordered us to the barn, where, in his presence, we were tied firmly to posts by a Mr. Gwin, our overseer, who was ordered by Gen. Lee to strip us to the waist and give us fifty lashes each, excepting my sister, who received but twenty; we were accordingly stripped to the skin by the overseer, who, however, had sufficient humanity to decline whipping us; accordingly Dick Williams, a county constable, was called in, who gave us the number of lashes ordered; Gen. Lee, in the meantime, stood by, and frequently enjoined Williams to 'lay it on well,' an injunction which he did not fail to heed; not satisfied with simply lacerating our naked flesh, Gen. Lee then ordered the overseer to thoroughly wash our backs with brine, which was done. After this my cousin and myself were sent to Hanover.

The torment of salt or brine in wounds.

Mr. Norris’ account though descriptive doesn’t really express what is was like to have salt or brine put in your open wounds. Being a victim he probably would not like to describe his own behavior. I am not exactly an expert on torture and its psychological impact on its victims.  The following historical record gives a very accurate description.

This is from page 147 in the book, “An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas, 1821-1865,” by Randolph B. Campbell, Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, LA. It is an account of whipping by a white women remembering a childhood experience. The primary reference is Am. Slave, Supp., Ser. 2, IV, 1120-21, (Mollie Dawson). This book in the same section has the description of whippings and its use in slave life. The language is offensive and the event is ghastly. It is provided here so that the reader know the brutal reality of antebellum slave life.

“This white man was whipping him and the blood was all over this nigger and he was saying "o, master, o, master, I pray you not to hit me any more. Oh, Lordy, oh, Lordy, has mercy on me. Master, please has mercy on me, please has mercy." But this man wouldn't stop a minute and spits tobacco juice and cuss him and then starts in whip­ping him again. This nigger was jumping around on the ground all tied up, just like a chicken when you chops his head off when this man was whipping him and when the white folks would stop awhile this nigger would lay there and roll from side to side and beg for mercy.

I runs off a good piece when this white folks started whipping him and stopped and looks back at him, I was so scared that I just stood there and watched him till he quit. Then he tells some of the slaves to wash him off and put salt in the cut places and he stood there to watch them to see that they did. He was chewing his tobacco, spitting and cussing that nigger and when they gets him washed off and puts salt in the raw places he sure did scream and groan.

But when he groaned they just keeping putting the salt in to the wounds on his poor old beat up body.

The first thing that I know my father was patting me on the back and said, "Honey, you better run along home now," and I sure did and I didn't go back over there any more. That was the only slave I ever saw get a whipping.”

Letter to Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings about Street names/ The costing of African American lives or how much do they matter.

The major themes here are:

1. Rationalizations made to keep Confederate named streets that some were significant and some weren't.

2. The poor research done concerning some of these street names. For example, Junius Peak, for whom Junius Street was named after was a Klansman after the Civil War.

3. The very low value placed on African Americans lives when we discuss cost. In this case the value given to African American humanity and dignity is less than $10. We should not be surprised that when police officers wrongly shoot African Americans they get off in court.

This letter was sent by certified mail and copies with the documentation was sent to all 14 members of Dallas city council.  CLICK ON IMAGES TO SEE ENTIRE IMAGE.

In the letter that follows I insert some links instead of providing some of the materials at the end. I place notes and links that weren't in the original letter in square brackets [ ].

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:

There has been put forth arguments not to change all the streets named after Confederates with one rationalization or another.

I would like to address four of these rationalizations and discuss the implications would be for the values of the City of Dallas. These rationalizations are:

1.       The cost of the name change is too much and it is too much bother.

2.      The Confederate individual for whom the street was named after wasn’t an officer or major figure in the Confederacy so it isn’t necessary to change the name.

3.      It is generally not known that the street is named after a Confederate so it can be allowed.

4.      The individual for whom the street was named did some meritorious activity after the Civil War.

In regards to the argument #1 above relating to cost.

I would like to raise the question if there was somehow a Himmler highway in Dallas and we discovered it would we allow it to continue? I think we would change the name regardless of the cost, regardless of the length.  A street, avenue, boulevard, highway or road or any path or trail or way named after a Nazi, however obscure, would be intolerable.

Yet in discussing eliminating Confederate street names, names which fundamentally denigrate the value of African American life, there is the discussion of cost and bother. Confederate street names for some appear to have a threshold of cost and bother in which beyond that threshold they argue to retain Confederate names.  This allows a calculation to see what value some people put on Black lives, how much Black lives matter in terms of dollars and cents to them.

In “APPENDIX A” you will see a calculation based on the costs for the name changes supplied by Dallas city staff and my cross-check of the calculations based on those figures.

These are the original figures given to change the names of Lee Parkway, Lemmon Avenue, Gaston Avenue, and Beauregard Drive.  

I put in the figures supplied by city staff and calculated what the cost was and then compared the cost given by the Excel sheet to the totals given by Dallas city staff. There are discrepancies for each city. However, I am going to go with the Dallas city staff figures.

The total costs for all four streets is $416,660.07 and in the 2010 U.S. Census figures there was reported that there were 298,993 African Americans living in the city of Dallas, Texas. Dividing the total cost by the population of African Americans living in the city of Dallas in 2010 you get $1.39 per African American resident of Dallas.  

Also, these street names send a toxic message to Dallas residents in general that being violently active for white supremacy is not really that terrible such that the name needs to be changed.

These aren’t all the costs with a street name change, there are business cards to be changed and probably some other paper work and just taking a guestimate of $1,000,000 for these other costs you have a cost of $9.48 per African American resident of Dallas.

I don’t think that is a lot. The fact that some people think this is a lot gives us an idea how much Black lives matter to them and why there are jurors who are unwilling to convict police officers when they wrongfully cause the death or injury of an African American.

The final recommendation of the Task Force, dated 9/29/2017 recommends that the street names Stonewall Street, Beauregard Avenue, Lee Parkway, Gano Street, and Cabell Drive be changed.  Gano Street and Cabell Drive are much shorter than either Gaston Avenue or Lemmon Avenue. It seems that $1.39 per African American resident of Dallas is too much for the Task Force and many Dallas residents.

In regards to the argument #2 above relating the confederate being significant

The rational for Lee Parkway, Gano Street and Cabell is to quote the report, “… streets named after a Confederate leader and/or general, who made a significant contribution to the Confederacy, specifically Gano, Lee and Cabell, be changed.”

I would like to suggest that if someone enlisted in the Confederate army and shoot at American troops their contribution to the Confederacy was significant.

As you probably already know W.L. Cabell being a war criminal. I enclose the documentation. [You can read it here. https://books.google.com/books?id=nvmc_YXsSx4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=ruled+by+race+arkansas&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiynb2o-Y7XAhWDeSYKHTjwCHYQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=ruled%20by%20race%20arkansas&f=false. Just search for Cabell's name.] 

This raises historical questions about street names. There were massacres of African American troops during the Civil War by Confederate troops. Was there any review of these Confederate soldiers possible involvement in massacres? Doesn’t appear to me that there was.

The other question is the involvement of ex-Confederates in the overthrow of Reconstruction and the establishment of white supremacist states in so-called “Redemption.” It was commonly understood in the early 20^th century by neo-Confederates that ex-Confederate soldiers made up the Ku Klux Klan.

S.E.F. Rose in her book “The Ku Klux Klan or Invisible Empire,” rhapsodizes about the Ku Klux Klan being the heroic effort of the ex-Confederate soldier and her book is endorsed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) and the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV). On the strength of her pro-Klan writing she was elected Historian General of the UDC. She died before the end of her term of office and was succeeded by Grace Meredith Newbill who also praised the Klan and in Pulaski, Tennessee led an effort there to name streets, Ku-Klux Place, Ku-Klux Avenue, and “Cyclops Hill.” I enclose some parts of Rose’s book.

[I am putting this at the end.]

UDC praise was so strong for the Ku Klux Klan that when the North Carolina Division of the UDC donated a KKK flag to the Museum of the Confederacy they had a post card of the flag printed. I enclose a page with both sides of the postcard. Visually it tells what Confederate “heritage” is really all about. Incidentally, the building on the stamp is Lee’s plantation, the building at Oak Lawn Park is a one-third replica of this building.

[The following was the two sides of the North Carolina UDC postcard.]

Even before Rose and Newbill’s efforts it was generally understood that the ex-Confederates were the Ku Klux Klan. In this page 7, June 8, 1908 Dallas Morning News article, “R.E. Lee Camp Meeting: Two Veterans Enliven Occasion with Their Ku Klux Experiences.” The article reports:

“Two statements by aged Confederate soldiers, that they were members of the famous Ku-Klux Klan of reconstruction days, praise for this band of ‘home-protectors” was the principle feature of the regular meeting …”

I enclose a copy of the article. The headline was "R.E. Lee Camp Meeting: Two Veterans Enliven Occasion with Their Ku Klux Experiences." 

It should not be surprising that the early 20^th century Klan launched its Texas organizing at a Texas Division United Confederate Veteran reunion in Houston, Texas in 1920. [Page 1-2, “Crusade for Conformity: The Ku Klux Klan in Texas, 1920-1930,” by Charles C. Alexander, Texas Gulf Coast Historical Association, Publication Series, Vol. 6 No. 1, August 1962.] The modern KKK would be the re-launch of an ex-Confederate organization and the continuation of really is the true Confederate “heritage.”

Being that the Ku Klux Klan was a secret violent terrorist society we might not be able to specifically name a particular ex-Confederate soldier as being a member of the Ku Klux Klan, but it can be assumed that it was very likely that an ex-Confederate who was able to participate in the Ku Klux Klan was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Then again, it will be interesting to see what comes up with an intensive research of Gaston, Lemmon and the others. For example, in checking the Texas State Historical Association online handbook we see that Junius Peak was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. (https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fpe03).  The report (Street Naming and Change Process, Sept. 15, 2017, by Neva Dean, Sustainable Development and Construction Assistant Director.) by city staff lists only that he was a real estate developer, deputy sheriff, Captain in Texas Rangers, and Superintendent of White Rock Lack. Did the city staff not know of the Texas State Historical Association handbook or did they just didn’t list the Ku Klux Klan membership?

Regardless whether it can be found that these individuals were members of the Klan or involved with war time atrocities, we can be assured that they mentioned their Confederate service was mentioned with pride after the fall of Reconstruction and if they had political careers their Confederate service was referenced. Further their careers were in a white supremacist state where they were privileged, in a multiracial democracy would they have had these careers?

In regards to the argument #3 above that the street is not generally known to be confederate

Is ignorance of local history really going to be an argument to retain a name? However, I would say that many now know that these streets are named after Confederates and some rationalization was adopted to keep them.

Streets are named after individuals so that they are remembered and the fact that some street name has failed to do that, doesn’t make it more acceptable.

I think that we would rename a street named after a Nazi even if was only discovered in the reading of a footnote in an obscure journal buried in some archive.

In regards to the argument #4 above that the street was named after an individual who after the civil war did some meritorious activity.

W.L. Cabell was elected mayor of Dallas because the multi-racial democracy of Reconstruction was overthrown. Otherwise a war criminal wouldn’t be elected mayor of Dallas.

These ex-Confederates were often elected because they were ex-Confederates. Had Reconstruction not been overthrown by violence and terror these ex-Confederates would have spent their days after the Civil War apologizing for their actions and not celebrating them.

How many of their accomplishments might have been done by African Americans excluded from participating in civil life?

None of these individuals regretted their fighting for the Confederacy and that is how they should be judge.

I ask that all the streets named after Confederate soldiers be renamed. It might have to be spread out over time, but it needs to be done, and excuses to retain these names needs to be rejected.

To retain the names means the city of Dallas really isn’t really all that concerned that they fought for white supremacy and slavery and the city of Dallas isn’t really that concerned about the suffering of the slaves.

                                                                                    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

APPENDIX A:

Calculations for name changes for first proposed set of street name changes with figures supplied by the Dallas city staff.

No.	Street	Total Cost	Notes
1	Lemmon Avenue	$364,256.35
2	Gaston Avenue	$49,919.36
3	Lee Parkway	$1,430.94
4	Beauregard Drive	$1,053.42
	Total	$416,660.07
	Total	City of Dallas 2010 Census African American population	Cost per African American
	$416,660.07	298,993	$1.39

[I am deleting out the calculation worksheets for the individual streets since they are not posting well.]

These are the selected sections of S.E.F. Rose's book about the Ku Klux Klan. 

This book in three sections states that the Ku Klux Klan is the great accomplishment of Confederate soldiers after the Civil War.

As you can see from the endorsements the neo-Confederate organizations also believed that the Ku Klux Klan was the great accomplishment of the Confederate soldier.