FORUM
RACE, THE SOUTH AND THE CONFEDERACY
U .S. and local governments should
stop honoring Confederate traitors
Can you
imagine wav
ing a flag that
honors
Benedict
Arnold, a
name synony
mous with
treason?
How
about traveling to work and back on
Aldrich Ames Boulevard, a tribute to the
CIA mole who secretly worked for the
Russians?
Should we erect a statute of Robert
Hanssen, the FBI computer and wiretap
ping expert who spent most of his career
spying for the Soviet Union and Russia, in
the hallway of the Capitol in Washington,
D.C.?
Do you favor naming public schools
attended mostly by Jews after Fritz Kuhn
to honor the German who lived in the U.S.
and was in charge of the famous U.S. Nazi
group, the German-American Bund?
If you are repulsed by the thought of
honoring those traitors, you should be
equally indignant at the thought of erect
ing statues and naming streets and schools
after Confederate traitors.
Make no mistake about it: Those who
declared war on th.e Union were traitors,
defined as "a person who is not loyal to his
or her own country, friends, etc."
Eleven Southern states broke from the
Union for the same reason.
Writing in his book, "The Creation of
Confederate Nationalism: Ideology and
Identity in the Civil War South," Drew
Gilpin Faust observed, "leaders of the
secession movement across the South
cited slavery as the most compelling rea
son for southern independence."
Alexander Stephens, in what became
known as the Cornerstone Speech, said on
March 21, 1861 in Savannah, Ga? "The
new constitution has put at rest, forever, all
the agitating questions relating to our
peculiar institution - African slavery as it
exists amongst us - the proper status of the
negro in our form of civilization. This was
the immediate cause of the late rupture and
present revolution."
He explained, "(The Confederate] "its
corner-stone rests upon the great truth, that
the negro is not equal to the white man;
that slavery - subordination to the superior
race - is his natural and normal condition.
This, our new government, is the first, in
the history of the world, based upon this
great physical, philosophical, and moral
truth."
Theses historical facts notwithstand
ing, a majority of Americans ? 57 percent
- view the Confederate flag as a symbol of
Southern pride rather than racism, accord
ing to a recent CNN poll.
It gets more interesting when the num
bers are broken down by race. Of Whites
polled, only 25 percent view the
Confederate flag as a symbol of racism.
However, 72 percent of Blacks associate
the flag with racism.
It is time to bring down the
Confederate flag of hate, but we shouldn't
stop there. We should remove the monu
ments and tributes to the Civil War traitors
from public buildings and streets. If
Robert J. Bentley, the Republican gover
nor of Alabama, can voluntarily remove
four Confederate flags from the Capitol
grounds in Montgomery and Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R
Ky.) can recommend that a statue of
Kentucky-born Jefferson Davis be
removed from the state Capitol, it is time
to remove the tributes to Confederate lead
ers from the U.S. Capitol.
Visitors to the Capitol are greeted by
towering statues of 11 former Confederate
leaders, including Confederate President
Jefferson Davis, Vice President Alexander
H. Stephens and Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a civil rights
icon, said it's time for the statues to be
removed.
He told the Associated Press, "Young
children, school children, walk by these
statues, and those of us who serve in the
Congress, we have to get our own house in
order ... We have to have a cleansing in
this place."
There is still cleansing to be done at
the state level.
Despite the removal the Confederate
flags from the Capitol grounds in
Alabama, for example, the state annually
celebrates Confederate Memorial Day,
Jefferson Davis' birthday, and honors
Robert E. Lee on the same day it observes
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday.
A large statue of Jefferson Davis on the
Capitol grounds overlooks Dexter Avenue,
where Dr. King pastored his first church.
The Confederate Monument is still on the
grounds and a star still marks the spot
where Jefferson Davis took the oath as
president of the Confederate states.
Mississippi also combines the birth
days of Dr. King and Robert E. Lee,
observes Confederate Memorial Day on
the last Monday of April and combines
national observance of Memorial Day with
Jefferson Davis' birthday as a state holi
day.
In addition to Alabama and
Mississippi, Confederate Memorial Day is
also observed as a state holiday in Texas,
Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and
South Carolina.
Let the cleansing begin. Like Maj.
General William T. Sherman, let's march
though Dixie and the rest of the nation
until we rid the United States of tributes to
traitors.
George E. Curry, former editor-in
chief of Emerge magazine, is editor-in
chief of the National Newspaper
Publishers Association News Service
(NNPA) and BlackPressUSA.com. Curry
can be reached through his website,
www.georgecurry.com. You can also fol
low him at wwwJwittercpm/currygeorge
and George E. Curry Fan Page on
Facebook.
George
Curry
Guest
|Co/umnisf
McCroiy is talk but no action on Confederate flag license plates
Chris
Fitzsimon
Guest
Columnist
A few days after the
massacre of nine African
Americans at the Emanuel
African Methodist
Episcopal Church in
Charleston, South
Carolina, Gov. Pat
McCrory announced he
wanted North Carolina to
stop issuing specialty
license plates featuring the
Confederate flag.
A spokesman said
McCrory believed that in
the wake of the shootings,
"the time was right to
change the policy."
McCrory garnered
praise and headlines across
the state and nation for his
statement and he deserved
them, though it was the
least the state could do and
he was following the lead
of other governors in the
South like Terry McAulifFe
in Virginia.
But it has now been 17
days [on July 10] since
McCrory spoke up and the
state has continued selling
the license plates. The
week of July 10 brought
the news that sales of the
s
plates had increased since
McCrory's remarks and
that DMV sold out of them
more than a week earlier.
AMcCrory
Administration spokesman
says more plates are being
made and should be avail
able in 30 days and that
DMV is currently taking
pre-orders for them. So
much for the governor
standing up and ending a
symbol of racism and hate
manufactured by the state
he leads.
McCrory says the
General Assembly must act
to end the sale of the plates.
Senate President Pro Tern
Phil Berger says McCrory
can do it with an executive
order. Meanwhile, as the
two leaders conveniently
call on the other to do
something, nothing is done
and more confederate
plates are being sold and
more are being made.
McCrory may honestly
believe he doesn't have the
authority to stop issuing the
plates, but if that's true, he
doesn't seem too bothered
by the inaction of Berger
and other legislative lead
ers.
McCrory had held
more than a dozen media
events since he first spoke
out about the Confederate
plates. He has cut ribbons
at businesses and called on
lawmakers to approve his
proposals for bonds for
transportation and infra
structure. He has not men
tioned the Confederate flag
plates.
Maybe he is waiting for
the General Assembly to
act on its own, but that's
hardly what a leader would
do.
South Carolina Gov.
Nikki Haley signed legisla
tion Thursday [July 9] to
remove the Confederate
battle flag from the state
Capitol grounds, and it was
removed Friday morning.
Haley demanded the legis
lation after the Charleston
shootings and worked hard
to make sure it passed,
even reportedly making an
emotional appeal to state
House Republicans at a
closed caucus meeting.
Haley knew that
removing the flag was the
right thing to do, and she
made it happen.
McCrory says that end
ing the Confederate license
plates is the right thing to
do but isn't sure he can
make it happen and doesn't
seem inclined to use the
weight of his office to force
the General Assembly to
act.
North Carolina
Congresswoman Alma
Adams issued a statement
Thursday praising the
South Carolina legislature
and calling on McCrory
and the North Carolina
General Assembly to dis
continue the license plates
bearing the Confederate
flag. [That statement can
be seen on the Opinion
page of The Chronicle in
this issue.]
And she's right.
Somebody needs to stop
issuing the plates and stop
making them and cancel
the orders. A Confederate
flag should not fly on the
capitol grounds of South
Carolina and should not be
\
on official license plates
made and sold by the state
of North Carolina.
McCrory is in charge,
and it is up to him. The mil
lions of people he repre
sents who see that flag as a
symbol of hate deserve a
governor who not only says
the right thing about it, but
follows up and actually
does the right thing.
No one believes that
removing the flag will
solve the problem of
racism that still plagues our
state and our society. But
symbols are important; the
confederate flag needs to
go. There's no place for it
on public buildings or pub
lic grounds or public
license plates.
Let's see if McCrory is
up to it or if he is just full of
talk.
Chris Fitzsimon,
Founder and Executive
Director of NC Policy
Watch, writes the daily
Fitzsimon File, delivers a
radio commentary broad
cast on WRAL-FM and
hosts "News and Views," a
weekly radio news maga
zine that airs on multiple
stations across North
Carolina. Contact him at
chris@ncpolicywatch.com.