Juvenile Racism of the Sons of the Confederate Veterans

The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) has an official Facebook page.

The link is:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sons-of-Confederate-Veterans-Official/149308815083112?fref=ts

On the Official SCV Facebook page there is a picture with Lincoln carrying a boombox on his shoulder next to his ear and listening to it. You can see the picture and the comments for the picture at this link while it still lasts.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=414660708547920&set=a.174153455931981.46693.149308815083112&type=1&relevant_count=1

These pictures aren't posted by contributors but by the Official SCV Facebook page itself. In the following link There are other juvenile pictures posted by the SCV on their Facebook page. Lincoln and Sherman are shown devils in hell in the picture at the following link:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=201023003245026&set=a.174153455931981.46693.149308815083112&type=1&relevant_count=1

The Sons of Confederate Veterans thinks is it clever and derogatory to portray Lincoln as an African American and commentators at the SCV Facebook page picture pick up the message of the photo.

Mike Edmonds comments, "I dont care what Bill Clinton says, Abe was our first black president."

By the way Clinton didn't say it, someone else did.

Matt Fischer comments, "yeah the hand behind his back is hidin the fried chicken."

Reubin Mauldin comments, "The first Snoop Dog ..."

Don Hulsey comments, "hes got a crackpipe in the other hand."

Butch Jackson comments, "Tru Dat !!!"

The editor of the Official SCV can remove inappropriate comments but hasn't removed these comments and has let these comments stay since April and May 2012.

I think this tells you what type of people make up the Sons of Confederate Veterans and their real attitudes when they are not before the media.

If you want to see these photos go right away, the SCV will likely pull them since it contradicts their public message that it is "Heritage not Hate."

Sons of Confederate Veterans Chief of Heritage Defense condemns Charles Darwin and modern cosmology.

Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) Chief of Heritage Defense Gene Hogan in the May/June 2013 issue of Confederate Veteran, official publication of the SCV condemns Charles Darwin on page 11. In the article evolution, cosmology, Lincoln, the right of secession is all mixed together.

He opens his article explaining that he was invited to give a speech and in preparation for his speech he developed an idea which he is going to share in his "Forward the Colors" column as Chief of Heritage Defense which he does as follows:

It's been said a person's creation belief system will determine their world view. If you believe that the universe just, by chance, popped into existence and that, eventually single-cell organisms emerged from the primordial ooze, grew more complex, became vertebrates, began to walk upright ... here we are, billions of years after the process began, then a corresponding world view will follow, one of randomness ... purposelessness ... hopelessness. 

On the other hand, if you believe in the Genesis account, that an Eternal God spoke this universe into existence, formed us, the highest of His creations, in His image and in due time came to dwell as one us, died at our hands, rose again and stands ready to redeem us, it will profoundly affect your world view ... it will be much different than that of the adherent to the previous theory. 

After an erroneous recounting of the formation of the individual states in American history, he gets back to his topic of modern science leading people astray. Opposition to secession was due to a philosophy of Political Darwinism. Constitutional scholars who say that it is a "living breathing document," are influenced by evolutionary theory.

He points out that Lincoln and Darwin where born on the same day and "These boys would become men who would choose wrong idea, and those ideas would take them down the wrong path."

Hogan calls on his readers to resist "Reconstruction of the Mind," modernity, by being like their Confederate ancestors.

It is a free country. If you want to believe the earth is flat, because the Bible refers to the four corners of the world, you can. Also, I don't want to argue about his conceptualization of evolutionary or cosmological theories. I don't know why believing in evolution or modern cosmology would lead to "randomness," "purposelessness," or "hopelessness."  Or why one theory would necessary preclude the other.  I will leave this to Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy http://www.slate.com/authors.phil_plait.html to debate.

This article is of interest in that it shows that the SCV has become a religious right organization and right with a capital R.

League of the South and the International Afrikaner Society

The announcement for the 20th Annual League of the South (LOS) National Conference has as their speakers Mr. Hannes Louw, President of International Afrikaner Society (IAS) and Mr. Thomas J. Ferreira, former mayor of Boksburg, South Africa. The following is a link to the conference announcement.

http://dixienet.org/rights/2012/league_of_south_2013_conference.php

There is a link to a LOS page on Louw.

http://dixienet.org/rights/2013/conference_speaker_Hannes_Louw.php

This is the facebook page for the International Afriikaner Society. https://www.facebook.com/AfrikanerSociety

According to the LOS page on Louw he is working to find a new homeland for Afrikaners. According to the LoS.

Louw had a keen interest in Conservative politics from an early age, and became increasingly concerned with the plight of the Afrikaner in South Africa and the Afrikaner Diaspora. Believing that current Afrikaner party politics holds little promise he answered the call to utilize his experience, skills and international network to transform and unify Afrikaners, and work with other groups to establish a new Homeland for the Afrikaner people.

I don't pretend to know the politics of South Africa and there has been a lot of criticism of the South African ruling party by many, mostly over the issue of corruption. A lot of this criticism comes from Black Africans. It is a country with a lot of problems. 

However, there seems to be some agenda among some right wing white Afrikaners that there is an upcoming genocide. 

What I think is interesting is that the League of the South is having these speakers here. Why does the League of the South feel that these individuals have something relevant to say to them? The Council of Conservative Citizens www.cofcc.org has an agenda of alarm over South Africa and white genocide and maybe the LOS is planning on adopting this agenda. The LOS also has a program to teach all its members how to use effectively guns. Maybe they are evolving into some armed group expecting an apocalypse of some sort.  

Texas Frontier Heritage & Cultural Center and Grady McWhiney and the League of the South

Grady McWhiney was one of the founding members of the board of directors of the League of the South. He is also an author of books and articles advancing ideas about a Celtic South and Celtics in general that scholars of Celtic studies find laughable.

This is the New York Times obituary for Grady McWhiney discussing his membership in the League of the South (www.dixienet.org) and (www.facebook.com/leagueofthesouth).

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/30/us/30mcwhiney.html?_r=0

This is the biography of Grady McWhiney at the McWhiney History Education Group.
http://www.mcwhiney.org/founder.html

You will notice in the online McWhiney History Education Group biography web page of McWhiney that his involvement in the League of the South is entirely omitted. Also, his Celtic South writings are held up as some form of academic accomplishment rather than the ludicrous writings that they were.

This is a concluding section of a letter by Berthoff to the American History Forum criticizing a Confederate Celtic article that had been published in it. After tearing the article apart Berthoff writes:

But why harp on what anyone with the least interest in such matters will recognize as a hopeless muddle? Unfortunately, three of our leading journals have now placed their editorial imprimatur on it. Even newspapers feature writers have been more skeptical (Houston Chronicle, November 30, 1980, sec. 2, p. 10). But, then, perhaps the display of proverbial indolence in research and impetuosity in publication by two Southern historians is itself a demonstration of their thesis. 

The following article in Scottish Affairs published by Edinburgh University explains how Celtic scholars found McWiney and others to be laughable and also details how this idea of the Celtic South is neo-Confederate ideology.

http://templeofdemocracy.com/ScottishAffairs.htm

So in this specific way the McWhiney History Education Group works to perpetuate neo-Confederate ideology. It isn't necessary for an institution to support all the elements of neo-Confederate ideology. If one institution supports one element and another institution supports yet another element of neo-Confederate ideology, the sum of these efforts is a possibly effective support of a continuing neo-Confederate ideology.

I recently got a letter from the McWhiney History Education Group and so I looked up the website www.tfhcc.com and sent them the following email on 5/12/2013:

Dear Texas Frontier Heritage & Cultural Center:

Grady McWhiney was a founding director of the League of the South which was white supremacist from the beginning. He is also one of the leading writers who started the neo-Confederate mythology of the Celtic South. 

The idea of naming any education or historical group after him is absurd. It would be like having a Lysenko Institute of Genetics, or a Velikovsky Institute of Astronomy. 

Plus he was a damn racist who helped found and gave credibility to an organization whose goals were to undo the modern civil rights movement. 

Your adopting his name for any institute, program, group, etc. really is a comment on the problems perhaps with Texas Frontier studies and the people who compose this effort. 

As for your claim that the McWhiney History Education Group will “stem the rising tide of historical illiteracy,” I would say better to be uniformed than misinformed. 

Your organizations tolerance for McWhiney’s white supremacist activities says something severely negative about yourself. 

Sincerely Yours, 

Edward H. Sebesta

The officers of the McWhiney History Education Group and others who are supporting an institution named after a white supremacist are:

Governing Board

President/CEO: Donald S. Frazier

Robert F. Pace
Josh Winegarner
Stephen L. Hardin
Stephen Dodd
Dallas Cothrum
Rose M. Burks

Local Advisory Board

Chair: George Nichols

Vice-Chair: Judy Wyse

Secretary: Kathy Phillipp

Katie Alford
Ariel Boggess
Eric Dodd
Carolyn Edmison
Debra Hulse
Anita Young Lane
Jeff Luther
Tommy McAlister
Raymond McDaniel
Rhonda Moore
David Perry
Tom Perini
Paul Thames
Dorothy Thompson
David Wyse

I fully expect Kevin M. Levine to come to their defense.

Celebrate Juneteenth as an Anti-Confederate holiday

Juneteenth is on June 19th every year. It originally started out as a holiday to celebrate the abolition of slavery in Texas. However, it has become a national holiday of emancipation.

This year do something to celebrate Juneteenth as an anti-Confederate holiday.

1. You might read a an article or book about the struggle against slavery during the Civil War or the struggle for racial equality during the Civil War. You might read about the African American troops who fought against the Confederacy. I recommend Dudley Cornish's "The Sable Arm." It is a classic book. You might just buy a book about these topics on Juneteenth.

Mention the book or article your read or buy by tweeting on it or mentioning it on your facebook page or elsewhere on the Internet.

2. You might do a blog posting relevant to Juneteenth and the Civil War and the struggle against the Confederacy. Or write up something as a Facebook posting.

3. If you are in D.C. visit the African American Civil War Memorial.

4. If the local municipality or state you are in celebrates the Confederacy write a letter to your elected representatives asking them not to celebrate the Confederacy. It might be a monument, a flag, a symbol, a holiday about or incorporating the Confederacy. Post your letter online or tweet about it.

There must be many things you might do to have an anti-Confederate observance of the day. Let me know what ideas you might have and I will consider post them.

Dubious Medical advice at Lew Rockwell webpage

It always amazes me what is passed off as sound medical advice at www.lewrockwell.com. Very frequently there are various articles putting forth various medical claims that are laughable.

However, this article caught my attention, "Might Electron Deficiency Be An Underlying Factor in Most Chronic Disease."

http://lewrockwell.com/mercola/mercola281.html

The lead in to it from the lewrockwell.com page is "Are you Suffering from Excessive Electricity?" Someone is confusing "Excessive" with "Deficiency."

It is hilarious reading.

What attracted me to read a little of the article, was that you don't hear much anymore about electricity in dubious medical devices and treatments. It is like something out of the 30s or 40s.

If Lew Rockwell thinks that this article is credible, he really lacks intellectual capacity or judgement.

I don't see the ad that can frequently be seen on the website offering to sell plans for a machine that generates electricity without any fuel or electrical input. In short a perpetual motion machine. What is interesting is the sales pitch, listening to it you really learn something about the audience for www.lewrockwell.com.

If you tend to think anyone in charge of anything is likely to be part of a conspiracy, whether the school crossing guard, president of your aunt's bridge club, or something you thought you saw in the woods, then www.lewrockwell.com is for you.

It is astounding that so many university professors affiliate with Lew Rockwell when his website propounds these dubious medical theories. They must utterly be without a sense of embarrassment.

Confederate Veteran author advocates white supremacy to avoid being like Latin America

Latin America is referred to in Confederate Veteran articles as a racial demographic to be avoided.

This is an extract from an article is from the Confederate Veteran, Vol. 11 No. 9, September 1903, pp. 407. Introduction to article which clearly explains the meaning of the “Faithful” slave stories. The Confederate Veteran was the official publication of the United Confederate Veterans, United Daughters of the Confederacy, Confederated Southern Memorial Associations, and the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Our forefathers of the forties and fifties and sixties believed that if slavery were abolished, unless the black race were deported from the American States, there would result in the Southern States just such a condition of things as had resulted in San Domingo, in the other West Indies Islands, and in the so-called republics of Central and South America—namely, a hybridization of races, a lowering of the ethical standard, and a degradation, if not loss, of civilization.

The article is about African slavery. You can read it here.

http://www.confederatepastpresent.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=139:qconfederate-veteranq-article-titled-qfaithful-old-slaves-degenerate-progenyq-includes-commentary-about-latin-americans&catid=37:the-nadir-of-race-relations&back=yes

Article on Neo-Confederate Thomas E. Wood

Thomas E. Woods was a contributor to Southern Partisan, and to the Southern Patriot, the official publication of the League of the South. His full neo-Confederate career you can read about at www.templeofdemocracy.com/ThomasEWoods.htm.

One of his Southern Partisan article condemns the 18th century Enlightenment as an attack on the south. That puts a Capital R in reactionary.

Wood's webpage avoids his neo-Confederate past. http://www.tomwoods.com/articles/

This blog posting was brought to my attention this morning:

http://opentabernacle.wordpress.com/2013/05/03/thomas-e-woods-jr-and-the-neo-confederate-catholic-right/

It is a liberal Catholic website.  People are beginning to figure it out Wood's neo-Confederate ideology from his policy positions, though it doesn't seem this blogger or others know of his neo-Confederate origins.

NRA, Neo-Confederate Rifle Association? New President attracts national attention over his neo-Confederate statements

Jim Porter II, attorney from Birmingham, Alabama has been elected president of the NRA. Some of the statements he made in a speech has gotten national attention.

This is the video of his speech:

Interesting section starts at 4:20.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opjdxnag3TE&feature=youtu.be

Some of the statements, which are online in numerous media articles are:

“Now y’all might call it the Civil War, but we call it the ‘War of Northern Aggression’ down South.”

And he claimed that the NRA was, "started by some Yankee generals who didn’t like the way my Southern boys had the ability to shoot in what we call the ‘War of Northern Aggression."

This is a significant mainstreaming of neo-Confederate ideology. As a major figure in politics and head of an organization which has considerable influence with the Republican Party, his opinion on the Confederacy will have influence. 

Confederate Vice-President Alexander H. Stephens talks about conquering sections of Latin America

This is a speech by Confederate Vice-President Alexander H. Stephens from before the Civil War. There are two interesting topics in the speech. One is about re-opening the African Slave trade. The other is about acquiring more sections of Latin America. This is from pages 637-651, of the book, Alexander H. Stephens, in Public and Private, with Letters and Speeches, Before, During, and Since the War, by Henry Cleveland, National Publishing Company, 1866.

You can read more of the speech here:

http://www.confederatepastpresent.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=118:farewell-speech-of-honah-stephens-delivered-in-augusta-georgia-on-saturday-july-2-1859-wishes-to-reopen-the-slave-trade-with-africa-and-carve-more-slave-states-out-of-latin-america&catid=41:the-gathering-storm&back=yes

The following is an extract:

Legislators in this country, in the main, are but the embodied reflection of the characters and principles of those who elect them. As matters now stand, so far as the sectional questions are concerned, I see no cause of danger, either to the Union, or southern security in it. The former has always been with me, and ought to be with you, subordinate to the latter. But on the present basis of governmental action, recognized in all its depart­ments, on those questions vital to the South, I see nothing likely to arise from it calculated to endanger either her safety or secu­rity: hence, nothing to prevent the hope and earnest desire that a still greater, wider, and higher career is before us, for many long years to come, than that yet attained. There is nothing in the diversity and dissimilarity of the institutions of the different States inconsistent with this—nothing in any increase or addition of States; nothing in the future enlargement of the limits of the republic, by further acquisition of territories, as, in the event of continued union, there, doubtless, will be. Already, we are looking out toward Chihuahua, Sonora, and other parts of Mexico – to Cuba, and even to Central America. Where are to be our ultimate limits, time alone can determine. But of all these acquisitions, the most important to the whole country is that of Cuba. She lies geographically in the natural line of extension and acquisition. The natural course for all national extension is on lines of longitude, rather than lines of latitude — from North to South, or from South to North, rather than from East to West—so as to bring within a common juris­diction the products of different climes. As yet, we embrace no portion of the tropics. Cuba, besides, her commanding position in the Gulf, and all other advantages, would fill up this defi­ciency.


On this subject, however, I will say that I am not much in favor of paying any great sum of money to Spain for that island. If the people of Cuba want to come under our jurisdiction, it is their right to come, and ours to receive them, without let or hindrance from Spain. She holds the island by no tenure but that of conquest and force. The more appropriate policy would be to repeal all our own laws which make it penal and criminal for our own citizens to go and help them achieve their independence: Instead of offering Spain thirty or more millions of dollars for it, I would simply quit spending other millions in keeping watch and guard, for her to oppress and rob, I would simply quit holding while Spain skins. A million or two might be well spent to obtain so great a result without difficulty, if Spain saw fit to receive it―not much more.

Though Stephens doesn't directly state that these territories will be acquired to establish additional slave states, later in the speech he says, "Wherever climate and soil suit, there slavery can and will go to the extent of population."

Prior to the Civil War slaveholders talked about acquiring territory in Latin America to make more slave states and there was a problem with illegal filibustering expeditions by Americans to take over territories in Latin America. Fortunately they fail, but not for want of effort. I recommend the standard classic on the subject, "Southern Dream of a Caribbean Empire," by Robert E. May.

You can search www.confederatepastpresent.org with different key words and find other interesting items regarding the Confederacy, Neo-Confederacy, and Latin America and Latinos. 

Jefferson Davis on racial superiority of whites over Latin Americans. Another item to consider for Cinco de Mayo

I am going to be posting items about the anti-Latino attitudes of the Confederates and neo-Confederates for Cinco de Mayo.


This link has a speech by Jefferson Davis in Portland, Maine before the Civil War:

http://www.confederatepastpresent.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=115:speech-of-jefferson-davis-at-the-portland-democratic-convention-praising-his-audience-for-maintaining-white-racial-purity-in-contrast-to-latin-americans-who-he-denigrates-for-being-racially-mixed&catid=41:the-gathering-storm&back=yes

“Speech of Jefferson Davis at the Portland Convention,” from Jefferson Davis Constitutionalist: His Letters, Papers, and Speeches, collected and edited by Dunbar Rowland, Volume III, pages 284-288, printed for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson, Mississippi, 1923.

Essentially Jefferson Davis praises his listeners in Maine for remaining racially pure unlike Latin Americans who he thinks are inherently incapable of a republican form of government due to their racial composition.  An extract form the speech:

Among our neighbors of Central and Southern America, we see the Caucasian mingled with the Indian and the African. They have the forms of free government, because they have copied them. To its benefits they have not attained, because that standard of civilization is above their race. Revolution succeeds Revolution, and the country mourns that some petty chief may triumph, and through a sixty days’ government ape the rules of the earth. Even now the nearest and strongest of these American Republics, which were fashioned after the model of our own, seems to be tottering to a fall, and the world is inquiring as to who will take possession; or, as a protector, raise and lead a people who have shown themselves incompetent to govern themselves.

Regarding the anti-Latino attitudes of neo-Confederates go to http://www.lsrebellion.blogspot.com/ and put Latino, Mexican, or Hispanic into the search engine and you will have more than enough to read.

Neo-Confederate Hero John Randolph of Roanoke on Latin Americans, mocking Simon Bolivar, something to read for Cinco de Mayo

John Randolph of Roanoke is a big hero to neo-Confederates today. He was a leader among slaveholders in the South.

When Latin America achieved independence they wished to have diplomatic relations with the United States and they proposed also having congresses of all the republics in the Western Hemisphere. At the time the great majority, almost all of the world's republics were in the Western Hemisphere. Europe was by and large ruled by monarchies and principalities of various sorts.

However, to American slaveholders the Latin American republics were suspect being that they weren't based on white supremacy, and that some leaders of the Republics weren't what they considered white. The Latin American republics were moving to abolish slavery.

Randolph sees a threat to slavery by working with them.

This speech in the U.S. Congress by Randolph not only shows the typical racial attitudes of slave holders towards Latin America but his conceited and pretentious nature and his hostility in general to egalitarianism. Further his complaint about London reminds the reader about 20th century racist complaints about New York City.

The link to the article is:

http://www.confederatepastpresent.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=99:18290301-john-randolph-of-roanoke-speaks-on-latin-american-in-the-us-senate&catid=41:the-gathering-storm

You might consider doing a search for the terms "Latin" for other articles by slaveholders and Neo-Confederates about Latin America and the people there.

Anti-Hispanic views of neo-Confederates

This article documents the anti-Hispanic views of neo-Confederates.

http://hispanicmuslims.com/articles/alamokosovo.html

Where Dr. Hayes-Bautista's book documents the Hispanic struggle against the Confederacy, this paper I wrote documents the active hostility of the neo-Confederates against Hispanics today. The struggle in the past continues into the present.

Cinco de Mayo an American and anti-Confederate holiday

Cinco de Mayo is an anti-Confederate holiday and for that reason alone it is a good holiday to celebrate. Of course it has other positive attributes.

Things you can do to celebrate Cinco de Mayo

1. Purchase David Hayes-Bautista's book, "El Cinco de Mayo: An American Holiday," and read it.

3. This blog posting of mine has my photos of a Civil War Cinco de Mayo exhibition at La Plaza de Cultura y Artes. It has a video of Dr. Hayes-Bautista speaking about the exhibit. Click on the pictures so you can see the entire picture.

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2012/09/cinco-de-mayo-civil-war-exhibit-pictures.html#.UXsgfrWsiSo

3. Videos about Cinco de Mayo by David Hayes-Bautista.

http://www.youtube.com/user/CESLAMedia

Also, let others know about Cinco de Mayo and its origin as a Civil War holiday.

It would be good if Juneteenth developed a more anti-Confederate theme. Think of what you might due to celebrate Juneteenth as an anti-Confederate holiday.

"Daily Beast" article, "Racists on the Prowl," involves neo-Confederates.

The "Daily Beast" has an article titled, "Racists on the Prowl," which is about the head of the Towson White Student Union and his "partrols" to protect white women from minority members on campus. Towson is a university in Maryland. The following is the link:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/04/24/mostly-noise-riding-along-with-towson-s-white-pride-safety-patrol.html

What is interesting is that a member of the League of the South is involved. There is a picture of the back end of his pick up truck.

You can see it here on the second page of the article.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/04/24/mostly-noise-riding-along-with-towson-s-white-pride-safety-patrol.html

The longer the WSU are active the longer students there are educated what Confederate "heritage" is all about. As the WSU gets national attention the nation will be educated what Confederate "heritage" is all about.

REPULSIVE: League of the South President Michael Hill gloats over the Boston Marathon bombings

I think this blog posting by League of the South (LoS) President Michael Hill tells you everything about the nature of the neo-Confederate movement.

http://www.lsrebellion.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-short-tale-of-two-nations.html

They are their own parody, their own caricature. You can't make stuff like this up.

The conclusion of his gloating is:

As a Southerner, I've had a belly full of all this whining, complaining, hyperbole, and fear-mongering from New England. Meanwhile, our Southern kinfolk in Texas are quietly going about the business of cleaning up and looking to the future amidst a much greater and more deadly disaster in the little community of West. We are indeed two very different nations. -- Michael Hill

The disaster in West, Texas, a small town along Highway 35 south of the Dallas-Fort Worth area is an explosion at a fertilizer plant in the town, an industrial accident. It wasn't an act of terror. Ammonium nitrate is a convenient to use solid to disperse fixed nitrogen in the soil, but it is also a good basis for an explosive.

I don't want to focus too much on the LoS in this blog. I think occasionally they make a good example of what the mentality behind neo-Confederacy is. However, they are not prominent in the neo-Confederate movement. The two most important neo-Confederate groups in terms of explicitly pushing neo-Confederate ideology are the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the Abbeville Institute.

The League of the South was big during the late 90s and a couple years into the early 00s, but with various management issues and comments about 9/11 they crashed shortly after 9/11. Most of the founding board members have resigned. It is a remnant of what it once was.

They mostly just have conferences, write articles, and occasional social functions. When they started they were the only neo-Confederate group doing this. Now there is the S.D. Lee Institute of the Sons of the Confederate Veterans and the Abbeville Institute. The LoS is superfluous. Their political program is to hope some future debacle will suddenly wake up people to accept their message.

League of the South exploits Boston Marathon bombing tragedy

The League of the South wasted no time yesterday, Monday, April 15, 2013, in exploiting the Boston Marathon bombing.

In a posting titled, "Boston Massacre," the League of the South announced that the Boston police had made an arrest and quoted the New York Post saying that a Saudi national was a suspect and under guard at a hospital.

This led the League of the South to post in their blog:

I'm afraid the inescapable lesson of this is that we cannot have a free society with open borders. Our handlers aren't about to adopt sane immigration policies, so we're stuck with the nightmarish combination of an increasingly diverse, alienated population and a police state to impose order.

http://www.lsrebellion.blogspot.com/2013/04/boston-massacre.html

It turns out that the Saudi national is just a young student with a student visa to study in the U.S. and is a victim of the bombing like many others. He isn't an immigrant and he is here on a visa which has nothing to do with open borders. It turns out there is no "inescapable" lesson about diversity at all.


The New York Post's inaccurate and irresponsible article has been subjected to widespread ridicule and the Onion did this satire. http://www.theonion.com/articles/this-is-a-tragedydoes-it-really-matter-exactly-how,32076/?ref=auto

Simple checking of multiple online news sites would have given the League of the South some reason to question one source. When something like this happens there is all sorts of inaccurate statements, rumors, and claims.

One would think that the League of the South would have remembered that the Oklahoma bombing was initially reported to be done by a person from the Middle East which turned out to be false. 

However, the League of the South instead saw the opportunity to score some points to justify their cranky racist world view. It proved to be irresistible and they couldn't even what a few hours to check what was really known. 

Who is responsible for the bombing? I have no idea. I don't think it is likely to be any neo-Confederates. They talk a lot, but I don't seem them doing a bombing. I think we will find out  who did it soon enough. With the tremendous forensic effort being done and the resources being devoted to investigating the bombing, it is likely something will turn up. 

Hilarious column, "Tennessee lawmakers plan secession from the 21st century"

You can go read the column here:

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/apr/14/scott-mcnutts-snark-bites-tennessee-lawmakers/

The tenor of the ideology described reminds me of the tenor of the neo-Confederates. A lot of it sounds like something a neo-Confederate would say. Though I am not saying any of the legislators mentioned are neo-Confederate or even have neo-Confederate ideas. It probably a matter of convergent evolution in the thinking of both groups to a similar anti-modernism.

It does show that when someone wants to ridicule a belief they invoke the term secession which shows how secession is viewed by the general public, ludicrous.

Sons of the Confederate Veterans Chief of Heritage Defense sees Roe v. Wade Supreme Court Ruling as a result of the defeat of the Confederacy

In the March/April 2013 issue of Confederate Veteran (CV), official publication of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), on pages 10-11, is a column, "Forward the Colors" by Gene Hogan, Chief of Heritage Defense for the SCV.

After criticizing the Emancipation Proclamation, Hogan states:

Well, if the proclamation was no law at all, Roe V. Wade was the striking down of legitimate Texas state law by the US Supreme Court. Since when did the Federal government get to nullify state law? That is a rhetorical question, but I guess the answer would have to be April 9, 1865 ... the day much of what our Founding Fathers fought to build began to be disassembled. (Ellipse in the original.) [

So the defeat of the Confederacy is what led to Roe v. Wade.

This assertion is part of a larger complaint about the evangelical movement for equating the Christian abolitionist movement against slavery as being the same as the Christian movement against abortion.

This is what Confederate heritage has been all about, a political agenda. Now with the SCV it is coming to the surface where it is plainly visible.

Now everyone has a right to a political opinion, and this blogger is not going to take any position on the issue of abortion, and people have their right to have opinions for and against it.

The point I am making here is that the SCV is not an apolitical organization for the purpose of just historical remembrance. It is a political, or more specifically, a ideological organization with an agenda that encompasses much more than historical remembrance. Of course historical remembrance is often intertwined with a political agenda. With this blog posting I am identifying what the SCV actually is. Not a group devoted to sentimental remembrance.

United Daughters of the Confederacy defends the Black Codes of 1866, a general white supremacist view of African Americans, African American men as rapists, and Reconstruction

One of the major activities of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) in supporting white supremacy is their  promotion of a white supremacist narrative of Reconstruction. Generations of UDC members promoting this view of Reconstruction is why so many segregationists denounced the modern civil rights era of the 1950s and 60s as the 2nd Reconstruction.

In the Dec. 2012, Vol. 75 No. 11, issue of UDC Magazine, the official magazine of the UDC, on pages 11-14, is an article "Reconstruction, 1865-1877," by Retta D. Tindal, former Historian General of the UDC, 2010-2012. 

The article is the usual white supremacist view of Reconstruction where white southerns are supposedly oppressed by Reconstruction.

African Americans men are implied to be a menace as rapists in this passage. 

Added to their other worries was the Southern woman's great fear of the shantytowns that sprung up in almost every town. Newly liberated Negroes were not prepared for their freedom and wandered from town to town, sometimes living in shacks and makeshift tents in great congregations on the edges of towns. They, too, were hungry, sick and unsure of their fate. Negroes greatly out-numbered the whites, and the women were terrified to pass the shantytowns. 

The story of Reconstruction is the story of African Americans being violently attacked by the Ku Klux Klan, The Knights of the White Camellia, Red Shirts and being terrified by these groups.  This implied threat of rape is evidently to justify to the UDC members opposition to Reconstruction. 

The Black Codes are defended as reasonable and as being done for the benefit of African Americans to care for them. 

Enter the Black Code. Modeled after the Northern vagrancy and apprenticeship laws. the Code granted basic civil rights, excluding the right of suffrage, the right to site on juries and the right to testify against whites. Punishment for crimes were severe; whipping was permitted for recalcitrant minors. All Negroes, except landowners, were forbidden to own weapons, and marriage between races was prohibited. Without special permit, a Negro was still confined to the jobs of field laborer or house servant. When a Negro agreed to a work contract, he was once again a "servant," his employer was his "master," and the servant was unable to leave the master's premises without permission.

Exactly what basic civil rights an African American would have after all these restrictions on their freedoms would be small indeed comparable to those of prison inmates I suppose. Excepting that prison inmates aren't whipped and don't have to work for their meals. 

Opposition to the Black Codes is presented as being unreasonable and the 14th amendment as the result. 

Northern reformers and radicals, who had been deprived of an contact with field hands, protested that the Code limited the Negroes' civil rights and used this as an excuse to oppose the President's reconstruction plans and further hinder the south. These radicals screamed that the South was reviving slavery. 

It seems from Tindal's description of the Black Codes it was indeed close to slavery, but Tindal evidently sees there was some difference. 

Much of the article is the usual complaints over Reconstruction. At the end of the essay five major results are  listed. No. 2 is in regards to African Americans. They are still problems in the mind of Tindal. 

2. The problem of the Negro was compounded to a greater degree than before the war. While it is a fact that the Negroes gained freedom and citizenship because of the war and Reconstruction, almost all of them were ill-equiped to support themselves and make sound political decisions. ... As slaves, they had been fed, clothed, and nursed. As free men, their health declined because of poor nutrition and lack of medical care. 

I would like to suggest that African Americans weren't the problem but instead the problem was former slave owners attempting to re-establish a regime of white supremacy which they unfortunately succeeded in doing.

The UDC hasn't changed their view of Reconstruction since the early 20th century if not before. What is changed is some of the language and euphemisms adopted. Africans Americans aren't called child-like or emotionally unprepared, but in Tindal's article, "bound emotionally to the mores of the antebellum South, and took many generations for the emotional ties to be severed." 

This article will not cause the Museum of the Confederacy to reconsider their association with the UDC. It will not cause Kevin M. Levin to reconsider his views of the UDC nor continue his "Romance of Reunion" view of the Civil War. 

Politicized Sons of Confederate Veterans disagree with President Obama about secession as part of a political agenda

The pretense that the Sons of Confederate Veterans are some type of historical remembrance organization instead of a political organization with reactionary political agenda is demolished with Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) Commander-in-Chief (C-i-C) R. Michael Givens' recent editorial about Obama's rejection of the secession petitions.

In the March/April 2012 Confederate Veteran, pages 4,5, 24, official publication of the SCV, the "Report of the Commander-in-Chief" by R. Michael Givens is a political editorial.

After an initial paragraph about his parents visiting him in Los Angeles, Givens' first complaint is "Hollywood has recently lambasted us with two major motion pictures featuring the antics of Abraham Lincoln (one only slightly more whimsical than the other)," and "The Country has enthusiastically embraced the false notion of Lincoln's benevolence ad nauseum and swallowed the propaganda dawg -- head, legs, and all." (Italics in the original.)

The two movies I think he is referring to is Spielberg's Lincoln and the movie, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Further he is dismayed that a relative, a retired school teacher, who he regarded as "Southern to the core," very much liked the recent Lincoln movie and had a negative reaction when he tried to explain the neo-Confederate view of Lincoln.

This acceptance of Lincoln is to Givens a symptom of "Aesculaparian proportions," and writes, "I am personally beginning to embrace the mindset that we are dealing with a disease." This disease he sees as turning the nation away from liberty.

He also asks, "Have I become merely a crotchety old man who sees the sun approaching the horizon, still hoping for better days for my children?". His answer, "No, I think not."  Some of the readers of this blog may beg to differ with Givens.

Givens then gets to the theme of his editorial, "Since the defeat of 1865, every imaginable and unimaginable Marxist experiment has been pressed upon the American people," which he sees as having been forewarned by Jefferson Davis in 1881, quoting him "'.... the contest is not over, the strife is not ended. It has only entered upon a new and enlarged arena'" and "'The principle for which we contend is bound to reassert it's self, though it may be at another time and in another form."

Given then refers to reports by the Conservative Heritage Foundation, WorldAudit.org, and Reporters Without Boarders to assert that the United States has suffered a major loss of freedom.

Now I am not going to express any opinion regarding freedom in the United States. It isn't an area where I have expertise and it isn't relevant to the point of this blog posting. I do think it is a nearly universally held view that being concerned and protective of constitutional freedoms and freedoms in generally is a good thing, though exactly what they are is often disagreed upon.

The point is that Givens' and the SCV can't claim to be non-partisan, or a non-partisan group eligible for special tax considerations or to be a charity. Givens' editorial isn't about the Civil War, or historical remembrance but is a political editorial. Certainly anyone has a right to write a political editorial, but in writing a political and publishing it in the Confederate Veteran, the SCV can no longer claim to be non-partisan.

The SCV has become a reactionary political organization. I question whether it should be an eligible charity for the Combined Federal Campaign, the charitable fundraising organization for government employees.

Then leading into a discussion of the secession petitions Givens' writes, "The power-hungry elite will certainly continue to push their agenda, but the repressed will just as certainly reach a saturation point and begin to resist." This is the context Given's gives for the secession petitions writing, "Before this new push to eliminate liberty," referring to gun control proposals, "petitions from every state in the union were sent tot he White House requesting the right to secede."

Given's rejects that the Union is perpetual and the White House's arguments against secession, in particular not caring for their quotation of Lincoln.

Given's then in his essay defines the purpose of the SCV as to pursue a specific neo-Confederate political agenda, that is the purpose of the SCV is to be a neo-Confederate political organization pursing a neo-Confederate political agenda. Givens' explains he isn't advocating secession, but that he sees present political controversies as being the same as those in the Civil War:

... but my head would be deep in the sand if I did not recognize that President Davis' words have proven quite prophetic. The contest is not over; the strife has not ended. Whether it's the Tea Party or the recent petitions, the fight is the same: Liberty.

With that asserted Givens' defines the Charge to the Sons of Confederate by Stephen D. Lee, a document which is held up by the SCV as to their entire purpose, as defining the SCV as a conservative political action organization. Givens' writes:

I firmly believe the ideals fo the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the cause as spelled out in our Charge are the very definition of patriotism. I am proud of our Confederate ancestors and pray that our own posterity will know we did our duty, and we, like our Confederate forefathers, never crouched down or licked a hand. ... But as the 19th-century pastor Charles Spurgeon put it. "Praying without working is a bow without a string ... If the the man desired that which he pretends to pray for, he would be eager to labour for it." 

In short, true SCV members, who are worthy of their Confederate ancestors, will fight for a conservative agenda and that is the agenda of the SCV.

Neo-Confederate arguments for official state religions for the states

It has been reported in the news that two Republican North Carolina state representatives from Rowan County, Harry Warren and Carl Ford, have proposed having an official North Carolina state religion. I post some links to news stories at the end of this blog.

It has gotten a strongly negative reaction and was considered embarrassing to the state and so the original sponsors have back tracked and said they were just trying to allow prayer at the opening of county meetings.

However, I am not so sure that Warren and Ford just made an error. There has been this idea in some reactionary circles that a state religion is permissible for a state.

In the Southern Partisan, Vol. 7 No. 3, Summer 1987, on pages 34-37 an interview with Federal Judge W. Brevard Hand, chief judge of the Federal district court for southern Alabama.

On page 35 Judge Hand explains that the 1st Amendment was only intended to prevent the Federal government from adopting a state religion. Also, that states had state religions when the constitution was first adopted. Judge Hand doesn't feel that a state could adopt a state religion now with the current supreme court rulings. Judge Hand explains in this interview response:

PARTISAN: Could it be done today in view of the Supreme Court's ruling on the Constitution?

HAND: No, I would think not. Under the interpretations of the First Amendment by the Supreme Court, a state's efforts to do that would now be regarded as unconstitutional.

As a matter of fact, the states today still seem to have a feeling of autonomy that no longer exists. The War Between the States was the beginning of a decline in state sovereignty. But I think the real death knell of the view occurred after the incorporation battle in the Supreme Court over whether the First Amendment or the first eight Amendments were properly incorporated against the states as well as the federal government. Some historians say that state sovereignty ended when the people got the right to elect their U.S. Senators by popular vote rather than maintaining it as a state-controlled mechanism. 

"Incorporation" refers to legal rulings by the Supreme Court that the Bill of Rights apply to the states as well as the Federal government based on the 14th Amendment to the constitution, an amendment which the neo-Confederates detest, and certainly the readers of Southern Partisan. They also detest the Supreme Court ruling incorporating the Bill Rights as applying to the states.

This idea that states really have a right to a state religion which is blocked by Supreme Court rulings which are destructive of what are seen as states' rights has been circulating among reactionaries for some time. This article was 25 years ago. This idea wasn't new with Warren and Ford, though I have no evidence that Warren and Ford were aware of prior thinking regarding the idea of a state religion for states.

I think that this proposal by Warren and Ford may well have been exactly what they were intending, but with the public's reaction they backtracked.

By itself this episode doesn't represent anything more than a couple state legislators with ultra states' rights views. However, with all the nullification proposals submitted by state legislators, it does seem that this specific episode is part of a larger trend of some Republican legislators towards embracing a neo-Confederate agenda.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/04/04/2802318/nc-religion-resolution-wont-be.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2013/04/04/a-state-religion-whats-next-north-carolina-secession/

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/04/north-carolinas-proposed-state-religion-isnt-as-unprecedented-as-it-sounds/274646/

"Daily Beast" on Confederate History Month

John Avlon has this article about Confederate History Month in Georgia.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/04/02/georgia-is-celebrating-confederate-heritage-and-history-month-really.html

The craziness of it all just astounds him.

Society of White Male Engineers at Vanderbilt in 1985

In researching the history of Confederate Memorial Hall at Vanderbilt University I had my researchers go through the Commodore year books for relevant material.

In the 1985 Commodore Year Book there are group photos of various groups. One group that was surprising to see was the Society of White Male Engineers on page 296. It isn't listed in the section for societies, such as the Society of Black Engineers or the Society of Women Engineers, but under the heading Bogus.

Younger people in engineering don't know that there was a time when women were a rarity in engineering and engineering schools were nearly all white and Asian. Or when universities weren't integrated. The environment wasn't always friendly. It was openly questioned whether women were capable of being engineers and their femininity was also openly questioned.

I remember some male engineers calling women engineers dogs in an assertion that women who wanted to be engineers weren't attractive. This was somewhat amusing in one limited sense since often the people who said such things weren't very attractive themselves. In fact, I don't think the people who ever said such things were attractive. Often it was some slob.

Science, engineering and mathematics is supposed to be a universal calling. It is open to anyone who is interested and wishes to advance knowledge, learning, understanding in the field whether by discovery, teaching, writing, or other endeavor. The adoption of Latin and Greek terminology in science was to transcend national boundaries in Europe.

The great endeavors of science, mathematics, and engineering have drawn on many cultures. Algebra and Arabic numerals come the Arabic speaking peoples. Zero, a very important item, comes from Hindu India.

It has been a concern for over 40 years by the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) professions that under represented minorities be better represented.

It is also a concern that ability is not denied due to some artificial barrier. So a society for Black engineers or women engineers, if it provides moral support and paves the way to more people from more segments of society to participate in engineering is a great thing.

I do remember that the Society of Black Engineers provided a ready made study group for African American engineers so they wouldn't be left out of a support network. A lot of study in engineering is asking friends for help. I used to tutor half the dorm in mathematics and still help out students with math to this day. An isolated student would be in a very adverse situation.

However, some white male engineers decided to make a "joke" about this and posed for the Society of White Male Engineers photo in the yearbook. There are plenty of general engineering societies. There are even engineering fraternities which I don't approve of and I am proud to say I turned down flat when I was in school. It isn't as if white male engineering students were excluded.

So to put this "joke" in the public record I am listing the members of the group.

Front Row: James White, Charles Hailey, Ken Allison, Bob Black,
Second Row: Randy Norton, Pat Nash, Jeff Fuller, Stephen Menke, Scott Dublin, Blakely Snyder
Back Row: Carl Anderson, Pete Neubauer, President Dan Pitts, Fred Richards, Paul Smith, Temple Estopinal, Nicky Hobbs, Russ Weigel, Ashish Vazirani, Mick Lippert, Rob Ottenjohn, Rick Huffstetler.

Ha ha ha guys. Don't forget to share your joke with your co-workers.

Reading "Knights of the Golden Circle: Secret Empire, Southern Secession, Civil War" by David C. Keehn. Read it for Cinco de Mayo

My copy of "Knights of the Golden Circle: Secret Empire, Southern Secession, Civil War," by David C. Keehn came in the mail today and I have been browsing through it. It claims to be the first in depth history of the organization and is published by LSU Press.

Keehn claims that the KGC was much more influential than understood by previous historians of the 19th century. He has done some very intensive research to resurrect the history of this secret society. Secret societies, since they are secret, often don't leave much in the historical record, and are a challenge for historians to write about.

It seems to be interesting book. I really didn't know much about the KGC so I purchased the book. One of their programs was to seize parts of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean for new slave states. Hence their history is relevant to the history of Latinos in the Americas.

The supporters of the Confederacy were anti-Hispanic and as I have blogged before, Cinco de Mayo is an anti-Confederate holiday. So to celebrate Cinco de Mayo read this new book. And if you haven't read David Hayes-Bautista's book on Cinco de Mayo purchase it and read it also.

This is my blog on the Cinco de Mayo & Civil War exhibit in Los Angeles. Click on the pictures and videos to see them in their entirety.

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2012/09/cinco-de-mayo-civil-war-exhibit-pictures.html

The following is my blog on finishing reading "Cinco de Mayo:

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2012/04/finished-reading-dr-hayes-bautistas.html

Both of the above blogs give information how Cinco de Mayo is an anti-Confederate holiday.

So celebrate Cinco de Mayo, it is an anti-Confederate holiday.

Dr. Joe Feagin of Texas A&M praises proposal to question jurors about their thoughts about the Confederacy

Dr. Joe Feagin, professor at Texas A&M was kind enough to contact me about my essay in Black Commentator. He said:

"... your essay seems well argued and makes much sense to me. And more questioning of jurors is certainly in order as you suggest, and your Confederacy questions thus also make sense to me."

The essay can be read free at this link:

http://www.blackcommentator.com/507/507_confederacy_jury_selection_sebesta_hague_guests_share.html

I am working on informing people interested in the issue of racial bias in juries about our essay in Black Commentator.

The first stage is to get a lot of people thinking about the essay and then later get a group together to implement its proposal.

"South still lies about the Civil War" by Tracy Thompson

"Salon.com" has just posted this article: 

http://www.salon.com/2013/03/16/the_south_still_lies_about_the_civil_war/

It is an excerpt from Tracy Thompson's book, "The New Mind of the South," published by Simon & Schuster. 

I am still reading it, and it seems very interesting. She does seem to know her Lost Cause history.

With Simon & Schuster and the media coverage her book should become well known. 

One interesting thing is that Thompson tells the history of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) purging professors from universities. Remember that when some neo-Confederate is complaining about something being "politically correct." 

Tom Rowley on uncritical reporting on the Vermont secessionists, also the mythology of the 1st Vermont Republic

Tom Rowley has a blog, http://vermontsecession.blogspot.com/, in which he tracks the Vermont secessionists and does some investigative reporting on them.

In the Green Mountain Daily he has an article on a recent article in Seven Days in which the reporter was reporting on the Vermont secessionists and her understating or omitting the unsavory aspects of their movement, in short white washing them.

The article is here:

http://www.greenmountaindaily.com/diary/9730/least-likely-to-secede

What is interesting is that Rowley has taken the time to research the history of Vermont statehood. The whole myth of the first Vermont Republic turns out to be just that, a myth. The people in Vermont were wanting to join the United States from the very beginning, and from the beginning requested admission, and what delayed admission was claims by New York that Vermont was a part of New York. When these claims were resolved, Vermont was admitted.

Like the neo-Confederates, it seems the Second Vermont Republic movement is based on delusional historical fantasies.

A national organization of radical lawyers is interested in using historical memory to screen out racially biased jurors

I am not going to mention names or give links since I don't want these people harassed or bothered by neo-Confederates.

However, I am in the process of contacting groups about the Black Commentator article about screening jurors for racial bias using their historical views of the Confederacy. I put the link for the article at the bottom of this blog.

Besides Friends of Justice I am in the progress of contacting other groups. I got a very positive reply from an officer in a national organization of radical lawyers.

"This is an excellent strategy for weeding out racially biased jurors during voir dire, and I will be sure to pass this on to the members of the [organization name removed]."

Further I was asked for permission, which I gave, to have the article distributed at their upcoming conference.

So far I have been letting people know by means of email and the Internet. I have announced the article on a couple academic listserves. I am next going to start writing organizations.

Additionally, already, people are letting other people know about the Black Commentator article on jury selection and the concept behind it which will lead to yet other people letting more people know. I don't have to reach out to everyone, the basic idea is spreading on its own.

I have already volunteered to supply documentation to support this effort free of charge. I am looking forward to the first case where this method will be used.

Articles so far:

http://friendsofjustice.wordpress.com/2013/03/07/probing-the-subtleties-of-white-racial-bias/


http://www.blackcommentator.com/507/507_confederacy_jury_selection_sebesta_hague_guests_share.html

Friends of Justice reports on Black Commentator article on excluding jurors with a pro-Confederate mentality

Alan Bean, head of Friends of Justice had this article about racial bias by persons who are unaware of their bias. In it he brought up the Black Commentator article.

http://friendsofjustice.wordpress.com/2013/03/07/probing-the-subtleties-of-white-racial-bias/

In the article has a quote from and a reference to the article published at Black Commentator which can be read using this free quest link:

http://www.blackcommentator.com/507/507_confederacy_jury_selection_sebesta_hague_guests_share.html

Off to a good start changing jury selection in the South.

Black Commentator publishes article on jury selection and historical memory of the Confederacy

www.BlackCommentator.com has published an article on examing the historical memory of the Confederacy of potential jurors to screen out racially biased jurors. The article is written by Euan Hague and myself. The free guest link is here.

http://www.blackcommentator.com/507/507_confederacy_jury_selection_sebesta_hague_guests_share.html

I am now contacting persons and groups who would be interested in having juries free of racial bias as to how this proposed method of pre-screening jurors could be implemented.

Neo-Confederate in Hollywood

I was doing some information gathering and documentation which I do on an ongoing basis, I have archived web page printouts going back to 1996 on the neo-Confederates, and I stumbled on a note that R. Michael Givens, Commander-in-Chief (C-i-C) of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) "is a noted filmmaker."

http://www.stephendleeinstitute.com/faculty.html

So I did a little internet searching and came up with this web page.

http://www.michaelgivens.com/Home.html

Looking at the page it does seem to be the same Michael Givens. I wonder how many people in the world of film know that he is the head of an organization that has a hysterically extremist ideology?

Council of Conservative Citizens seems to be greatly diminished in influence

It used to be that leading politicians spoke before the Council of Conservative Citizens, (www.cofcc.org), such as former U.S. Senator Trent Lott, and many lessor officials such as state representatives and city council members, etc. The Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC) would gain prestige and legitimacy from prominent and not so prominent elected officials appearing before them.

However, when there was a big expose in 1998 of elected officials involved with the CofCC, afterwards there was a sudden drop of politicians willing to appear before the CofCC. Then sometime during the 00s decade there would be mention of some elected officials, just a few in Mississippi, and their names wouldn't be mentioned. Now it seems that there aren't any elected officials at all. I might have missed or overlooked one or two, but it seems that the CofCC isn't announcing any elected officials speaking before them, or any candidates in the major two parties.

There might be still some elected officials speaking before the CofCC and the CofCC just not mentioning it. However, the number of elected officials seems to have nearly dropped to zero, if it isn't zero.

The CofCC has lost a major source of prestige of having elected officials speak to them and solicit their support. An elected official now would no more want the CofCC's endorsement than that of the Westboro Baptist Church. Any political effort would be discredited if it was known that the CofCC was part of it.

They are still in existence and seem to be still active, but with little political influence. It seems to be little more than a club where the members can rage about race and the future.

Of course that is how it looks at the present. In the future, things might change.

Daily Show segment on Texas secession. Lincoln compared to Hitler by Texas secessionist

The Daily Show did a segment on Texas secessionists. D Magazine in Dallas had a blog on it.

http://frontburner.dmagazine.com/2013/02/22/the-daily-show-tackles-texas-secession/

What is interesting is that it exposed a lot of people to the idea that secessionists consider Lincoln a villain and compare him to Adolph Hitler.

So far secession and secessionists are a subject for laughs.

Emory University President calls 3/5th compromise over slavery honorable UPDATE: Emory president gives a NON-apology apology, greatly expanded media coverage of the story.

David Daley, editor at Salon, seems to have broke the story first, of Emory University president James Wagner's column in the university's magazine in which Wagner praised the 3/5ths compromise regarding slavery as a great example of pragmatism. Daley comments:

So under Wagner’s formulation, one of the basest and demeaning political deals of American history, if not the basest, is an example of working toward a “highest aspiration.” Counting slaves as three-fifths of a person becomes an example of American politicians setting their sights high!

The article is online here: 

http://www.salon.com/2013/02/16/emory_president_holds_up_three_fifths_compromise_as_noble_honorable/

James Wagner's article is here: 

http://www.emory.edu/EMORY_MAGAZINE/issues/2013/winter/register/president.html

Read it quickly, it might be pulled off the web.

The story so far has been picked up by Gawker and Raw Story.

Emory University is where Donald Livingston, former head of the League of the South Institute, and currently head of the Abbeville Institute is a professor. 

Consider this comment by Col. George Mason in the debate over slavery and the constitution at the Constitutional Convention. 

Col. George Mason [VA]. This infernal traffic originated in the avarice of British merchants. The British government constantly checked the attempts of Virginia to put a stop to it. The present question concerns not the importing states alone, but the whole Union. The evil of having slaves was experienced during the late war. Had slaves been treated as they might have been by the enemy, they would have proved dangerous instruments in their hands. But their folly dealt by the slaves as it did by the tories. He mentioned the dangerous insurrections of the slaves in Greece and Sicily; and the instructions given by Cromwell, to the commissioners sent to Virginia, to arm the servants and slaves, in case other means of obtaining its submission should fail. Maryland and Virginia, he said, had already prohibited the importation of slaves expressly. North Carolina had done the same in substance. All this would be in vain, if South Carolina and Georgia be at liberty to import. The western people are already calling out for slaves for their new lands, and will fill that country with slaves, if they can be got through South Carolina and Georgia. Slavery discourages arts and manufactures. The poor despise labor when performed by slaves. They prevent the emigration of whites, who really enrich and strengthen a county. They produce the most pernicious effect on manners. Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring the judgment of Heaven on a country. As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next world, they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes and effects, Providence punishes national sins by national calamities. He lamented that some of our eastern brethren had, from a lust of gain, embarked in this nefarious traffic. As to the state being in possession of the right to import, this was the case with many other rights, now to be properly given up. He held it essential, in every point of view, that the general government should have power to prevent the increase of slavery.

Emphasis added. 

The coming of the Civil War with its horrific casualties makes Col. George Evans truly prescient. To give an idea of how horrific it was, when the percentage loss of life during the Civil War is applied to the present day population of America the casualties are calculated to be 7,000,000 persons.

The compromise over slavery was, as Col. George Evans feared it might be, a great national calamity. 

The entire debate over slavery at the Constitutional Convention can be read here. 

http://www.confederatepastpresent.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=100:debate-over-slavery-at-the-constitutional-convention-august-21-22-1787-&catid=41:the-gathering-storm

UPDATE: Emory president has given one of those NON-apology apologies. The reporting on it at Salon is here: http://www.salon.com/2013/02/16/emory_president_holds_up_three_fifths_compromise_as_noble_honorable/

The president isn't apologizing for what he said, but is sorry if others were hurt etc. He is reducing criticism of his statement to emotionalism, rather than rational criticisms of what he said.

The full statement of his apology is online here:

http://www.emory.edu/EMORY_MAGAZINE/issues/2013/winter/register/president.html

Wagner still doesn't seem to get the point of the criticism. As stated in the Washington Monthly, by Samuel Knight:

But he did manage to demonstrate —albeit inadvertently — the crude immorality of compromise for compromise’s sake.

Link: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_02/saturday_evening_reads_1043043.php

The media coverage of the article and the apology is getting major media attention locally in Atlanta and in national publications for people in higher education and other media outlets. So far one article overseas. The following are the links.

From The Root, a major national online media source for African Americans:

http://www.theroot.com/buzz/crazy-talk-three-fifths-compromise-was-great-pragmatic-solution

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Atlanta major daily:

http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/political-insider/2013/feb/17/emory-university-president-sparks-three-fifths-fur/

From the Chronicles of Higher Education, one of the major national newspapers for people in the higher education profession:

http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/emorys-president-sparks-a-furor-with-a-comment-on-compromise/55747

Also Inside Higher Education, the other major publication for people in higher education has picked up the story and refers to some blogs covering it:

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/02/18/emory-president-sets-uproar-statements-three-fifths-compromise-and-then-apologizes

Even the British tabloid Daily Mail has picked it up.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2280321/Emory-University-president-apologizes-calling-Constitutional-compromise-enabled-slavery-noble-honorable.html

Will keep this posting updated as things develop.

"American Prospect" magazine identifies the Republican Party with the Confederacy.

One the website of the magazine American Prospect is an article claiming that the Republican party is a presidential election away from extinction. Whether this is true or not I am not going to comment and I really don't know. What interests me is the following statement about the Republican party:

It will die not for reasons of “branding” or marketing or electoral cosmetics but because the party is at odds with the inevitable American trajectory in the direction of liberty, and with its own nature; paradoxically the party of Abraham Lincoln, which once saved the Union and which gives such passionate lip service to constitutionality, has come to embody the values of the Confederacy in its hostility to constitutional federalism and the civil bonds that the founding document codifies.

The following are links to the article, which has been picked up by www.salon.com.

http://prospect.org/article/grand-old-jurassic-party

http://www.salon.com/2013/02/15/the_grand_old_jurassic_party_partner/

American Prospect is a Democratic party magazine, so its running an article portraying the Republican party as the party of the Confederacy is significant.

What is interesting is that the Democrats, Liberals, and Left continue to want to characterize the Republicans as being Confederates. It will be interesting if the Republicans respond by embracing the Confederacy. It seems though the Republicans are carefully avoiding the Confederacy.

Texas Tea Party favorite not far right enough since she doesn't support secession.

State Senator Donna Campbell, in an Austin Chronicle article called a Tea Party darling, isn't right enough for some Texans since she doesn't support secession. See this article:

http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2013-02-15/legelines/

Campbell's support for the United States is very conditional. This is her face book posting. 

I believe America is the land of the free and the home of the brave, and I ask brave Americans to come together to ensure we always cherish that freedom. I believe now is the time for patriots to defend our sovereignty as citizens of the United States, not as a divided people. I believe we can and should honor our Constitution as both Americans and Texans. I do not believe, as some have suggested, that it's time to give up on the United States despite the failed leadership in Washington, D.C. Instead, I believe it's time to work harder. No victory worth fighting for comes easy. I ask you to stand with me and stand for the values that made this Nation great. God Bless Texas and God Bless the United States!

http://www.facebook.com/DonnaCampbellTX/posts/10151752662974778

Supposedly at another time it Campbell might be open to secession, but at this time she isn't. That is patriotic? Is Campbell joking when she makes the Pledge of Allegiance when she says "indivisible"? 

If you go to the posting about 140 plus people are outraged that she doesn't support secession. However, 280 plus people like her posting, so even with Tea Party people secession isn't a majority view. 

Interesting is that the Austin Chronicle is covering this. It isn't a bill, or a position by Campbell. It is a source of humor and an embarrassment for conservatives therefore is reported for laughs. 

Belarus takes stand in favor of Texas secession/ secession in the U.S. is just a topic for laughs.

The brutal dictatorship of Belarus issued a human rights report so it could portray the nations that criticize it for human rights violations of being violators themselves. 

This is one article on it: http://frontburner.dmagazine.com/2013/02/05/belorussian-government-report-blasts-u-s-officials-for-not-letting-texas-secede/

And this is another:

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2013/02/belarus_texas_secession.php

The complaint of Belarus was that quoting from the Houston Press article,"Belarus is outraged that the White House has ignored a petition on the issue." Quoting from the Belarus human rights report.

In November, people in seven American federal states collected sufficient numbers of signatures necessary for a secession from the USA. The civil petitions have been posted on a White House website's special section, where people can leave their submissions or join those posted earlier. To begin dealing with a petition, the White House needs to receive at least 25 thousand signatures in 30 days. Once this requirement is met, an official response will be published on the website.

The Texas' petition gathered more than 125 thousand signatures. The petition points out that the US economic travails resulted from the Federal Government's failure to reform fiscal policies. In addition to Texas, Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee have also collected the required numbers. 

So far, the White House has not considered the civilian petitions, which can be regarded as violation of the right to self-determination.

The Houston Press blogger comments, "Secessionists: Ain't it good to know someone's got your back?" (Italics in the original.)

Secession has died out much as a news item except for occasional items where it can be played for laughs. There doesn't seem to be any rising interest in secession. The right wing media doesn't seem to want to pick up the topic. Even www.wnd.com, which usually is open to pandering to any fringe theory has lost interest.

There still may be a reaction to Obama's rejection of the petitions by the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy, but this won't impact politics and I don't think will even make news.

For now it seems the issue has come to an end no matter how much Public Policy Polling (PPP) polls on the issue. I think the Republican party, the conservative movement and the Tea Party faction of the Republican party don't want to be associated with this issue. There doesn't really seem to be a significant faction of conservative voters who are really serious about it regardless of the polls.

For now, it seems that in the end it will just be another amusing footnote in the history of the presidential elections of 2012. On the other hand, having so many people sign these petitions and having the PPP polls create the impression that a significant, and indeed a surprisingly high fraction of Republicans support secession does create a pre-condition for some other unforseen event setting off a secession movement. Some future event, alienating some faction of conservatives might lead them to support secession because some have previously signed a petition in jest but normalized secession for themselves, and the PPP polls giving conservatives the idea that others in their peer group consider it a legitimate political choice again normalizing it as a political choice.

For now it seems secession is going nowhere. However, the future is opaque.

Three Confederate parks renamed in Memphis all at once

Fearing a new Tennessee bill which would have forbade changing names of parks for historical persons, the Memphis City Council renamed Nathan Bedford Forrest Park, Jefferson Davis Park and Confederacy Park yesterday. 

An online ABC News article about it is here:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/memphis-renames-parks-honored-confederacy-18414958

Vote was 9 to 0 in favor of renaming the parks with 3 abstentions.

Evidently when the City Council was faced being stuck with these names forever, they were propelled to act.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) attempted to defend the park names with their usual delusional historical claims. From the article;

The Sons of Confederate Veterans and others in Memphis oppose the name changes, saying that Forrest is a misunderstood figure who was not a racist but a businessman who treated his slaves humanely and resigned from the Klan.

"We should cherish the history that we have, we shouldn't cover it up and try to bury it or hide it," said Becky Muska, who spoke against the name change.

Ms. Muska is obscuring the issues, it isn't an issue of covering up history, it is an issue of honoring someone. There is something different between a memorial to those Forrest victimized and a memorial glorifying him. As for history, shouldn't we objectively study it, and not drool over it and coat it with sugar or misrepresent it. This is what Muska is advocating, a misrepresentation of history under the guise of sentimental statements.

The Memphis City Council was correct in what they did, but somebody needs to let Beck Muska and the SCV know that their arguments are the nonsense of delusional misrepresenting buffoons.

It does show that once a city has motivation, they can move and rid themselves of Confederate and neo-Confederate nonsense.

Summary of questions for jurors and judges, Update

I think I have thought of enough questions to effectively map the historical consciousness of potential jurors and their neo-Confederacy. I am going to summarize them here:

1. Are you a member of the League of the South, Council of Conservative Citizens, Sons of Confederate Veterans, United Daughters of the Confederacy or any other neo-Confederate organization?

2. Do you identify with the Confederacy or the Union?

3. Do you think it would be appropriate for public officials to praise the Confederacy?

4. Do you think states, counties, cities and other municipalities should adopt Confederate symbols in their logos, flags, seals, or other symbols they might adopt?

5. Do you think it would have been better if the Confederacy had succeeded in seceding?

It is a short list, but I think it would be effective in screening out people who are neo-Confederate or have Lost Cause attitudes from jury pools. I think all the questions can be reasons to exclude the juror with cause, and not merely a detection of bias. The Confederacy was a nation whose creation was attempted to perpetuate slavery and white supremacy.

These questions can also be asked of judges and should be asked of the judge selected to preside over a trial and if the judge asks affirmatively, the judge should be asked to not preside over the trial.

A neo-Confederate or Lost Cause type juror is not going to value the freedom of an African American as they would a white person. They have mythologies of Africans being contented to being slaves and have embraced a national attempt to maintain white supremacy and slavery. They will not take due diligence to make sure that a conviction is without doubt, instead tend to be biased to presume guilt. They will not be that concerned that there is a wrongful conviction.

Now that I have my five questions, I am not sure what my next step is. I will have to think about it.

UPDATE:

I would reword question #4 to say:

Do you think it is appropriate when states, counties, cities and other municipalities adopt Confederate symbols in their logos, flags, seals, or other symbols they might adopt?

Or.

Do you think states, counties, cities and other municipalities should not adopt Confederate symbols in their logos, flags, seals, or other symbols they might adopt?

Secession Poll in Texas identifies secession sentiment

The Public Policy Polling (PPP) organization has conducted a poll and found very high support for secession among Texas Republicans. The Houston Chronicle reports on it with a title, "Texas secession fervor is a heavily Republican phenomenon," the article is here:

http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2013/02/texas-secession-fervor-is-a-heavily-republican-phenomenon/

From the article, these are some of the poll results of who supports secession.

42 percent of those who call themselves very conservative
35 percent of Republicans
25 percent of non-Hispanic whites

Also, the article said that sentiment for secession has gone from 13 to 20% in Texas. This is the link to the PPP poll:

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2011/PPP_Release_TX_013113.pdf

The question on secession is:

Would you support or oppose Texas seceding from the union because of Barack Obama’s reelection?

I don't know how seriously this secession sentiment should be taken. It might be that poll respondents are saying yes to secession as a means of strongly expressing their opposition to Obama. 

The League of the South (LOS) will likely see this as a sign that their time has come. It hasn't. 

The PPP is closely affiliated with the Democratic party. A person can't be both patriotic towards the United States of America and in support of secession. I think polling on the question of secession and breaking down the results by party and ideological affiliation in the PPP poll makes the Republicans seem very suspect on the issue of patriotism. The PPPs polling on secession, which has been reviewed in this blog before, identifies Republicans with secession. 

As I have stated before, Republicans have attempted since the 1950s to portray themselves as more patriotic than their opposition, if they are identified with secession, any attempt by the Republicans to portray themselves as patriotic, let alone being more patriotic than their opposition, will have no credibility. The patriotism being mentioned here is patriotism to the U.S.A.

Another impact of these polls is that it will normalize secession among conservatives. The respondents to the poll may have said they supported secession for laughs in rejecting Obama, but other conservatives hearing of the poll results may think that secession is widely supported by persons with similar views and it will be normalized for them and thus something valid to consider. 

Earlier blogs on these secession polls:

In an earlier post I referred to some opinion polls taken about the issues of secession.
http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2012/12/tagging-republicans-as-secessionists.html

It refers to an opinion poll that were taken on secession in Georgia.
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2012/12/georgia-miscellany.html

I also had an early post on another opinion poll on secession.
http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2013/01/charles-m-blow-new-york-times-columnist.html

Which referred to the following Pew opinion poll result.
http://www.people-press.org/2011/04/08/civil-war-at-150-still-relevant-still-divisive/