Wreaths win Obama praise from Sons of Confederate Veterans
Gestures honor black Union soldiers as well as Confederate war dead
By WAYNE WASHINGTON - wwashington@thestate.com
President Barack Obama, the nation’s first black chief executive, will be getting a thank you note from the Sons of Confederate Veterans for continuing a tradition of honoring the Confederate dead on Memorial Day.
A group of 48 historians, including one from Coastal Carolina University, had asked Obama not to send a wreath to an Arlington National Cemetery monument honoring Confederate dead — a practice started in 1914 by Woodrow Wilson, who was born in Virginia and lived in Columbia as a young man. Obama sent the wreath to the Confederate monument, but he also sent one to a Washington, D.C., cemetery that honors black Union soldiers.
The president’s actions pleased Chuck McMichael, commander in chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. “The president did very well by sending a wreath to honor American veterans of all types,” McMichael said. “He upheld the tradition of the office to which he was elected. I do intend to send him a thank you letter. This is the kind of thing that transcends politics.”
Orville Vernon Burton, who teaches Southern culture and history at Coastal Carolina, was among the 48 historians who signed the letter asking Obama not to send a wreath to the Confederate monument.
Burton said there is not enough appreciation for the many Southerners — black and white — who fought to keep the Union together.
On Memorial Day, presidents typically lay a wreath at Arlington’s Tomb of the Unknowns,a monument to U.S. service members who have died without being identified.
Presidents also have directed that a wreath be sent to the Confederate monument. Burton said he was concerned that Obama would be “singling out a group that wanted to split the Union” unless he also sent a wreath to a Union monument. “People don’t know how close we came to not having a Union, and what that would mean for freedom today,” he said.
Burton said he learned about the historians’ letter through one of its two authors, James Loewen. A sociologist, author and professor, Loewen also has argued the statue of former S.C. politician “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman on the State House grounds should be toppled because of Tillman’s career-long support of white supremacy and violent black disenfranchisement.
Officials at the White House did not respond Tuesday or Wednesday to questions about Obama’s decision to send a wreath to the Confederate monument.
McMichael of the Sons of Confederate Veterans said he was glad the president did not address the letter. “I thought the letter was absurd and should not have been taken seriously.”
Burton said he does not know of any official response to the historians’ letter, which detailed the Confederate monument’s history, its Latin inscriptions and the words of those who have spoken in its shadow.
“The monument was intended to legitimize secession and the principles of the Confederacy,” the letter states. “It isn’t just a remembrance of the dead.”
In not responding to the letter, Obama steered clear of the passions that still exist regarding slavery and the Civil War. Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederate States of America, said in 1861 that “African slavery” was “the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution,” a verdict many present-day historians accept.
But the Web site for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which describes itself as “the oldest hereditary organization for male descendants of Confederate soldiers,” says the “citizen-soldiers who fought for the Confederacy personified the best qualities of America. The preservation of liberty and freedom was the motivating factor in the South’s decision to fight the Second American Revolution.”
Burton said Obama’s decision also to send a wreath to a cemetery honoring black Union soldiers was “extremely diplomatic.”
Not sending a wreath to the Confederate monument “would have been harder for him because he’s African-American,” said Burton, adding Obama would have encountered a backlash from some white Americans.
In the end, Burton said, he can accept Obama’s decision to send a wreath to both Union and Confederate monuments.
“It does represent the reconciliation of North and South,” he said.
Reach senior writer Wayne Washington at (803) 771-8385.
http://www.thestate.com/154/story/803944.html?storylink=omni_popular
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Marker Placed for Georgia Soldier
Confederate soldier gets his peace
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 3:06 AM
By Meredith Heagney
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Ann Hartman of Griffin, Ga., addresses the Memorial Day service at Camp Chase Cemetery on the Hilltop, where the body of her great-great-grandfather Hiram Bland, a Confederate soldier, was stolen Nov. 24, 1864."
Ann Hartman of Griffin, Ga., addresses the Memorial Day service at Camp Chase Cemetery on the Hilltop, where the body of her great-great-grandfather Hiram Bland, a Confederate soldier, was stolen Nov. 24, 1864.Civil War re-enactor LeAnne Jones, 16, of Marysville, walks amid the gravestones at Camp Chase. The bodies of more than 2,000 Confederate soldiers are buried there."
Bland was a Confederate soldier whose body was stolen hours after it was buried at Camp Chase Cemetery on Nov. 24, 1864, said his great-great-granddaughter, Ann Hartman of Griffin, Ga.
Hartman was at the Hilltop cemetery yesterday to accept a memorial stone in Bland's honor.
It was part of a Memorial Day service hosted by the Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp No. 1535. They sang Dixie and sprinkled Southern soil on the cemetery ground.
The bodies of more than 2,000 Confederate prisoners of war are buried in the cemetery.
The stone was the idea of Dennis Ranney, a member of the Sons group and an amateur historian who has researched the grave-robbing incident for five years.
Hartman said she has spent 30 years trying to piece together her family history, but Bland's story always proved perplexing. Here's what she and Ranney have figured out about what happened to him:
Bland was captured during the Battle of Atlanta in July 1864 and taken to Camp Chase, where he died Nov. 24. He would've been about 40 years old. His body was at rest for just a few hours in grave No. 513, just steps from Sullivant Avenue.
A team of three grave robbers, led by Columbus Dr. Joab Flowers, stole six bodies with the intention of selling them to a Cleveland medical school for dissection and research. Flowers would have received $20 for each body, Ranney said.
The bodies were to have been transported by train, but it's unclear how far they got because the three robbers were arrested two days later. Even now, no one knows what happened to the bodies.
Jincy, Bland's wife, waited on the porch after the war ended for a homecoming that would never be, Hartman said. Hartman is grateful that she could provide that reunion, no matter how belatedly, even with the disappearance of Bland's body still unsolved. "We can't take him home, but we can honor him," she said. After all, Jincy waited a long time.
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/05/26/headstone.ART_ART_05-26-09_B1_KMDVNU7.html
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 3:06 AM
By Meredith Heagney
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Ann Hartman of Griffin, Ga., addresses the Memorial Day service at Camp Chase Cemetery on the Hilltop, where the body of her great-great-grandfather Hiram Bland, a Confederate soldier, was stolen Nov. 24, 1864."
Ann Hartman of Griffin, Ga., addresses the Memorial Day service at Camp Chase Cemetery on the Hilltop, where the body of her great-great-grandfather Hiram Bland, a Confederate soldier, was stolen Nov. 24, 1864.Civil War re-enactor LeAnne Jones, 16, of Marysville, walks amid the gravestones at Camp Chase. The bodies of more than 2,000 Confederate soldiers are buried there."
Bland was a Confederate soldier whose body was stolen hours after it was buried at Camp Chase Cemetery on Nov. 24, 1864, said his great-great-granddaughter, Ann Hartman of Griffin, Ga.
Hartman was at the Hilltop cemetery yesterday to accept a memorial stone in Bland's honor.
It was part of a Memorial Day service hosted by the Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp No. 1535. They sang Dixie and sprinkled Southern soil on the cemetery ground.
The bodies of more than 2,000 Confederate prisoners of war are buried in the cemetery.
The stone was the idea of Dennis Ranney, a member of the Sons group and an amateur historian who has researched the grave-robbing incident for five years.
Hartman said she has spent 30 years trying to piece together her family history, but Bland's story always proved perplexing. Here's what she and Ranney have figured out about what happened to him:
Bland was captured during the Battle of Atlanta in July 1864 and taken to Camp Chase, where he died Nov. 24. He would've been about 40 years old. His body was at rest for just a few hours in grave No. 513, just steps from Sullivant Avenue.
A team of three grave robbers, led by Columbus Dr. Joab Flowers, stole six bodies with the intention of selling them to a Cleveland medical school for dissection and research. Flowers would have received $20 for each body, Ranney said.
The bodies were to have been transported by train, but it's unclear how far they got because the three robbers were arrested two days later. Even now, no one knows what happened to the bodies.
Jincy, Bland's wife, waited on the porch after the war ended for a homecoming that would never be, Hartman said. Hartman is grateful that she could provide that reunion, no matter how belatedly, even with the disappearance of Bland's body still unsolved. "We can't take him home, but we can honor him," she said. After all, Jincy waited a long time.
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/05/26/headstone.ART_ART_05-26-09_B1_KMDVNU7.html
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
SCV Responds to ACC Breaking NAACP Boycott
For Immediate Release
SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS APPLAUD ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE
Elm Springs, Columbia, TN
May 27, 2009
"The news that the Atlanta Coast Conference (ACC) has determined to bolt the boycott imposed by the NCAA at the behest of the NAACP is welcome news, not only to the ACC fans and supporters, but to fairness in college athletics throughout the nation." Sons of Confederate Veterans Commander- in- Chief, Chuck McMichael said.
The NAACP boycott and the athletic conference ban has been going on in South Carolina for about ten years. Included is a boycott of South Carolina tourism and businesses which has been denounced as dismal failure according to reports from the South Carolina tourism officials who have annually reported increased visitors and revenues from tourism.
The boycott was brought on by the NAACP after legislative negotiations which included black legislators, agreed on moving the Confederate flag from the capitol dome to the Confederate Memorial on the capitol grounds. At this point the NAACP changed what they said they said they were seeking.
Tournaments will now resume beginning with the selection of Myrtle Beach for an upcoming event.
Mc Michael continued "This failed program has exhibited the rankest form of discrimination, most fair-minded Americans saw it for what it was.."
The SCV Commander concluded "This is just the first step in righting a wrong. It is time for the Southeastern Conference to follow suit."
END
Contact Information:
J. A. Davis, SCV Public Relations Committee770 297-4788
SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS APPLAUD ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE
Elm Springs, Columbia, TN
May 27, 2009
"The news that the Atlanta Coast Conference (ACC) has determined to bolt the boycott imposed by the NCAA at the behest of the NAACP is welcome news, not only to the ACC fans and supporters, but to fairness in college athletics throughout the nation." Sons of Confederate Veterans Commander- in- Chief, Chuck McMichael said.
The NAACP boycott and the athletic conference ban has been going on in South Carolina for about ten years. Included is a boycott of South Carolina tourism and businesses which has been denounced as dismal failure according to reports from the South Carolina tourism officials who have annually reported increased visitors and revenues from tourism.
The boycott was brought on by the NAACP after legislative negotiations which included black legislators, agreed on moving the Confederate flag from the capitol dome to the Confederate Memorial on the capitol grounds. At this point the NAACP changed what they said they said they were seeking.
Tournaments will now resume beginning with the selection of Myrtle Beach for an upcoming event.
Mc Michael continued "This failed program has exhibited the rankest form of discrimination, most fair-minded Americans saw it for what it was.."
The SCV Commander concluded "This is just the first step in righting a wrong. It is time for the Southeastern Conference to follow suit."
END
Contact Information:
J. A. Davis, SCV Public Relations Committee770 297-4788
CIC Comments on Attempted Florida Flag Ban
NAACP Branch Readies for Confederate Flag Fight
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
By Joshua Rhett Miller
A flag fight is brewing in southern Florida.
Members of the Miami-Dade branch of the NAACP want the Confederate flag banned from the Homestead-Miami Motor Speedway, and they will meet Thursday to decide whether to boycott a NASCAR race slated there for November.
Debra Toomer, the branch's chairwoman of press and publicity, said a planning session has been scheduled to decide on a course of action regarding the display of the flag at the Nov. 20-22 event, as well as its presence at city-sponsored events like last year's Veterans Day parade.
"The concern is there," Toomer said of Confederate flags. She declined to comment further before the meeting.
But officials at NASCAR and the raceway say there's little they can do to prevent spectators from displaying or waving the Confederate flag.
NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston told FOXNews.com that NASCAR's "longstanding policy" prohibits displays of the Confederate flag on its cars, uniforms, licensed merchandise or in
"You're not going to see the flag or the symbol on any of those things," Poston said. "It's been that way for a very long time."
Poston said NASCAR has not received any communication from NAACP officials, and he stressed that NASCAR is "removed" from the controversy since it does not own or operate the Homestead-Miami Motor Speedway. "We happen to run an event there once a year," Poston continued. "But we'd be happy to speak to [NAACP officials] and explain the situation."
Homestead-Miami Motor Speedway President Curtis Gray said spectators are not permitted to wave large flags of any sort in the stands because of safety concerns, and to prevent them from obstructing the view.
He said Confederate flag items are not sold or officially displayed throughout the 65,000-seat raceway, but there's no official ban on spectators bringing miniature flags to the track, or wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the symbol. "... we don't regulate the lawful behavior of our fans or prohibit free speech and expression of our guests," Gray told FOXNews.com. "We can't tell people what to wear. Where do you start? Where does it end, as far as individual expression?"
Brandon Hensler, a spokesman for American Civil Liberties Union's Florida chapter, said bringing a Confederate flag to the race or any public event would be protected speech.
"If someone wants to show up with a shirt like that, there'd be no legal recourse for that," Hensler said. "Unless there's a specific threat, all speech is protected."
Gray declined to comment on the potential impact of a boycott or protest, since his office had not been contacted by NAACP officials in Florida.
Meanwhile, Rosemary Fuller, a member of the NAACP's Miami-Dade branch, said the civil rights group began drafting a letter last week to NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France to seek help in banning the controversial flag from the raceway. Citing a "troubling racial discord" in Homestead, Fuller told the South Florida Times that NAACP members are ready to protest and potentially boycott the season-ending race weekend if NASCAR officials fail to support the effort. NAACP members are also reportedly prepared to contact NASCAR's sponsors if the auto racing league objects.
"Right now, we are still in the planning stages," Fuller told the South Florida Times. "But if NASCAR decides to come here under these conditions, we will meet them at the racetrack."
Brian France, CEO and chairman of NASCAR, who has called the Confederate flag a "fading image," said he's unable to control what flags spectators choose to fly at its mammoth facilities.
"It's not a flag that I look at with anything favorable, that's for sure," France told CBS in 2005. "I can't tell people what flag to fly. I can tell you the flag we get behind — it's the American flag."
The potential flag flap at Homestead would not be the first racial discrimination protest at the 65,000-seat raceway. A group called the National Association for Minority Race Fans reportedly held a two-hour protest prior to a race in 2004. Seeking to provide a safe and equal environment for minority motor sports fans, members of the group offered an American flag to anyone who relinquished a Confederate flag, The Miami Herald reported.
Chuck McMichael, commander in chief of Sons of the Confederate Veterans, a Tennessee-based group that promotes Confederate heritage, said the flag fight stems from last year's Veterans Day parade when some attendees objected to Confederate Army uniforms and flags displayed by participants. As a result, some Greater Homestead/Florida City residents sought to have the organization banned from future events, McMichael said.
But any attempts to block Confederate flags at Homestead-Miami Motor Speedway will be met with "some action," McMichael said, including the possibility of counter protests.
"Any time somebody starts talking about that, of course there's cause for concern," McMichael told FOXNews.com. "The bottom line is I don't think they should ban [Confederate flags] because there's nothing wrong with them. It's just people showing pride in their heritage."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,522203,00.html
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
By Joshua Rhett Miller
A flag fight is brewing in southern Florida.
Members of the Miami-Dade branch of the NAACP want the Confederate flag banned from the Homestead-Miami Motor Speedway, and they will meet Thursday to decide whether to boycott a NASCAR race slated there for November.
Debra Toomer, the branch's chairwoman of press and publicity, said a planning session has been scheduled to decide on a course of action regarding the display of the flag at the Nov. 20-22 event, as well as its presence at city-sponsored events like last year's Veterans Day parade.
"The concern is there," Toomer said of Confederate flags. She declined to comment further before the meeting.
But officials at NASCAR and the raceway say there's little they can do to prevent spectators from displaying or waving the Confederate flag.
NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston told FOXNews.com that NASCAR's "longstanding policy" prohibits displays of the Confederate flag on its cars, uniforms, licensed merchandise or in
"You're not going to see the flag or the symbol on any of those things," Poston said. "It's been that way for a very long time."
Poston said NASCAR has not received any communication from NAACP officials, and he stressed that NASCAR is "removed" from the controversy since it does not own or operate the Homestead-Miami Motor Speedway. "We happen to run an event there once a year," Poston continued. "But we'd be happy to speak to [NAACP officials] and explain the situation."
Homestead-Miami Motor Speedway President Curtis Gray said spectators are not permitted to wave large flags of any sort in the stands because of safety concerns, and to prevent them from obstructing the view.
He said Confederate flag items are not sold or officially displayed throughout the 65,000-seat raceway, but there's no official ban on spectators bringing miniature flags to the track, or wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the symbol. "... we don't regulate the lawful behavior of our fans or prohibit free speech and expression of our guests," Gray told FOXNews.com. "We can't tell people what to wear. Where do you start? Where does it end, as far as individual expression?"
Brandon Hensler, a spokesman for American Civil Liberties Union's Florida chapter, said bringing a Confederate flag to the race or any public event would be protected speech.
"If someone wants to show up with a shirt like that, there'd be no legal recourse for that," Hensler said. "Unless there's a specific threat, all speech is protected."
Gray declined to comment on the potential impact of a boycott or protest, since his office had not been contacted by NAACP officials in Florida.
Meanwhile, Rosemary Fuller, a member of the NAACP's Miami-Dade branch, said the civil rights group began drafting a letter last week to NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France to seek help in banning the controversial flag from the raceway. Citing a "troubling racial discord" in Homestead, Fuller told the South Florida Times that NAACP members are ready to protest and potentially boycott the season-ending race weekend if NASCAR officials fail to support the effort. NAACP members are also reportedly prepared to contact NASCAR's sponsors if the auto racing league objects.
"Right now, we are still in the planning stages," Fuller told the South Florida Times. "But if NASCAR decides to come here under these conditions, we will meet them at the racetrack."
Brian France, CEO and chairman of NASCAR, who has called the Confederate flag a "fading image," said he's unable to control what flags spectators choose to fly at its mammoth facilities.
"It's not a flag that I look at with anything favorable, that's for sure," France told CBS in 2005. "I can't tell people what flag to fly. I can tell you the flag we get behind — it's the American flag."
The potential flag flap at Homestead would not be the first racial discrimination protest at the 65,000-seat raceway. A group called the National Association for Minority Race Fans reportedly held a two-hour protest prior to a race in 2004. Seeking to provide a safe and equal environment for minority motor sports fans, members of the group offered an American flag to anyone who relinquished a Confederate flag, The Miami Herald reported.
Chuck McMichael, commander in chief of Sons of the Confederate Veterans, a Tennessee-based group that promotes Confederate heritage, said the flag fight stems from last year's Veterans Day parade when some attendees objected to Confederate Army uniforms and flags displayed by participants. As a result, some Greater Homestead/Florida City residents sought to have the organization banned from future events, McMichael said.
But any attempts to block Confederate flags at Homestead-Miami Motor Speedway will be met with "some action," McMichael said, including the possibility of counter protests.
"Any time somebody starts talking about that, of course there's cause for concern," McMichael told FOXNews.com. "The bottom line is I don't think they should ban [Confederate flags] because there's nothing wrong with them. It's just people showing pride in their heritage."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,522203,00.html
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Wreath Placed at Confederate Monument at Arlington
Obama observes Memorial Day at Arlington cemetery
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has praised the men and women of America's fighting forces as the "best of America."
The president spoke after participating in a solemn Memorial Day tradition, laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery. It is the burial ground for American veterans dating back to the Revolutionary War.
In brief remarks after the wreath-laying, Obama wondered why the country's fallen warriors were willing to bear the heaviest burden.
He said a willingness to risk their lives for people they've never met "is why they are the best of America."
Obama also sought to avoid a racial controversy by sending flowers to a monument for Confederate soldiers and to a memorial honoring blacks who fought for the Union during the Civil War.
AP's earlier story is below.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama sought to dodge racial controversy on Memorial Day, sending wreaths to a monument for Confederate soldiers and other flowers to a memorial honoring more than 200,000 African-Americans who fought for the Union during the Civil War.
Obama, the nation's first black president, planned to continue tradition and have aides leave a wreath at the Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery, the 600-acre site that once was Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's estate. But the White House also will send a wreath to the African American Civil War Memorial in Washington's historically black U Street neighborhood.
Presidents traditionally visit Arlington to personally leave a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns, a marble structure housing the remains of unidentified U.S. military members who died during war. Presidents then have aides deliver wreaths to other memorials or monuments, generally including the Confederate memorial.
But a group of about 60 professors last week sent a petition to the White House asking Obama to avoid a memorial for Confederate military members who died during the war between the North and the South.
"The Arlington Confederate Monument is a denial of the wrong committed against African-Americans by slave owners, Confederates and neo-Confederates, through the monument's denial of slavery as the cause of secession and its holding up of Confederates as heroes," the petition said. "This implies that the humanity of Africans and African-Americans is of no significance."
Among the professors who signed the letter is 1960s radical William Ayers, a University of Chicago education professor who helped found the radical group the Weather Underground that carried out bombings at the Pentagon and the Capitol. Republicans tried to link Obama with Ayers during the presidential campaign; the two lived in the same neighborhood and served on a charity board together.
The African American Civil War Memorial had been discussed as a compromise in recent days.
"President Obama, why not send two wreaths?" Kirk Savage, an art history professor at the University of Pittsburgh, wrote in an opinion piece in The Washington Post. "One to the Confederate Memorial in Arlington Cemetery and another to the African American Civil War Memorial in the District, which commemorates the 200,000 black soldiers who fought for liberation from slavery in the Union armed forces."
The White House hoped to sidestep the distraction and spend Obama's first Memorial Day as president speaking in honor of the nation's veterans and their families. He scheduled a private breakfast at the White House with family members who had lost loved ones in war.
In person, Obama planned to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns and then speak about the nation's military members who died in battle.
"This is not only a time for celebration, it is also a time to reflect on what this holiday is all about; to pay tribute to our fallen heroes; and to remember the servicemen and women who cannot be with us this year because they are standing post far from home — in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world," Obama said during his weekly radio and Internet address ahead of the holiday.
Obama and his wife, Michelle, have made veterans and military families a priority during his young administration. Obama's budget proposed the largest single-year funding increase in the last three decades to revamp the Department of Veterans Affairs.
"Our fighting men and women — and the military families who love them — embody what is best in America. And we have a responsibility to serve all of them as well as they serve all of us," Obama said during his radio address.
"And yet, all too often in recent years and decades, we, as a nation, have failed to live up to that responsibility. We have failed to give them the support they need or pay them the respect they deserve. That is a betrayal of the sacred trust that America has with all who wear — and all who have worn — the proud uniform of our country."
The president also plans to send flowers to the USS Maine Memorial and the Spanish American War Memorial.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jialb8O3zMzyhiYfUaR3cqiDNizAD98DBPQ00
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has praised the men and women of America's fighting forces as the "best of America."
The president spoke after participating in a solemn Memorial Day tradition, laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery. It is the burial ground for American veterans dating back to the Revolutionary War.
In brief remarks after the wreath-laying, Obama wondered why the country's fallen warriors were willing to bear the heaviest burden.
He said a willingness to risk their lives for people they've never met "is why they are the best of America."
Obama also sought to avoid a racial controversy by sending flowers to a monument for Confederate soldiers and to a memorial honoring blacks who fought for the Union during the Civil War.
AP's earlier story is below.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama sought to dodge racial controversy on Memorial Day, sending wreaths to a monument for Confederate soldiers and other flowers to a memorial honoring more than 200,000 African-Americans who fought for the Union during the Civil War.
Obama, the nation's first black president, planned to continue tradition and have aides leave a wreath at the Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery, the 600-acre site that once was Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's estate. But the White House also will send a wreath to the African American Civil War Memorial in Washington's historically black U Street neighborhood.
Presidents traditionally visit Arlington to personally leave a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns, a marble structure housing the remains of unidentified U.S. military members who died during war. Presidents then have aides deliver wreaths to other memorials or monuments, generally including the Confederate memorial.
But a group of about 60 professors last week sent a petition to the White House asking Obama to avoid a memorial for Confederate military members who died during the war between the North and the South.
"The Arlington Confederate Monument is a denial of the wrong committed against African-Americans by slave owners, Confederates and neo-Confederates, through the monument's denial of slavery as the cause of secession and its holding up of Confederates as heroes," the petition said. "This implies that the humanity of Africans and African-Americans is of no significance."
Among the professors who signed the letter is 1960s radical William Ayers, a University of Chicago education professor who helped found the radical group the Weather Underground that carried out bombings at the Pentagon and the Capitol. Republicans tried to link Obama with Ayers during the presidential campaign; the two lived in the same neighborhood and served on a charity board together.
The African American Civil War Memorial had been discussed as a compromise in recent days.
"President Obama, why not send two wreaths?" Kirk Savage, an art history professor at the University of Pittsburgh, wrote in an opinion piece in The Washington Post. "One to the Confederate Memorial in Arlington Cemetery and another to the African American Civil War Memorial in the District, which commemorates the 200,000 black soldiers who fought for liberation from slavery in the Union armed forces."
The White House hoped to sidestep the distraction and spend Obama's first Memorial Day as president speaking in honor of the nation's veterans and their families. He scheduled a private breakfast at the White House with family members who had lost loved ones in war.
In person, Obama planned to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns and then speak about the nation's military members who died in battle.
"This is not only a time for celebration, it is also a time to reflect on what this holiday is all about; to pay tribute to our fallen heroes; and to remember the servicemen and women who cannot be with us this year because they are standing post far from home — in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world," Obama said during his weekly radio and Internet address ahead of the holiday.
Obama and his wife, Michelle, have made veterans and military families a priority during his young administration. Obama's budget proposed the largest single-year funding increase in the last three decades to revamp the Department of Veterans Affairs.
"Our fighting men and women — and the military families who love them — embody what is best in America. And we have a responsibility to serve all of them as well as they serve all of us," Obama said during his radio address.
"And yet, all too often in recent years and decades, we, as a nation, have failed to live up to that responsibility. We have failed to give them the support they need or pay them the respect they deserve. That is a betrayal of the sacred trust that America has with all who wear — and all who have worn — the proud uniform of our country."
The president also plans to send flowers to the USS Maine Memorial and the Spanish American War Memorial.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jialb8O3zMzyhiYfUaR3cqiDNizAD98DBPQ00
Monday, May 25, 2009
Confederate Soldier Remembered in Philadelphia
Unusual twist in Civil War commemoration
By Maya Rao
Inquirer Staff Writer
Prominent Civil War Union Gen. George G. Meade and little-known Confederate soldier George Ashmead have been buried in Philadelphia's Laurel Hill Cemetery for more than a century, but only the general has been regularly celebrated.
Yesterday, at the site of Philadelphia's first Memorial Day commemoration in 1868, a tradition of honoring Meade at the graveyard on the holiday weekend was followed by an unusual twist: a ceremony across the cemetery in remembrance of Ashmead, the son of a prominent Germantown family whose Confederate affiliation was discovered in recent months.
Local historians found that Ashmead, whose father settled in Cheltenham before the landing of William Penn, was born and raised in Philadelphia, but moved to Texas. He enlisted in the Confederate army in 1861 at age 25.
He was a member of Company E of the Fourth Texas Infantry. His two brothers, who stayed in the North, joined the Union army.
Ashmead appears in historical records as a prisoner of war in Point Lookout, Md., and his brother Thomas was held as a Union prisoner of war in Texas during the second half of 1864, said Betty Mastin, a member of the local chapter of United Daughters of the Confederacy.
George Ashmead died in 1898.
Historians learned about the burial of the Confederate soldier in the cemetery when they stumbled across his obituary at a local historical society.
Mastin, in a prayer at Ashmead's grave, said the Confederates emerged from the war with "our battered shields as a patriotic people."
The ceremony honoring Ashmead was sponsored by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, joined by United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Dozens of people who attended the Confederate event also gathered for a resumption of the decade-long tradition of honoring Meade, an event organized by the General Meade Society.
Meade led the Union victory in the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, a major turning point in the war.
Standing before the general's grave, Anthony Waskie, the society's president and a Temple University professor, praised Meade's bravery and humility. Waskie cited an instance at an Independence Hall reception in Meade's honor in which the general asked that praise go not to him, but to the soldiers of his army.
Trumpets sounded at the gravesite. Women in Civil War-era dresses, hats, and gloves scattered flower petals and presented wreaths. Seven uniformed men fired three shots from their rifles. A procession then wound through the cemetery to a section of graves of men who had been members of the Grand Army of the Republic, Post 1.
"The vast majority of people here are interested in American history, and they're dedicated to the traditional view of honoring the fallen," Waskie said after the events. "Memorial Day means remembrance; we do not want to let . . . sacrifices of the past slip into oblivion."
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20090525_Unusual_twist_in_Civil_War_commemoration.html
By Maya Rao
Inquirer Staff Writer
Prominent Civil War Union Gen. George G. Meade and little-known Confederate soldier George Ashmead have been buried in Philadelphia's Laurel Hill Cemetery for more than a century, but only the general has been regularly celebrated.
Yesterday, at the site of Philadelphia's first Memorial Day commemoration in 1868, a tradition of honoring Meade at the graveyard on the holiday weekend was followed by an unusual twist: a ceremony across the cemetery in remembrance of Ashmead, the son of a prominent Germantown family whose Confederate affiliation was discovered in recent months.
Local historians found that Ashmead, whose father settled in Cheltenham before the landing of William Penn, was born and raised in Philadelphia, but moved to Texas. He enlisted in the Confederate army in 1861 at age 25.
He was a member of Company E of the Fourth Texas Infantry. His two brothers, who stayed in the North, joined the Union army.
Ashmead appears in historical records as a prisoner of war in Point Lookout, Md., and his brother Thomas was held as a Union prisoner of war in Texas during the second half of 1864, said Betty Mastin, a member of the local chapter of United Daughters of the Confederacy.
George Ashmead died in 1898.
Historians learned about the burial of the Confederate soldier in the cemetery when they stumbled across his obituary at a local historical society.
Mastin, in a prayer at Ashmead's grave, said the Confederates emerged from the war with "our battered shields as a patriotic people."
The ceremony honoring Ashmead was sponsored by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, joined by United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Dozens of people who attended the Confederate event also gathered for a resumption of the decade-long tradition of honoring Meade, an event organized by the General Meade Society.
Meade led the Union victory in the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, a major turning point in the war.
Standing before the general's grave, Anthony Waskie, the society's president and a Temple University professor, praised Meade's bravery and humility. Waskie cited an instance at an Independence Hall reception in Meade's honor in which the general asked that praise go not to him, but to the soldiers of his army.
Trumpets sounded at the gravesite. Women in Civil War-era dresses, hats, and gloves scattered flower petals and presented wreaths. Seven uniformed men fired three shots from their rifles. A procession then wound through the cemetery to a section of graves of men who had been members of the Grand Army of the Republic, Post 1.
"The vast majority of people here are interested in American history, and they're dedicated to the traditional view of honoring the fallen," Waskie said after the events. "Memorial Day means remembrance; we do not want to let . . . sacrifices of the past slip into oblivion."
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20090525_Unusual_twist_in_Civil_War_commemoration.html
Saturday, May 23, 2009
SCV Urges President Obama to Send Wreath to Arlington Monument
May 23, 2009
For Immediate Release:
The Sons of Confederate Veterans urge President Obama to continue the long standing tradition of sending a wreath to the Confederate Monument in Arlington Cemetery. This tradition began with President Woodrow Wilson in 1914 when he spoke at the dedication of the monument and should be continued as it is an important part of the civic and memorial life of the nation.
There has recently been a letter circulated urging President Obama to forgo the practice of sending a wreath to the monument in Arlington. That letter is filled with false conjectures and absolute lies about the history of the Confederacy and the remembrance of it in our nation. It is signed by supposed “academics and scholars”. One signer of this letter is Bill Ayers , once a member of the radical Weather Undergound who have admitted their part in conducting terrorist bombings against the police and government facilities of the United States. Furthermore, others that signed this letter are avowed Marxists who are enemies of the American way of life.
Beside long standing tradition, President Obama should send a wreath to the Confederate Monument at Arlington Cemetery because all Confederate Veterans have the status as American Veterans as well.
Several acts of Congress, which are listed below, have defined Veterans of the Confederate States of America as Veterans of the United States due the same benefits and honors as any other American Veteran.
End Release
On Background:
Organizational Contacts:
Commander in Chief Chuck McMichael 318-963-9892
Lt. Commander in Chief Michael Givens 843-252-1860
Chief of Staff Chuck Rand 318-387-3791
Head of Public Relations Jeff Davis 770 297-4788
Three of the laws referenced in the release:
P.L. 38, 59th Congress, Chap. 631-34 Stat. 56)
U.S. Public Law 810, Approved by 17th Congress 26 February 1929(45 Stat 1307 - Currently on the books as 38 U.S. Code, Sec. 2306)
This law, passed by the U.S. Congress, authorized the “Secretary of War to erect headstones over the graves of soldiers who served in the Confederate Army and to direct him to preserve in the records of the War Department the names and places of burial of all soldiers for whom such headstones shall have been erected.”
U.S. Public Law 85-425: Sec. 410 Approved 23 May 1958(US Statutes at Large Volume 72, Part 1, Page 133-134)
The Administrator shall pay to each person who served in the military or naval forces of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War a monthly pension in the same amounts and subject to the same conditions as would have been applicable to such person under the laws in effect on December 31, 1957, if his service in such forces had been service in the military or naval forces of the United States.
U.S. Code Title 38 - Veterans’ Benefits, Part II -
General Benefits, Chapter 15 - Pension for Non-Service-Connected Disability or Death or for Service, Subchapter I - General, § 1501. Definitions: (3) The term “Civil War veteran” includes a person who served in the military or naval forces of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, and the term “active military or naval service” includes active service in those forces.
For Immediate Release:
The Sons of Confederate Veterans urge President Obama to continue the long standing tradition of sending a wreath to the Confederate Monument in Arlington Cemetery. This tradition began with President Woodrow Wilson in 1914 when he spoke at the dedication of the monument and should be continued as it is an important part of the civic and memorial life of the nation.
There has recently been a letter circulated urging President Obama to forgo the practice of sending a wreath to the monument in Arlington. That letter is filled with false conjectures and absolute lies about the history of the Confederacy and the remembrance of it in our nation. It is signed by supposed “academics and scholars”. One signer of this letter is Bill Ayers , once a member of the radical Weather Undergound who have admitted their part in conducting terrorist bombings against the police and government facilities of the United States. Furthermore, others that signed this letter are avowed Marxists who are enemies of the American way of life.
Beside long standing tradition, President Obama should send a wreath to the Confederate Monument at Arlington Cemetery because all Confederate Veterans have the status as American Veterans as well.
Several acts of Congress, which are listed below, have defined Veterans of the Confederate States of America as Veterans of the United States due the same benefits and honors as any other American Veteran.
End Release
On Background:
Organizational Contacts:
Commander in Chief Chuck McMichael 318-963-9892
Lt. Commander in Chief Michael Givens 843-252-1860
Chief of Staff Chuck Rand 318-387-3791
Head of Public Relations Jeff Davis 770 297-4788
Three of the laws referenced in the release:
P.L. 38, 59th Congress, Chap. 631-34 Stat. 56)
U.S. Public Law 810, Approved by 17th Congress 26 February 1929(45 Stat 1307 - Currently on the books as 38 U.S. Code, Sec. 2306)
This law, passed by the U.S. Congress, authorized the “Secretary of War to erect headstones over the graves of soldiers who served in the Confederate Army and to direct him to preserve in the records of the War Department the names and places of burial of all soldiers for whom such headstones shall have been erected.”
U.S. Public Law 85-425: Sec. 410 Approved 23 May 1958(US Statutes at Large Volume 72, Part 1, Page 133-134)
The Administrator shall pay to each person who served in the military or naval forces of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War a monthly pension in the same amounts and subject to the same conditions as would have been applicable to such person under the laws in effect on December 31, 1957, if his service in such forces had been service in the military or naval forces of the United States.
U.S. Code Title 38 - Veterans’ Benefits, Part II -
General Benefits, Chapter 15 - Pension for Non-Service-Connected Disability or Death or for Service, Subchapter I - General, § 1501. Definitions: (3) The term “Civil War veteran” includes a person who served in the military or naval forces of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, and the term “active military or naval service” includes active service in those forces.
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