Letter to Edward Ayers, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the American Civil War Museum of which the Museum of the Confederacy is a part.

The Museum of the Confederacy (MOC) is hosting the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) on July 15, 2015 from 5:30 to 8:30 pm. This event is part of the SCV 2015 National Reunion in Richmond, VA.

A protest is planned from 5pm to 9 pm as one of the counter activities against the SCV 2015 Reunion in Richmond, Virginia. More information will be forthcoming.

A certified letter was sent to Edward Ayers, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the American Civil War Museum of which the MOC is a part. Copies were sent to all the members of the board of directors by proof of mailing.

It should be noted that Ms. Ruth C. Streeter of "CBS 60 Minutes" is a board member.

June 12, 2015

                                                                                    edwardsebesta@gmail.com

Edward Ayers

Chairman Board of Directors

American Civil War Museum

490 Tredegar St.

Richmond, VA 23219

Dear Dr. Ayers:

I read with great regret that the Museum of the Confederacy (MOC) is holding a reception for the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) Wednesday July 15, 2015 from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm.  The scheduled event is announce online at http://www.jebstuartcamp.org/jebstuartcamp.org/2015reunion/docs/2015_Schedule.pdf and http://www.jebstuartcamp.org/jebstuartcamp.org/2015reunion/docs/Speakers%20and%20Performances.pdf.  Note that the SCV “Heritage Luncheon” involves presentations by the neo-Confederate Kennedy brothers.  I enclose copies of each.

As you probably already know, but for the benefit of those to whom this letter is copied, I am an investigative researcher into the neo-Confederate movement published by university presses, peer-reviewed academic journals, Black Commentator, and other venues.  My curriculum vitae is online at www.templeofdemocracy.com.

What type of organization the SCV is documented online in these two articles: 1) A dossier at Black Commentator, http://www.blackcommentator.com/526/526_confederacy_sebesta_guest_share.html; and a recent article in Politico, http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/04/civil-war-american-south-still-loves-confederacy-116771.html#.VXlrXflViko.  I enclose copies of each.

That the MOC would hold a reception for the SCV is not surprising. People point out the exhibit and book “Before Freedom Came” to defend the MOC. What people don’t know is that the MOC had an event at the MOC where Ludwell Johnson gave a racist screed as an acceptance speech upon being made a MOC fellow about the same time as the exhibition of “Before Freedom Came.”  My four part series on the MOC is online at Black Commentator. The first installment is at this link http://www.blackcommentator.com/441/441_museum_confederacy_sebesta_guest_share.html from which you can go to the other three installments. Or you can find a link to it through my curriculum vitae at www.templeofdemocracy.com.

However, unlike in the past where the activities of enabling the neo-Confederates, enabling the Lost Cause, and being a shrine for the Confederacy was an activity of the Museum of the Confederacy, this activity now is an activity of the American Civil War Museum in Richmond, Virginia and this activity defines what type of institution the American Civil War Museum is.

For the American Civil War Museum, which purports to be an educational institution, to be enabling the SCV whose activities are an attack on the very integrity of history is a travesty. For the American Civil War Museum, which might purport to being an institution for a modern multi-racial America, enabling the SCV which promotes racist and pro-slavery literature and defends the white supremacist and pro-slavery Confederacy is a travesty.

Giving the SCV space to have a reception would be the mode of operation of an institution whose guiding principle is maximum merchandising of the Civil War to the maximum audience heedless of consequences.

I should like to give an example of the type of history that the SCV promotes.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) in their magazine, merchandise catalog, and online sells and promotes the book, “The South Under Siege, 1830-2000,” by Frank Conner, Collards Press, 2002.

The SCV is selling the book to its members in the Jan./Feb. 2015 and the May/June 2015 issue of Confederate Veteran, the official publication of the SCV.

In both the Jan./Feb. 2015 & May/June 2015 issue the book is sold along with other things as “Confederate Gifts from GHQ” (GHQ, General HeadQuarters).  It is sold in the merchandise catalog insert in the Sept./Oct. 2013 issue of the Confederate Veteran.

The SCV recommends this book as follows:

This important new book by SCV member Frank Conner examines the true relations between the North and South from 1830 to June 2000. It identifies the real history of each region, and the lies and distortion by which the Northern liberals have created totally false stereotypes of both the Northern liberal and the traditional white Southerner. It tells what the North has done to the South, and why the North claims to have done it, why the North really did it, and what the consequences have been. An excellent defense against the official history currently taught in the government schools. [italics in the original, Jan./Feb. 2015, Confederate Veteran, Vol. 73 No.1, page 70, and the same text in May/June 2015 Confederate Veteran, Vol. 73 No. 3 page 70]

This book has been sold by the SCV starting as early with an advertisement in the Sept./Oct. 2004 Confederate Veteran, as a “Confederate Gift from IHQ,” with the same book notice.

The book is sold by the SCV Online as of 5/25/2013 with the same book notice. As well it is sold in the Sons of Confederate Veterans Merchandise Catalog for 2004-2005, 2005-2006, 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2011-2012. [https://scv.secure-sites.us/store.php, printed out 5/25/2013.  Sons of Confederate Veterans Merchandise Catalog 2004-2005, page 29; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2005-2006, page 29; Sons of Confederate  Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2008-2009, page 28; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2009-2010, page 28; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2011-2012, page 28. Note, the author only possesses five of these catalogs, there may be others which might also have this book listed.]

Southern Mercury is a magazine that was published by the Foundation for the Preservation of American Culture, listed as “the educational foundation of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.” [Vol. 5 No. 3, June 2007, Southern Mercury, full page advertisement back outside cover.]

Conner’s book is positively reviewed by Anne Rives Zappa in the Southern Mercury who opens the review stating, “’The South Under Siege’ is a masterful volume of work painstakingly researched by Frank Conner.” [Zappa, Ann Rives, “The South Under Siege 1830-2000,” pages 30-31, Southern Mercury, Vol. 1 No. 2, September/October 2003.]

Conner’s book argues that the 20th century Civil Rights movement was a Jewish conspiracy carried out against the South and that the idea of racial equality was itself a part of a Jewish conspiracy.

On page 392 in his book Connor states:

Until after the turn of the 20th century, anthropologists had routinely recorded genetic as well as cultural differences between races and ethnic groups – that being the whole point of anthropology. The highlighted differences among the races hand included those of intelligence. But as Kevin MacDonald points out in The Culture of Critique, a German-Jewish-immigrant named Franz Boas changed all that. At Columbia, Boas arbitrarily claimed that biological differences between races were miniscule – that environment alone shaped the behavior of the different races and ethnic groups (a la Rousseau). A number of other Jewish anthropologists swiftly adopted Boas’ position; and soon the Jews dominated the field of cultural anthropology. As MacDonald points out, by 1915 the Jews had gained control of the American Anthropological Association; and by 1926 they were chairing the anthropology departments at all of the major universities.

One page 396 Conner explains:

— Jews will excel in society and the economy if allowed to compete fully. The only way the Gentiles can maintain superiority is by discriminating against the Jews; and so, discrimination against Jews is a common tactic in most countries — including the U.S.

On page 397 Conner explains:

— Second, under the concept of pluralism, the Jews can select whichever “victim” group is demonstrably being discriminated against the most (i.e. the Blacks) and run a full-blown civil-rights campaign to guilt-trip the white Gentiles into ending discrimination against that group. This approach offers two powerful advantages: first, if there is a blacklash of violence against the civil-rights campaign, it will erupt all over the blacks, not the Jews. Second (as is hinted delicately but consistently by a number of Jewish authors), the Jews as a group are quite a bit smarter than the blacks – or any of the other candidate “victim” groups; accordingly, the Jews themselves will be poised to take full advantage of each new anti-discrimination law or ruling or social taboo ostensibly created to benefit the blacks, while the blacks are still fumbling around; and the Gentiles won’t even notice what’s happening.

On page 398 in the book Conner titles a paragraph as follows:

Northern Jews Wage All-Out Ideological Warfare Against the White South. [Underline in the original.]

The chapter is just filled with material like that quoted with the following on page 406, last page of the chapter:

Look well at the Northern Jewish intellectuals/activists, O South, for they – who by rights should have been your closest friends – are by their own choice your dedicated and deadliest enemy.

I enclose documentation. I find it hard to believe that the Museum of the Confederacy is unaware of this book and further Frank Conner may very well be at the reception at the MOC since he is a prominent neo-Confederate and SCV member.  

I ask the American Civil War Museum to not host the Sons of Confederate Veterans, stop pandering to neo-Confederates or enable them in any way.

                                                                                    Sincerely Yours,

                                                                                    Edward H. Sebesta

CC: See table on next page.

No.	Name	Affiliation
1	Mr. Dennis I. Belcher	McGuire Woods
2	Mr. George C. Freeman III	Universal Corporation
3	Mr. Bruce C. Gottwald Sr.	NewMarket Corporation
4	Mr. Bernard Grisby	The Pines
5	Dr. Monroe E. Harris Sr.	Virginia Oral and Facial Surgery
6	Mr. David C. Johnson Jr	Marketfield Asset Management
7	Mr. Donald E. King	McGuire Woods
8	Mr. William H. Luke	Mead Wesvaco
9	Mr. Robert N. Mayer	Rothschild Foundation
10	Dr. Elisabeth S. Muhlenfield	Retired
11	Mr. Roswell Page III	McGuire Woods
12	Mr. Walter S. Robertson III	Sterne, Agee & Leach Inc
13	Mr. O. Randolph Rollins	Drive-To-Work
14	Mr. S. Buford Scott	Scott & Stringfellow, Inc.
15	Ms. Ruth C. Streeter	CBS News "60 Minutes"
16	Mr. Brandt Surgner	Altria Group, Inc.
17	Mr. Matthew G. Thompson Jr.	CSC Leasing Company
18	Mr. Lacy Ward Jr.	International Civil Rights Center and Museum
19	Mr. Mario M. White	Virginia State University
20	Mr. Samuel B. Witt III	Retired

American Civil War Museum & the Museum of the Confederacy is Richmond is scheduled to host the Sons of Confederate Veterans

The Museum of the Confederacy (MOC) is hosting the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV)  Wednesday, July 15, 2015 from 5:30 to 8:30 pm as part of the SCV's 2015 Reunion in Richmond, Virginia.

They are doing this even though it is fairly well known, that the SCV is, as can be concluded by any reasonable person, as racist and extremist group.

You can read one dossier on the SCV at:

http://www.blackcommentator.com/526/526_confederacy_sebesta_guest_share.html

This is nothing new, the Museum of the Confederacy might be better called the Museum for the Confederacy or perhaps the Museum for Merchandising the Confederacy. I had a 4-part series at Black Commentator about this. You can go to this free guest link and read the series from there.

http://www.blackcommentator.com/441/441_museum_confederacy_sebesta_guest_share.html

You can read about the upcoming reception of the SCV by the MOC here.

http://www.jebstuartcamp.org/jebstuartcamp.org/2015reunion/docs/Speakers%20and%20Performances.pdf

Many people when you bring up the MOC's activities, including activities enabling neo-Confederates start babbling about the "Before Freedom Came" exhibit. But the exhibit was tokenism, at the same time there were having extremist neo-Confederate lectures given by a person who they granted a MOC Fellowship. The cover of the book "Before Freedom Came" uses a sculpture done by an African American Union soldier of a freed African American woman. In short the cover was a fraud.

However, this time it is different, the American Civil War Museum bears responsibility for this. If they go through with this, it just shows their Freedom exhibits are a nothing but tokenism so they can continue their marketing of the Civil War as they have always done.

It will also show that there is no academic, moral or intellectual integrity to the American Civil War Museum and that their guiding principle is maximum merchandising to the maximum number of audiences even if it means enabling neo-Confederates.

I fully intend to write all the officers of the American Civil War Museum to not host the SCV.

I am also organizing a protest of the MOC that night. More information later.

Sons of Confederate Veterans doesn't get user agreement for Confederate Memorial Chapel in Richmond, they refuse the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts offer of a "use agreement"

Some good news. The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) doesn't get a "use agreement" for the Confederate Memorial Chapel from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA)

The story is here:

http://www.richmond.com/news/local/article_eeaab916-a211-543d-93ce-95864fb37c9b.html

The VMFA has had the locks changed. The VMFA did offer the SCV a "use agreement" but the SCV refused it. So now there is no agreement at all. Nor does it seem that the VMFA is now obligated to offer any agreement.

I knew about the Confederate Memorial Chapel but I had the impression that the SCV owned it and I only learned about the real situation rather late. I did however send a certified letter to the President of the Board of Trustees and copied  all the other trustees on the board. It very well could have been too late since a user agreement was sent to the SCV. I was writing for the future when the agreement came up for renewal.

However, now that the SCV has rejected the use agreement the future actions of the VMFA are open and they might be persuaded not to make any further effort to make any further offers to the SCV or even actively avoid it. The VMFA knowing what they know now and knowing that their actions will be part of record and might come before the press probably have one more reason to keep the SCV out.

I also sent a copy of the letter I sent to the VMFA with a cover letter to Virginia Gov. McAuliffe. The SCV said they were going to appeal to him. I don't think McAuliffe will want pandering to the SCV to be on his resume.

The SCV is having their 2015 Reunion in Richmond, but it is a city that really doesn't want them around.

World News Daily CEO proposes secession to avoid a possible Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage

WORLD NEWS DAILY CEO CALLS FOR SECESSION OVER GAY MARRIAGE

The author of the following article is Joseph Farah, CEO of World News Daily.

http://www.wnd.com/2015/06/does-same-sex-marriage-warrant-secession/

I can't say that secession has become mainstream in conservative politics, since among conservatives WND is seen as being crazy, but WND does have some following and it shows the creeping acceptance of secession into conservative politics. Though in this case it is still somewhat fringe.

There are left-wing secessionists also. When a person calls for secession I don't think they can at the same time claim to be patriotic.

Georgia Division Sons of Confederate Veterans Declare "Little Mary Phagan Day" UPDATE:

Georgia Division Sons of Confederate Veterans declare a LITTLE MARY PHAGAN DAY in Georgia.

I am not making this up. I just got the news. This is the link to the web page announcing the Little Mary Phagan Day.

http://gascv.org/little-mary-phagan-day-in-georgia/

I have written about the Sons of Confederate Veterans promoting the book, "The South Under Siege" by Frank Conner. It is an anti-Semitic book and recently they have very strongly promoted it and they are selling it.

They have come up with some Confederate "heritage" tie in.

I think though it is very possibly part of their agenda regarding Jewish people. Conner's book portrays the Civil Rights movement as a Jewish conspiracy against the South. The case of Mary Phagan's murder is remembered since in resulted in the lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish person who moved to Georgia from Brooklyn, New York.

It is a day of infamy in the history of Georgia.

The "Daily Beast" has an article about the lynching of Leo Frank. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/02/america-s-only-anti-semitic-lynching.html.

Of course the Georgia Division SCV will deny that it has some anti-Semitic baggage. They will claim that they are just remembering a young woman who was murdered.

UPDATE:

I was informed that the Ku Klux Klan was organized very shortly after the Mary Phagan case. The hysteria over the murder, inflamed by the governor, lead to an environment where the Ku Klux Klan was born.

AMAZING COVERAGE: John Sims' Flag burning and burying event getting major media coverage, such as the "Wall Street Journal." UPDATING AS RESULTS COME IN

John Sim's event to burn and bury a Confederate flag in every former Confederate state is underway.

The twitter hash tag is #13flagfunerals

The Wall Street Journal has a major article on the upcoming event.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/battle-stirs-over-confederate-flag-1432332336

3,628 shares on Facebook alone.

It has also been covered at Grio.

http://thegrio.com/2015/05/22/artist-john-sims-burn-bury-confederate-flag/

35,000 people have liked the article.

On the Blaze 4,600 people have done Facebook shares.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/05/22/that-part-of-our-history-needs-to-be-buried-college-professor-plans-memorial-day-event-to-burn-the-confederate-flag/

Confederate flag burnings are scheduled on Memorial Day in New Orleans, Florida, Georgia, and Missouri.

This is his Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/john.sims.39142?fref=photo

This is his web page.

http://www.johnsimsprojects.com/home4.html

Given Medal and Award by African American Civil War Museum. Not garbage from the Museum of the Confederacy. UPDATED:

Saturday, May 16, 2015, I was given  a medal and an award by the African American Civil  War Museum.

I  was down  in Washington,  DC for the  Sesquicentennial celebration of the Grand Review that  was held this weekend.

During  a lecture  I was called  up before the audience  in the front of the auditorium and given the medal and award. It was a  complete surprise.

I am deeply appreciative of  being  given the award and medal and treasure  them.

After seeing the parade and getting the award  I really realized  how wretched an award  from  the Museum of the  Confederacy  (MOC) is and how appalling  it is  that people  accept awards from the MOC.

UPDATE: http://www.blackcommentator.com/441/441_museum_confederacy_sebesta_guest_share.html

This is the first posting I have ever done from my cell phone and I just didn't know how to copy in a link. So the above is the link to the four part expose of the MOC.

I wrote an essay  about the  MOC but haven't  done  much with it.  I think it is  about time  I do.  I also think that it's appalling  that the African American Civil War Museum  struggles on a shoe string budget but the MOC has so many  resources.

Shabby book for neo-Confederate Tom Landess, "Life, Literature, Lincoln: A Tom Landess Reader."

I recently ordered "Life, Literature, Lincoln: a Tom Landess Reader," for my research. I thought it would be good to have a book of Tom Landess' writings and some biographical information. Tom Landess wrote a lot for Southern Partisan and was a significant figure in the neo-Confederate movement. The book was edited by Clyde N. Wilson & Mary Beth Landess.

It is a shabby book. That is to say it is physically poorly done. It is poorly edited.

The book is a print-on-demand book, which is allowable. The problem with print-on-demand books is that the print is somewhat glossy so you have to be careful regarding your lighting, that it be diffuse so the print is easily readable.  However, did Chronicles magazine decide they weren't going to risk even a short printing run? Was there no money to do so? It is an inexpensively printed book and I will want to make sure I don't stress the book's binding.

However, the real shoddiness of the book is the contents of the book. There is a series of items written by Tom Landess. However, there is no indication where and when the item was first printed. The essays exist ahistorically in the book, abandoned outside the stream of time. An important element of Tom Landess' intellectual history is missing. You have no idea of his scope or impact, the byways or highways he traveled.

The University of Missouri was reorganized in 2013 and maybe they are no longer publishing books by or about racist crackpots, such as they did regarding M.E. Bradford. So without a university press, books like this book of the writings of Tom Landess is what is in store for other neo-Confederates when they pass away, if they get any book at all.

One thought I had was that the editors were embarrassed by where Landess had been published, but Wilson's foreward mentions as a positive accomplishment that Landess wrote much of Southern Partisan. Perhaps by not having the time and place of publication Wilson thought he would make Landess timeless and not dated. Instead it is lost in time. We just know that the material was likely written after high school graduation and before his death.

Maybe the Southern Agrarian, M.E. Bradford strategy of forming a Southern nationalism drawing on a historical narrative of the Confederacy is drawing to a close and this book is the first manifestation. There still is the Abbeville Institute, it will be interesting to if it is there in 15 years when a lot of its contributors pass away.

I am thinking more and more that in the future neo-Confederacy will be largely confined to the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Outside them there largely won't be a neo-Confederate movement.

One thing is that scholars now recognize neo-Confederacy when they see it and neo-Confederacy has a name, and there is less and less toleration for it.  The Southern Studies of people like John Shelton Reed is recognized for what it is. Academic publications and presses just aren't going to be interested anymore.

Presidential Questionnaire mailed to announced candidates

I have mailed to the announced presidential candidates the questionnaire which I posted on this blog. You can read it here.

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2015/05/questionnaire-for-2016-presidential.html#.VVJ3Y_lViko

Along with the questionnaire I sent a cover letter and a copy of Bill Clinton's letter of congratulations to the United Daughters of the Confederacy with a note asking that when president not to do this. A web article documenting Bill Clinton's letters to the UDC is: http://www.blackcommentator.com/274/274_clinton_udc.html

The candidates I sent the questionnaire to were:

Democratic:

1. Bernie Sanders.

2. Hillary Clinton

Republican:

1. Carly Fiorina

2. Marco Rubio

3. Rand Paul

4. Benjamin Carson

5. Mike Huckabee

6. Ted Cruz

As more candidates announce their candidacy I will be writing them. I will be publishing the results at www.templeofdemocracy.com.

Thomas Fleming no longer president of the Rockford Institute. Still editor of "Chronicles" but some changes

Thomas Fleming is no longer the president of the Rockford Institute in Rockford, Illinois. He is still the editor of Chronicles Magazine.  He is important in the neo-Confederate movement for coming up with the idea for the Southern League, now known as the League of the South. http://www.leagueofthesouth.com but is no longer  a member.

He also was a founder of Southern Partisan, but left it after a couple years. Chronicles magazine under his leadership was a forum for neo-Confederates such on John Shelton Reed and others.

With the May 2015 issue of Chronicles magazine I notice that his article is just two pages. In the past it used to go to three pages mostly even though the print was denser.

Maybe it is just a shorter article. Or maybe Chronicles is going to be leaving the Confederate States of America. Though I do see a full page ad for the Abbeville Institute on the inside of the backcover. And there is announced a book "Life, Literature, and Lincoln" of the writings of Tom Landess.

However this could be the residual of Fleming's leadership and in the coming months there a different focus on hating Muslims, gays, minorities, liberals without the distraction of Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy. Perhaps even in reactionary circles the "sell by date" for the Confederacy is past.

As the cliche says, "Time will tell."

Fleming's great project, neo-Confederate secession failed, there is just the laughable remnant of the League of the South. He can spend his forthcoming years raging against the future or to be more precise the Renaissance and what came after.

If society has huge troubles he will fell vindicated, even if his beliefs are irrelevant to these possible future problems, he will rationalize that the problems are because society didn't heed his warnings.

If I ever have a traffic accident, I suppose I could have avoided it by using a horse, or by staying home and not going anywhere.

As some reactionaries pass away or out of influence it is wrong to assume that a movement is passing away. Thomas Fleming and others like him continue a stream of thought going back centuries. There are younger people who will take his place. Though they may not be from the same background. I think the cohort of reactionary professors who still don't accept the civil rights movement are passing away.

In the larger scheme of things there will always be this movement for a hierarchical society will always continue and there will be a never ending struggle as long as humanity lives. Some times will be better, and lets hope the future brings a more equitable society and progress, but there will still be a struggle. There will always be a reservoir of reaction in society.

"Dallas Morning News" editorializes against schools with Confederate names and for contextualizing statues.

The Dallas Morning News editorialized against Confederate monuments and place names. The article is online.

http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20150508-editorial-time-to-place-confederate-statues-in-context.ece

Nearly 25 years earlier the Dallas Morning News was against my effort to de-Confederate Dallas. In particular my asking that the Robert E. Lee statue be taken out of Lee Park in the Turtle Creek neighborhood.

At the time there were a lot of characters that supported reactionary Dallas.

There is Beth Silver, a reporter for Dallas Morning News, hopefully she is not doing the same type of reporting for the Associated Press as she did in her reports about the Robert E. Lee statue. She has gotten a place in history as an enabler of racism.

There is Rufus Shaw, a person who liked to pose as an African American radical, spoke out against the statue until the Dallas elite gave him his marching orders and then voted for the Robert E. Lee statue to remain. He is now dead. He and his wife committed suicide. Something about shady dealings.

There is Sandra Crenshaw who also likes to promote herself as some type of African American champion. But when called upon by the white establishment in Dallas she came to the defense of Robert E. Lee.

Domingo Garcia who originally forwarded my request to the Park Board, later has been a very quiet representative.

The head of the Dallas NAACP came to the defense of the Robert E. Lee statue.

I wrote up a history when the event happen and the interesting part of the story isn't that a reactionary Dallas came to the defense of the Robert E. Lee statue, or the Dallas Morning News, an abode of reactionary creepy crawlies worked to defend the statue. It is the story of the minority leadership in Dallas which came to the defense of Robert E. Lee.

Martin Luther King said that when he visited Dallas the black leadership slammed the door in his face. The spirit of S.M. Wright still lives in Dallas, Texas.

The Robert E. Lee story is a story of minority members doing the bidding of white racist Dallas while at the same time posing as if they were champions of the African American community. In the end the Dallas elites decided they don't want this Confederate stuff and it is from the top that it is going, and not because of any minority push in Dallas. I am sure when the removal comes a lot of African American while give fine speeches with fine phrases, but they will just be providing a show for the efforts of the Dallas elites.

There is no human rights commission for the city of Dallas. Occasionally it has come up and the minority leadership of Dallas makes excuses why they can't get one instituted. Fort Worth has a human rights commission and has had for at least 40 years or more.

So when you see some minority leader in Dallas posing as some champion, ask yourself, where is the Dallas Human Rights Commission?

There is a Police Review Board but it was gutted. If there was a police shooting of an unarmed African American in Dallas the African American leadership would say all sorts of things for the camera and make all sorts of demands on the Police Review Board, but they wouldn't do anything to make sure the Police Review Board could actually do anything.

Nor is it likely that they will ever do anything substantial about police treatment of minority members.

The Confederate glorification may go, but it remains to be seen if Dallas will ever get a human rights commission or restore the Police Review Board to effectiveness. What is really happening is that the Confederate glorification is an embarrassment to the Dallas elites. It is seen as potentially negatively impacting real estate development in Dallas which is Dallas' highest moral value.

I think there is actually some value to these statues. They warn visitors and others that Dallas is a reactionary town with race problems. When the statues are removed Wicks who is the publisher of D Magazine and editor of American Conservative magazine will still be publishing D Magazine. Ron Dreher will still be writing for Dallas Morning News and American Conservative magazine.

The University of Dallas will still be honoring M.E. Bradford.

I am not focusing on tracking fringe in the Dallas establishment as much as I used to, but I think that it is still interwoven in it.

So the prominent statues and Confederate place names do serve as a warning to people about what type of town Dallas is.

I have a file box of the articles and all the papers relating to the case. I will have to go through them and write up the history.

Court Street United Methodist Church Scheduled to host Children of the Confederacy in Lynchburg, Virginia

COURT STREET UNITED METHODIST CHURCH SCHEDULED TO HOST CHILDREN OF THE CONFEDERACY

The Children of the Confederacy (CofC) is a group run by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) to teach children that the Confederacy and its leaders were glorious.

They have an annual convention. The next is scheduled in Lynchburg, Virginia.

The Court Street United Methodist Church is scheduled to host the CofC Thursday, July 16, 2015 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm.

I am looking for someone in the area to help me in convincing them not to host. I think that if they knew that it was likely to come to the public's attention they would probably dis-invite the CofC.

I wrote them this certified letter:

April 25, 2015
Rev. Dr. Mark A. Tinsley
Court Street United Methodist Church
621 Court Street
Lynchburg, VA 24504

Dear Rev. Dr. Tinsley:

I am an investigative researcher of the neo-Confederate movement. I am published internationally in peer reviewed academic journals and by university presses as well as in Black Commentator. I enclose a copy of my online curriculum vitae which is also available athttp://www.templeofdemocracy.com/curriculum-vitae.html.

Recently I had a byline for an article at Politico, http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/04/civil-war-american-south-still-loves-confederacy-116771.html#.VU4Fu_lVikp

I am writing regarding your hosting the Children of the Confederacy 61st Annual General Convention memorial event on Thursday, July 16, 2015. This is an organization run by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) to indoctrinate young people that the Confederacy was glorious and not that it was an effort to perpetuate slavery and white supremacy. I enclose documentation that your church is chosen for this event.
Please find enclosed an article from the Richmond Free Press regarding churches hosting the 2014 UDC National Convention in Richmond, Virginia. In the article is the account of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church deciding that even though they have hosted the UDC eight times since 1994, they disinvited the UDC in 2014 and will not be hosting them in the future. This is the church that was attended by Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. The article is online at http://richmondfreepress.com/news/2014/nov/07/confederates-hold-service-downtown-church/

The United Methodist Church is the denomination 2nd most frequently hosting UDC national convention events and the only Methodist denomination hosting UDC national events. The African Methodist Episcopal Church, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and the Christian Methodist Church have not hosted since 1990 a single national convention of even of the UDC or the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV). In fact I haven’t run across these other three denominations ever hosting a neo-Confederate event of any type at any time. I enclose two bargraphs of denomination hosting mentioned.. You can see these bargraphs online at http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/churches-of-the-confederacy.html. 

This is somewhat surprising that the United Methodist Church hosts any neo-Confederate groups given that John Wesley was an abolitionist.

Given that it may well be that the Episcopal Church is going to stop hosting neo-Confederates, the United Methodist Church runs a risk of going forward starting in 2013 of becoming one of the leading denominations hosting neo-Confederate groups.
One concern I have developed in investigating neo-Confederate groups is how they are enabled by mainstream organizations such as corporations, churches, government bodies and others. So I have decided to ask these groups to reconsider their relations with specific neo-Confederate groups. It is all well and good that I have written on extremist Confederate Christian nationalist for the Canadian Review of American Studies. (http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/uploads/3/5/2/3/3523099/confederatechristiannationalism.pdf), but I have realized that the enabling of a racist historical consciousness in the general public and racist neo-Confederate groups by mainstream churches is as detrimental to America as these fringe churches.

The UDC has a lengthy history of supporting white supremacy going back to the early 20th century shortly after they had finished organizing. You can see many primary documents regarding their racism atwww.confederatepastpresent.org and use the search term “daughters.”

However, their racism is not confined to the past. This is an organization that currently runs a Red Shirt Shrine to glorify a violent white supremacist group in 19th century South Carolina and of which they are proud of as documented in the June/July 2001 UDC Magazine article, pages 23, 24, and the cover of their magazine. In an article in the Dec. 2012 UDC Magazine, pages 11-14, is an appalling racist article in which the infamous post-Civil War Black Codes of the former Confederate states are defended, African American men are represented have been potential rapists, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution is argued to be misguided, freed African Americans are asserted to have been incompetent to be citizens. The article asserts, “Newly liberated Negroes were not prepared for their freedom…” In a Nov. 2007, UDC Magazine article, page 15 article the pro-KKK book “Southern By the Grace of God,” is recommended as a “treasure” to be given to members’ children. These are but three contemporary examples of the UDC’s racism. Documentation enclosed.

The British academic, Michael Billig in his landmark book, “Banal Nationalism,” discusses the fact that the discussion of nationalism usually revolves around extremists to the exclusion of seeing the banal nationalism in everyday life. Billig contrasts the focus of the usual analyst of nationalism to the analyst of banal nationalism as follows:

The analyst of banal nationalism does not have the theoretical luxury of exposing the nationalism of others. The analyst cannot place exotic nationalists under the microscope as specimens, in order to stain the tissues of repressed sexuality, or turn the magnifying lens on to the unreasonable stereotypes, which ooze from the mouth of the specimen. In presenting the psychology of a Le Pen or Zhirinovsky, ‘we’ might experience a shiver of fear as ‘we’ contemplate ‘them’, the nationalists, with their violent emotions and ‘their’ crude stereotyping of the Other. And ‘we’ will recognize ‘ourselves’ among the objects of this stereotyping. Alongside the ‘foreigners’ and the ‘racial inferiors’, there ‘we’ will be – the ‘liberal degenerates’, with ‘our’ international broadmindedness. ‘We’ will be reassured to have confirmed ‘ourselves’ as the Other of ‘our’ Other.

By extending the concept of nationalism, the analyst is not safely removed from the scope of investigation. We might imagine that we possess a cosmopolitan broadness of spirit. But, if nationalism is a wider ideology, whose familiar commonplaces catch us unawares, then this is too reassuring. We will not remain unaffected. If the thesis is correct, then nationalism has seeped into the corners of our consciousness; it is present in the very words which we might try to use for analysis. It is naïve to think that a text of exposure can escape from the times and place of its formulation. It can attempt, instead, to do something more modest: it can draw attention to the powers of an ideology which is so familiar that it hardly seems noticeable. [Billig, Michael, Banal Nationalism, Sage Publications, London, 1995.]

I extend Billig’s concept to a concept of banal white nationalism. My paper on it is online at http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/breaking-the-white-nation.html.  The presentation of racist groups in sensational media reports are of largely marginal individuals who we will socially never run into, who have belligerent attitudes and behaviors, use racial slurs, have poor middle class decorum, and who perhaps wear funny clothes. Like Billig’s extremists, they reassure us that we aren’t racist since we are not like them. However, if we realize that racist attitudes and practice need not be confined to belligerent individuals shouting racial slurs or confined to physical assaults, we should not be so self-assured ourselves and have to examine a much wider range of practices and consider if we are involved. Suddenly it can be people that we know and who socially circulate in the circles in which we circulate.

The UDC as a well-mannered genteel group is largely not perceived as racist despite their ongoing practice as mentioned earlier in this letter.

I am writing you to ask you to not lend your facilities to the UDC for their 2015 Children of the Confederacy convention or for any unit of the UDC for any event. When a church lends their facility to the UDC or other neo-Confederate organization besides enabling them by giving them the use of their facility they also lend the prestige of their denomination and often a prominent historical church.

Sincerely Yours,
Edward H. Sebesta

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

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

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

http://ncudc.org/2015.html

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

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

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

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

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

Southern Nationalist Network website is supposedly shut down because it is claimed that it has been a big success

The www.southernnationalist.com website has shut down.

The person who ran it claimed that the website was shut down for this reason:

"Over these past 5 years demonstrations have been held to rally folks to the idea of independence for Dixie. Many people have become serious Southern nationalists. Due to this rise in activity SNN will be shutting down; in order to begin a new phase that will inspire even more folks to get involved in the movement."

So because the website was successful it is being shut down and the ownership given up. I would like to suggest another possibility, the SNN wasn't going anywhere.

You look at photos of the League of the South/SNN demonstrations and you realize that there aren't a lot of people at the demonstrations.

Or perhaps there wasn't any money to pay the bill. Even if you were going on to another activity you would retain ownership of the existing site to refer people to your new site or activity.

I don't think the SNN's demise is a great advance. It didn't seem to be accomplishing much. I thought because they were protesting they might get recruits. Direct action, protests often get people involved. But it seems there isn't seem to be any public support for the SNN's agenda.

Questionnaire for the 2016 Presidential Candidates

This is a draft of the questionnaire that I have planned to send out.  The cover letter will explain that possible answers are not confined to the four answers given, but that they can write their own reply as they see fit. I plan on having supporters write candidates asking them to respond if they haven't responded. 

1. As president would you consider appointing a person to the position of United States Attorney General who is a member of a neo-Confederate organizations such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans, League of the South, United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Council of Conservative Citizens?

Yes, No, Undecided, Other. (Circle One.)

2. As president would you consider appointing a person to be a commissioner for the United States Commission on Civil Rights who is a member of a neo-Confederate organizations such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans, League of the South, United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Council of Conservative Citizens?

Yes, No, Undecided, Other. (Circle One.)

3. As president would you consider nominating a person for a Federal judgeship who is a member of a neo-Confederate organizations such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans, League of the South, United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Council of Conservative Citizens?

Yes, No, Undecided, Other. (Circle One.)

4. As president would you consider for the head of a law enforcement agency of the Federal government a person who is a member of a neo-Confederate organizations such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans, League of the South, United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Council of Conservative Citizens?

Yes, No, Undecided, Other. (Circle One.)

5. As president would you consider choosing for your cabinet a person who is a member of a neo-Confederate organizations such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans, League of the South, United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Council of Conservative Citizens?

Yes, No, Undecided, Other. (Circle One.)

6. As president would you consider nominating a member of a neo-Confederate organization such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans, League of the South, United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Council of Conservative Citizens for an ambassadorship?

Yes, No, Undecided, Other. (Circle One.)

7. As president would you consider appointing a member of a neo-Confederate organization such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans, League of the South, United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Council of Conservative Citizens to the National Endowment for the Arts.

Yes, No, Undecided, Other. (Circle One.)

8. Do you oppose the involvement of neo-Confederate organizations such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans, League of the South, United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Council of Conservative Citizen in the Reserve Officer Training Corps or the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps?

Yes, No, Undecided, Other. (Circle One.)

9. Do you oppose the U.S. military’s practice of working with neo-Confederate organizations such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy?

Yes, No, Undecided, Other. (Circle One.)

10. Do you think a state has a right to secede?

Yes, No, Undecided, Other. (Circle One.)

11. Do you think that nullification is legitimate?

Yes, No, Undecided, Other. (Circle One.)

12. Do you support the 13th Amendment to the Constitution?

Yes, No, Undecided, Other. (Circle One.)

13. Do you support the 14th Amendment to the Constitution?

Yes, No, Undecided, Other. (Circle One.)

14. Do you support the 15th Amendment to the Constitution?

Yes, No, Undecided, Other. (Circle One.)

15. Are you a member, regular, associate, honorary, or otherwise of a neo-Confederate organization such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans, League of the South, United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Council of Conservative Citizens?

Yes, No, Undecided, Other. (Circle One.)

16. During your administration as president would you send a wreath to the Arlington Confederate monument?

Yes, No, Undecided, Other. (Circle One.)

17. Would you fly or display a Confederate flag at the White House or any other presidential residence?

Yes, No, Undecided, Other. (Circle One.)

18. Would your presidential administration allow a Confederate monument to be erected on Federal property?

Yes, No, Undecided, Other. (Circle One.)

19. As president would you declare a day, week or month a special time to commemorate the Confederacy or a Confederate leader?

Yes, No, Undecided, Other. (Circle One.)

20. As president would you support the naming of a Federal bridge, building, park, ship, vehicle, military base or some other Federal public structure or place for purpose of honoring a member of the Confederacy?

Yes, No, Undecided, Other. (Circle One.)

21. While president would you participate in a celebration, observance, or ceremony to honor, memorialize, or celebrate the Confederacy or a member of the Confederacy or send a representative to do so?

Yes, No, Undecided, Other. (Circle One.)

22. Would your presidential administration support having Civil War battlefield parks explain the role of slavery in the Civil War?

Yes, No, Undecided, Other. (Circle One.)

23. Would you place in the White House or some other place of presidential residency pictures or memorials of Confederate leaders?

Yes, No, Undecided, Other. (Circle One.)

24. Would you invite to the White House any neo-Confederate groups such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans, United Daughters of the Confederacy, League of the South or the Council of Conservative Citizens?

Yes, No, Undecided, Other. (Circle One.)

25. Would you invite to an event any neo--Confederate groups such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans, United Daughters of the Confederacy, League of the South or the Council of Conservative Citizens?

Yes, No, Undecided, Other. (Circle One.)