11/9/09
For Immediate Release:
Sons of Confederate Veterans Headquarters
Columbia, TN
The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) has been informed that they may not march in the Homestead, Florida Veteran's Day Parade with the Confederate Battle Flag. The SCV is quite surprised by this anomaly. The SCV honors and respects the members of the VFW, in fact many veterans are members of both. All across the nation the SCV and VFW have worked together in harmony and many occasions to honor America's Veterans.
However, the SCV condemns the decision by the local chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Homestead, the sponsor of the parade, as the Confederate Battle Flag is a banner which denotes the valor and bravery of some of America's most renowned veterans - the Confederate Soldier. By denying the SCV participation in the parade the Homestead post of the VFW has shown that it is no longer an organization that supports the memory of Veterans but is instead more interested in promoting an agenda of political correctness.
For the last 90 years Confederate Veterans have been recognized as US Veterans by the United States Congress. The actions of the VFW show that they believe they have the authority to re-define who qualifies to be recognized as a veteran in defiance of congressional statue. Further, the actions of the VFW, in denying the SCV entry into the parade, are repugnant to the sacrifice made by many millions of veterans who have fought to preserve the Rights of Americans as established in the Constitution.
This arbitrary action of the Homestead VFW Post is an affront to Southerners of all colors and ethnic backgrounds whose ancestors served honorably in the military of the CSA, and today continue to lead the nation in voluntary service and casualties suffered by U. S. forces in conflicts around the world.
In these times all Americans should be drawn together, and American veterans equally recognized, rather than be torn apart by a small group who wishes to inject controversy and disruption into the rightful recognition of ALL American Veterans. It is also greatly disappointing that the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post is allowing itself to be used in this manner.
The SCV urges the community in Homestead, Florida to express their rightful disappointment that the memory of one group of American Veterans, Confederate Veterans, are being are being disparaged by the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
For more information contact
Chuck McMichael, SCV Commander in Chief, at 318-963-9892 or scvcic72@gmail.com
Chuck Rand, SCV Chief of Staff, at 318-387-3791 or chuckrand3@gmail.com
The SCV is a 501(c)3 non-profit historical and educational organization founded in 1896. See www.scv.org.
End of Release
Monday, November 9, 2009
S. D. Lee Institute Slated for Nashville, TN
STEPHEN DILL LEE INSTITUTE
FEBRUARY 26-27 2010
SHERATON MUSIC CITY HOTEL
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
The American System of Liberty:
Nullification, Secession and States’ Rights
The Institute is now taking registrations and reservations for our upcoming meeting on February 26-27 in Nashville. Please call our headquarters at Elm Springs to register (1-800-MY DIXIE) or register at www.StephenDLeeInstitute.com .
Don’t miss Thomas DiLorenzo, Donald Livingston, Kent Masterson Brown Marshall DeRosa, W. Kirk Wood, and Brion McClanahan.
A special treat will occur on Friday evening with a book signing by the authors and an unforgettable historical lecture on The Battle of Franklin by nationally known historian Thomas Cartwright.
Anyone desiring information can contact Brag Bowling at 804-389-3620.
FEBRUARY 26-27 2010
SHERATON MUSIC CITY HOTEL
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
The American System of Liberty:
Nullification, Secession and States’ Rights
The Institute is now taking registrations and reservations for our upcoming meeting on February 26-27 in Nashville. Please call our headquarters at Elm Springs to register (1-800-MY DIXIE) or register at www.StephenDLeeInstitute.com .
Don’t miss Thomas DiLorenzo, Donald Livingston, Kent Masterson Brown Marshall DeRosa, W. Kirk Wood, and Brion McClanahan.
A special treat will occur on Friday evening with a book signing by the authors and an unforgettable historical lecture on The Battle of Franklin by nationally known historian Thomas Cartwright.
Anyone desiring information can contact Brag Bowling at 804-389-3620.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Black Confederates to be Honored in Tennessee
Black soldiers honored with new markers dedicated Sunday in Pulaski
By Associated Press
November 5, 2009
PULASKI, Tenn. (AP) — New markers honoring 18 black soldiers who fought for the Confederacy will be dedicated Sunday at a cemetery in Pulaski.
All of the soldiers were from Giles County, and records show many of them received a military pension.
Cathy Wood is president of the Giles County chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. She says her group and the Sons of Confederate Veterans chapter joined to buy the footstone markers, which will list the names, lifespans and unit numbers of the men.
Four of the soldiers are buried at Maplewood Cemetery, where the stones have been placed. The others were buried in small family cemeteries at farms around Giles County.
A cannon crew and color guard will take part in the ceremony at 2 p.m.
http://www.wreg.com/sns-bc-tn--civilwarmarkers,0,3260703.story
By Associated Press
November 5, 2009
PULASKI, Tenn. (AP) — New markers honoring 18 black soldiers who fought for the Confederacy will be dedicated Sunday at a cemetery in Pulaski.
All of the soldiers were from Giles County, and records show many of them received a military pension.
Cathy Wood is president of the Giles County chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. She says her group and the Sons of Confederate Veterans chapter joined to buy the footstone markers, which will list the names, lifespans and unit numbers of the men.
Four of the soldiers are buried at Maplewood Cemetery, where the stones have been placed. The others were buried in small family cemeteries at farms around Giles County.
A cannon crew and color guard will take part in the ceremony at 2 p.m.
http://www.wreg.com/sns-bc-tn--civilwarmarkers,0,3260703.story
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Push for Sequicentennial Observances
Landrieu wants commission on war anniversary
By John Andrew Prime
jprime@gannett.com
November 2, 2009
U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., has taken up a banner of history that has fallen, at least on the field of battle.
She and fellow Democratic Sen. Jim Webb, of Virginia, have introduced the Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission Act of 2009 “to establish a Commission to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War,” a release from her office states.
“We must remember the legacies of the Civil War,” Landrieu said. “The United States emerged completely altered after the four years of struggle, and as a testament of American resilience, grew stronger than it was before. The cultural and political ramifications still shape the American landscape today. It was in the era of Reconstruction that Congress adopted the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution, acknowledging black Americans as free and equal citizens of the United States. The Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission Act of 2009 is about preserving that memory.”
As someone with ancestors who fought on both sides of the nation’s bloodiest war, Webb said it has special significance for him. “It is important that all Americans are aware of the many sacrifices made, by soldiers and civilians alike, for which we emerged as a stronger, more diverse and free nation because of these sacrifices,” he said. “The intention of this commission is to ensure the proper recognition of the sesquicentennial and builds on my other legislative efforts to support educational and preservation efforts for this turning point in American history.”
It is the latest of a series of efforts to remember a war that still divides Americans of all races and political leanings.
In 1996, Landrieu’s predecessor, Sen. J. Bennett Johnston Jr., sponsored legislation that called for the start of planning for the Civil War sesquicentennial and named the U.S. Civil War Center at LSU and the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College as the co-facilitators. Later, Virginia was added to the mix of planners.
Earlier this decade, former U.S. Rep. Jim McCrery, R-Shreveport, and some two dozen other members of Congress have attempted, without success, to pass legislation creating a U.S. Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission.
Planning for the national centennial of the war, observed from 1961 to 1965, began in 1957. It competed with Sputnik being put into space by the Russians, the Cuban missile crisis, the assassination of a president and the beginning of the Vietnam War. But the centennial still became a tourist draw, with a national commission directing activities, an esteemed figurehead in Ulysses S. Grant III, 34 state commissions creating brochures and pamphlets and 300 city commissions coordinating activities. None of that was in evidence before 1957, though.
The Landrieu-Webb proposed commission would consist of 25 members drawn from government, business and academia, and would be charged to develop and carry out programs to ensure suitable national observance of the anniversary.
It also would work with state and local governments, as well as various organizations, to assist with commemoration activities and ensure that remembrance occurs at every level.
Two national organizations whose members are descended from soldiers who fought in the conflict, the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War and the Sons of Confederate Veterans, have been working for years to properly commemorate the conflict, and it is a special interest of the SCV’s new national Commander in Chief Charles “Chuck” McMichael of Shreveport.
“We started talking about it around 2000 and started our own commission two years ago to start making plans,” McMichael said. Whether his group would work with a national commission “depends on who is on it and what their focus is. We’re going to do our events. We’ll wait and see what they come up with, but we’re willing to be on the ground floor of it if they want us to be.”
A number of states already have established their commissions to begin planning, which may already be late on the national level.
“Oct. 16 was the 150th anniversary of the beginning of John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry and Oct. 17 was the anniversary of the retaking of it, with Col. Robert E. Lee at the head of U.S. troops,” said Gary Joiner, Shreveport historian and Civil War author. “Whether we are prepared for it or not, the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War began on Oct 17. Time waits for no one or any government entity. It marches on.”
Louisiana could benefit from the tourism of Civil War interest nationally and abroad.
Shreveport has a number of attractions to serve as a springboard for tourists. It was headquarters of the Confederate Army of the Trans-Mississippi, the seat of Louisiana’s Confederate government and, in June 1865, more than two months after Lee’s surrender in Virginia, the last part of the Confederacy to capitulate. It had 18 gun batteries and four earthen forts, several of which still exist to some degree.
But not all of its history is gray. It was occupied by federal troops until 1877, including black cavalry troops, and was home to one of the first people heavily involved in the state’s earliest civil rights movement, Union Army Captain and one-time state Lt. Gov. C.C. Antoine. He died in 1921 and Joiner and McMichael worked with Shreveport Mayor Cedric Glover, then a state representative, to properly mark Antoine’s grave in west Shreveport.
“Secretary of State Jay Dardenne is very interested in commemorating the Civil War in the state, and I would love to see it happen, too,” Joiner said. “It is something we need to do to honor all of our past, not just Southern, not just Northern, but American. It gives us, perhaps for the first time in our history, a chance to examine all sides.”
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200911021226/NEWS01/91102019
By John Andrew Prime
jprime@gannett.com
November 2, 2009
U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., has taken up a banner of history that has fallen, at least on the field of battle.
She and fellow Democratic Sen. Jim Webb, of Virginia, have introduced the Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission Act of 2009 “to establish a Commission to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War,” a release from her office states.
“We must remember the legacies of the Civil War,” Landrieu said. “The United States emerged completely altered after the four years of struggle, and as a testament of American resilience, grew stronger than it was before. The cultural and political ramifications still shape the American landscape today. It was in the era of Reconstruction that Congress adopted the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution, acknowledging black Americans as free and equal citizens of the United States. The Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission Act of 2009 is about preserving that memory.”
As someone with ancestors who fought on both sides of the nation’s bloodiest war, Webb said it has special significance for him. “It is important that all Americans are aware of the many sacrifices made, by soldiers and civilians alike, for which we emerged as a stronger, more diverse and free nation because of these sacrifices,” he said. “The intention of this commission is to ensure the proper recognition of the sesquicentennial and builds on my other legislative efforts to support educational and preservation efforts for this turning point in American history.”
It is the latest of a series of efforts to remember a war that still divides Americans of all races and political leanings.
In 1996, Landrieu’s predecessor, Sen. J. Bennett Johnston Jr., sponsored legislation that called for the start of planning for the Civil War sesquicentennial and named the U.S. Civil War Center at LSU and the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College as the co-facilitators. Later, Virginia was added to the mix of planners.
Earlier this decade, former U.S. Rep. Jim McCrery, R-Shreveport, and some two dozen other members of Congress have attempted, without success, to pass legislation creating a U.S. Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission.
Planning for the national centennial of the war, observed from 1961 to 1965, began in 1957. It competed with Sputnik being put into space by the Russians, the Cuban missile crisis, the assassination of a president and the beginning of the Vietnam War. But the centennial still became a tourist draw, with a national commission directing activities, an esteemed figurehead in Ulysses S. Grant III, 34 state commissions creating brochures and pamphlets and 300 city commissions coordinating activities. None of that was in evidence before 1957, though.
The Landrieu-Webb proposed commission would consist of 25 members drawn from government, business and academia, and would be charged to develop and carry out programs to ensure suitable national observance of the anniversary.
It also would work with state and local governments, as well as various organizations, to assist with commemoration activities and ensure that remembrance occurs at every level.
Two national organizations whose members are descended from soldiers who fought in the conflict, the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War and the Sons of Confederate Veterans, have been working for years to properly commemorate the conflict, and it is a special interest of the SCV’s new national Commander in Chief Charles “Chuck” McMichael of Shreveport.
“We started talking about it around 2000 and started our own commission two years ago to start making plans,” McMichael said. Whether his group would work with a national commission “depends on who is on it and what their focus is. We’re going to do our events. We’ll wait and see what they come up with, but we’re willing to be on the ground floor of it if they want us to be.”
A number of states already have established their commissions to begin planning, which may already be late on the national level.
“Oct. 16 was the 150th anniversary of the beginning of John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry and Oct. 17 was the anniversary of the retaking of it, with Col. Robert E. Lee at the head of U.S. troops,” said Gary Joiner, Shreveport historian and Civil War author. “Whether we are prepared for it or not, the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War began on Oct 17. Time waits for no one or any government entity. It marches on.”
Louisiana could benefit from the tourism of Civil War interest nationally and abroad.
Shreveport has a number of attractions to serve as a springboard for tourists. It was headquarters of the Confederate Army of the Trans-Mississippi, the seat of Louisiana’s Confederate government and, in June 1865, more than two months after Lee’s surrender in Virginia, the last part of the Confederacy to capitulate. It had 18 gun batteries and four earthen forts, several of which still exist to some degree.
But not all of its history is gray. It was occupied by federal troops until 1877, including black cavalry troops, and was home to one of the first people heavily involved in the state’s earliest civil rights movement, Union Army Captain and one-time state Lt. Gov. C.C. Antoine. He died in 1921 and Joiner and McMichael worked with Shreveport Mayor Cedric Glover, then a state representative, to properly mark Antoine’s grave in west Shreveport.
“Secretary of State Jay Dardenne is very interested in commemorating the Civil War in the state, and I would love to see it happen, too,” Joiner said. “It is something we need to do to honor all of our past, not just Southern, not just Northern, but American. It gives us, perhaps for the first time in our history, a chance to examine all sides.”
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200911021226/NEWS01/91102019
First Search For the Hunley
Letters illuminate first search for the Hunley
By Brian Hicks
The Post and Courier
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
In the fall of 1864, a U.S. Navy officer serving in the blockade of Charleston set out on a quest that would consume some men for more than a century.
He wanted to find the H.L. Hunley.
William L. Churchill, a Union Navy officer, searched the waters off Charleston for the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley. But according to letters between Union naval officers recently donated to the S.C. Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum in Columbia, Churchill was looking for a lot more than debris.
"His is also desirous of exploring the ocean bottom in the vacinity [sic] of the ill-fated Housatonic, with the view of finding the Torpedo Boat, which, by mail and clippings, taken from Rebel Journals, may have sunk very near her," Nipsic commander A.W. Johnson wrote to Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren.
That note, a rare contemporary mention of the Hunley, is part of a set of 27 documents donated to the museum by a private collector. Kristina Dunn Johnson, curator of history at the Relic Room, said the letters offer a view of the war not often found in Southern museums.
"We were especially interested because they were Union letters associated with the blockade," Johnson said. "Even though they are Union correspondence, they are central to South Carolina's wartime story."
The letters, many of which are either to or from Churchill, A.W. Johnson or Dahlgren, date from the early days of the war up to 1869, when Churchill had his own submarine company. Together, they tell the story of one man's journey through the Civil War.
The first letter notifies Churchill of his appointment as master's mate on the USS Susquehanna, a sidewheel steamer. From the deck of that ship, he watched the battle of Hampton Roads, where the USS Monitor fought the CSS Virginia (or the Merrimac) to a standstill. Soon after that, he wound up on the Nipsic, which took part in the blockade of Charleston Harbor.
Dahlgren allowed Churchill to make his survey, and the results have helped tell the Hunley's story.
In his report, Churchill declared the wreck of the Housatonic "worthless" and described the massive amount of damage caused by the 90-pound charge delivered by the sub.
But he did not find the torpedo boat.
"I have also caused the bottom to be dragged for an area of 500 yards around the wreck, finding nothing of the torpedo boat," Churchill wrote. "On the 24th the drag ropes caught something heavy (as I reported). On sending a diver down to examine it, proved to be a quantity of rubbish."
Churchill did not say, however, whether he searched in every direction around the Housatonic. The Hunley eventually was found seaward of the Housatonic wreck, a surprise that bedeviled archaeologists and treasure hunters for 130 years.
Read more about the S.C. Confederate Relic Room
The State's Military History Museum
"We're lucky Churchill didn't find it during this expedition," said Robert Neyland, head of the Naval Historical Center's Underwater Archaeology branch. " If he had, nothing would be left of the submarine today and it would have been a major loss for history."
When scientists raised the Hunley in 2000, they found a grappling hook that remains unidentified but may have been equipment such as Churchill would have used in his dragging.
As for Churchill, he eventually suffered a fate similar to that of the Hunley. Four years after the war ended, he was killed during an underwater demolition job. His body was lost at sea.
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/nov/03/letters-illuminate-first-search-for-the-hunley/
If you go
--The S.C. Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum is at 301 Gervais St. in Columbia, in the same building as the State Museum.
--Open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the first Sunday of each month from 1-5 p.m.
--Admission is $5 for adults.
--The Churchill letters are not currently on display but are expected to be on the Relic Room's Web site soon.
--For more information: http://crr.sc.gov/visit/.
By Brian Hicks
The Post and Courier
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
In the fall of 1864, a U.S. Navy officer serving in the blockade of Charleston set out on a quest that would consume some men for more than a century.
He wanted to find the H.L. Hunley.
William L. Churchill, a Union Navy officer, searched the waters off Charleston for the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley. But according to letters between Union naval officers recently donated to the S.C. Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum in Columbia, Churchill was looking for a lot more than debris.
"His is also desirous of exploring the ocean bottom in the vacinity [sic] of the ill-fated Housatonic, with the view of finding the Torpedo Boat, which, by mail and clippings, taken from Rebel Journals, may have sunk very near her," Nipsic commander A.W. Johnson wrote to Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren.
That note, a rare contemporary mention of the Hunley, is part of a set of 27 documents donated to the museum by a private collector. Kristina Dunn Johnson, curator of history at the Relic Room, said the letters offer a view of the war not often found in Southern museums.
"We were especially interested because they were Union letters associated with the blockade," Johnson said. "Even though they are Union correspondence, they are central to South Carolina's wartime story."
The letters, many of which are either to or from Churchill, A.W. Johnson or Dahlgren, date from the early days of the war up to 1869, when Churchill had his own submarine company. Together, they tell the story of one man's journey through the Civil War.
The first letter notifies Churchill of his appointment as master's mate on the USS Susquehanna, a sidewheel steamer. From the deck of that ship, he watched the battle of Hampton Roads, where the USS Monitor fought the CSS Virginia (or the Merrimac) to a standstill. Soon after that, he wound up on the Nipsic, which took part in the blockade of Charleston Harbor.
Dahlgren allowed Churchill to make his survey, and the results have helped tell the Hunley's story.
In his report, Churchill declared the wreck of the Housatonic "worthless" and described the massive amount of damage caused by the 90-pound charge delivered by the sub.
But he did not find the torpedo boat.
"I have also caused the bottom to be dragged for an area of 500 yards around the wreck, finding nothing of the torpedo boat," Churchill wrote. "On the 24th the drag ropes caught something heavy (as I reported). On sending a diver down to examine it, proved to be a quantity of rubbish."
Churchill did not say, however, whether he searched in every direction around the Housatonic. The Hunley eventually was found seaward of the Housatonic wreck, a surprise that bedeviled archaeologists and treasure hunters for 130 years.
Read more about the S.C. Confederate Relic Room
The State's Military History Museum
"We're lucky Churchill didn't find it during this expedition," said Robert Neyland, head of the Naval Historical Center's Underwater Archaeology branch. " If he had, nothing would be left of the submarine today and it would have been a major loss for history."
When scientists raised the Hunley in 2000, they found a grappling hook that remains unidentified but may have been equipment such as Churchill would have used in his dragging.
As for Churchill, he eventually suffered a fate similar to that of the Hunley. Four years after the war ended, he was killed during an underwater demolition job. His body was lost at sea.
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/nov/03/letters-illuminate-first-search-for-the-hunley/
If you go
--The S.C. Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum is at 301 Gervais St. in Columbia, in the same building as the State Museum.
--Open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the first Sunday of each month from 1-5 p.m.
--Admission is $5 for adults.
--The Churchill letters are not currently on display but are expected to be on the Relic Room's Web site soon.
--For more information: http://crr.sc.gov/visit/.
NAACP Hate Rules Homestead Florida
Confederate flag banned again
Written by ELGIN JONES
HOMESTEAD – Just days before the annual Veterans Day parade in Homestead, the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) group announced on Wednesday that the Confederate battle flag has been banned from the event.
Political observers say the long-simmering feud over the Confederate flag issue contributed to the ouster of Mayor Lynda Bell and three council members from office in Tuesday's election.
“On Monday, November 2, 2009, the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), the oldest veterans group established in 1896 was notified by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) post commander Joseph Stahl, that we would not be allowed to enter the Homestead Veteran’s Day parade,’’ Gregory Kalof, commander of the Miami-Dade based Sons of Confederate Veterans camp 471, wrote in a press release sent to the South Florida Times Wednesday morning. “He stated that there were still strong feelings against the participation of the SCV but did not specify if it were the participants, organizers, or outside organizations.’’
Officials with the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) group, which is organizing the Nov. 11 parade, could not be reached for comment about the reported ban.
To some, the Confederate flag is a symbol of southern pride; to others, it is a reminder of slavery, lynching and racial mistreatment.
The controversy in Homestead first erupted after black citizens, including Rosemary Fuller and Pat Mellerson, objected to seeing Confederate soldiers with their battle flags marching in last year’s parade.
“I am a child of the civil rights movement. My parents and grandparents suffered through a lot of discrimination and abuse during those times and that flag was a direct reminder of those things,” Mellerson said. “It’s offensive and represents brutality and oppression to so many people.”
The groups opposing the flag called on the Military Affairs Committee of the Greater Homestead/Florida City Chamber of Commerce, which originally organized the event, and the city of Homestead, which provided in-kind support, to bar Confederate States groups and their memorabilia from future parades.
Homestead officials reacted by explaining that the city was not the parade organizer, and therefore had no authority to ban any organizations from the parade.
The chamber initially could not reach any compromise on the issue. But after months of wrangling and pressure from the Miami-Dade branch of the NAACP and officials in neighboring Florida City, decided in September to cancel the parade altogether.
The local post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Homestead took up the mantel, and applied for permits to organize this year’s parade, which will take place next Wednesday. VFW organizers have yet to confirm if they will impose a ban.
Mellerson said the issue may now be resolved.
“The flag should be in a museum, in their homes, or on their personal cars,” Mellerson said. “We have not been told this, but if it’s true, then it is the right decision. I love parades. They are good for the community and I will have no problem attending.”
In the press release about the flag ban, Kalof tied the fate of the Confederate flag's display at the parade to that of Bell, who lost her re-election bid on Tuesday.
Five of the city’s seven council members were up for re-election. Only one, Councilwoman Judy Waldman, won re-election. Waldman advocated ending the city’s support of the parade if the Confederate groups and their flags were not banned from it.
In stunning fashion, however, Bell and the three other incumbents were defeated by challengers.
Observers on both sides of the issue say they believe the election was a referendum on the flag controversy.
“In our opinion their standard of what has become a politically correct stance against the Confederate Battle Flag and all those that would support it are nothing short of political blackmail,’’ Kaloff wrote in his press release. “The NAACP doesn’t have a record of Veteran’s support but instead only promotes its own agenda of erasing all aspects of Southern heritage. It has contrived a crisis for political ends: to remove Mayor Lynda Bell and council members from the Homestead City government. It seems very clear now that their threats have produced the desired results. For shame, for shame, on the voters and residents of Homestead by not voting or submitting to the sham that has been placed over the City.’’
Fuller, who lives just outside the city’s limits in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, agreed that the flag controversy is what galvanized voters. But she, said, other issues were also at play.
“This was never about Lynda Bell, and it wasn’t politically motivated. She [Lynda Bell] said that. Our focus was always on keeping those offensive flags and symbols from this community event,” Fuller said. “They [council members] just blew it, and the voters spoke on Tuesday. If you go back and look at the council meetings, you will see where people who opposed the flag were demeaned and insulted.”
Fuller continued: “This is a good community and the people were just fed up, and it’s a refreshing day, and I do plan on going to the parade if they are banned.”
http://www.sfltimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3511
Written by ELGIN JONES
HOMESTEAD – Just days before the annual Veterans Day parade in Homestead, the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) group announced on Wednesday that the Confederate battle flag has been banned from the event.
Political observers say the long-simmering feud over the Confederate flag issue contributed to the ouster of Mayor Lynda Bell and three council members from office in Tuesday's election.
“On Monday, November 2, 2009, the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), the oldest veterans group established in 1896 was notified by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) post commander Joseph Stahl, that we would not be allowed to enter the Homestead Veteran’s Day parade,’’ Gregory Kalof, commander of the Miami-Dade based Sons of Confederate Veterans camp 471, wrote in a press release sent to the South Florida Times Wednesday morning. “He stated that there were still strong feelings against the participation of the SCV but did not specify if it were the participants, organizers, or outside organizations.’’
Officials with the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) group, which is organizing the Nov. 11 parade, could not be reached for comment about the reported ban.
To some, the Confederate flag is a symbol of southern pride; to others, it is a reminder of slavery, lynching and racial mistreatment.
The controversy in Homestead first erupted after black citizens, including Rosemary Fuller and Pat Mellerson, objected to seeing Confederate soldiers with their battle flags marching in last year’s parade.
“I am a child of the civil rights movement. My parents and grandparents suffered through a lot of discrimination and abuse during those times and that flag was a direct reminder of those things,” Mellerson said. “It’s offensive and represents brutality and oppression to so many people.”
The groups opposing the flag called on the Military Affairs Committee of the Greater Homestead/Florida City Chamber of Commerce, which originally organized the event, and the city of Homestead, which provided in-kind support, to bar Confederate States groups and their memorabilia from future parades.
Homestead officials reacted by explaining that the city was not the parade organizer, and therefore had no authority to ban any organizations from the parade.
The chamber initially could not reach any compromise on the issue. But after months of wrangling and pressure from the Miami-Dade branch of the NAACP and officials in neighboring Florida City, decided in September to cancel the parade altogether.
The local post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Homestead took up the mantel, and applied for permits to organize this year’s parade, which will take place next Wednesday. VFW organizers have yet to confirm if they will impose a ban.
Mellerson said the issue may now be resolved.
“The flag should be in a museum, in their homes, or on their personal cars,” Mellerson said. “We have not been told this, but if it’s true, then it is the right decision. I love parades. They are good for the community and I will have no problem attending.”
In the press release about the flag ban, Kalof tied the fate of the Confederate flag's display at the parade to that of Bell, who lost her re-election bid on Tuesday.
Five of the city’s seven council members were up for re-election. Only one, Councilwoman Judy Waldman, won re-election. Waldman advocated ending the city’s support of the parade if the Confederate groups and their flags were not banned from it.
In stunning fashion, however, Bell and the three other incumbents were defeated by challengers.
Observers on both sides of the issue say they believe the election was a referendum on the flag controversy.
“In our opinion their standard of what has become a politically correct stance against the Confederate Battle Flag and all those that would support it are nothing short of political blackmail,’’ Kaloff wrote in his press release. “The NAACP doesn’t have a record of Veteran’s support but instead only promotes its own agenda of erasing all aspects of Southern heritage. It has contrived a crisis for political ends: to remove Mayor Lynda Bell and council members from the Homestead City government. It seems very clear now that their threats have produced the desired results. For shame, for shame, on the voters and residents of Homestead by not voting or submitting to the sham that has been placed over the City.’’
Fuller, who lives just outside the city’s limits in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, agreed that the flag controversy is what galvanized voters. But she, said, other issues were also at play.
“This was never about Lynda Bell, and it wasn’t politically motivated. She [Lynda Bell] said that. Our focus was always on keeping those offensive flags and symbols from this community event,” Fuller said. “They [council members] just blew it, and the voters spoke on Tuesday. If you go back and look at the council meetings, you will see where people who opposed the flag were demeaned and insulted.”
Fuller continued: “This is a good community and the people were just fed up, and it’s a refreshing day, and I do plan on going to the parade if they are banned.”
http://www.sfltimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3511
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Jefferson Davis Library Plans Move Forward
New Jefferson Davis library planned
Associated Press - October 7, 2009 6:14 AM ET
BILOXI, Miss. (AP) - A contract has been signed to build a new Jefferson Davis Presidential Library and Museum at Beauvoir, the Gulf Coast house that was the retirement home for the president of the Confederacy.
Beauvoir's Director Rick Forte said Tuesday's signing was the result of 4 years of work.
The J.C. Dukes Construction Company of Mobile, Ala., won the $10.4 million contract, according to WLOX television.
The old library was demolished after being heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. the Federal Emergency Management Agency will provide 90% of the money for the project.
Information from: WLOX-TV, http://www.wlox.com
Associated Press - October 7, 2009 6:14 AM ET
BILOXI, Miss. (AP) - A contract has been signed to build a new Jefferson Davis Presidential Library and Museum at Beauvoir, the Gulf Coast house that was the retirement home for the president of the Confederacy.
Beauvoir's Director Rick Forte said Tuesday's signing was the result of 4 years of work.
The J.C. Dukes Construction Company of Mobile, Ala., won the $10.4 million contract, according to WLOX television.
The old library was demolished after being heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. the Federal Emergency Management Agency will provide 90% of the money for the project.
Information from: WLOX-TV, http://www.wlox.com
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