Organizers insist no racial motive for holding pro-Confederate rally on MLK weekend

[Botany]

Source: Raw Story

Dozens of demonstrators wearing Confederate uniforms marched Saturday morning in Baltimore to honor Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, two days before the holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr.

snip

Members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and United Daughters of the Confederacy said they chose the date to honor the Confederate generals at their birthdays – which are Jan. 19 and 21.

snip


Organizers said the event was not intended to “antagonize” anyone or protest King’s legacy, and they insisted they are not racists.

“Everyone should be proud of their ancestry,” said Jay Barringer, a Maryland division commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/01/organizers-insist-no-racial-motive-for-holding-pro-confederate-rally-on-mlk-weekend/

---

When will we ever get over the facts that the CSA was formed to allow people to keep
other people as slaves because they saw them as less then human and that the CSA's
goal was the end of the United States of America?

In public these Sons of the South might say it is about heritage and pride but in private
I have no doubt that they call blacks n****rs and Dr. King Martin Luther C**n.

[hobbit709]

1. If you believe that excuse then I got a bridge and a couple of monuments for you.

[Fred Sanders]

2. Is the Fox News host there to whip up the crowd and get them angry enough to use their guns?

"I am not a racist" is like saying "I am not a witch". If you are forced to say you are not it, then you probably are.

[brer cat]

3. We have a teenage neighbor

who flies a confederate flag on the porch and is into all things CSA. It more than pains me to see another generation coming along. I hate painting with broad brushes, but the idiots who denigrate Dr. King's holiday with this crap are in-your-face racists as far as I'm concerned.

[safeinOhio]

6. Born in the south

this is what I think.

http://imgfave.com/view/4103356

[KingCharlemagne]

15. Born in Boston. This is what I think:

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

28. Excellent...

reminder to everyone

all GOP, all cons want to own people, even white people

they are not happy unless they are controlling people's every move

if you work for a GOP person, you know what I mean

[safeinOhio]

33. A couple of years ago a job I had,

I had a major anti-union boss that called union workers crooks. Last I heard she is under indictment for embezzlement from the store.

[d_r]

4. "Everyone should be proud of their ancestry,”

I am proud of my ancestors. They kicked this guy's ancestors' asses.

[csziggy]

34. I'm pround of a lot of my ancestors - but not the ones who fought for the Confederacy

One of them on his application for restoration of his rights after the Civil War swore he had never been in favor of secession. While he was too old to enlist, four of his sons and three of his sons in law did. Two sons and one son in law died, one son was a prisoner of war and one son in law lost an arm. He ended up supporting two of his daughters and two daughters in law and fourteen grandchildren.

I'm sure by that point he WAS sorry to have supported the Confederacy, but I will never believe he didn't before the war. He could have kept his sons at home by threatening to let their wives and children starve.

All of Mom's ancestors were in the South at that point, many were slave owners. Lots of my relatives of that era fought for the Confederacy. I am ashamed to have to say that.

Dad's ancestors were all in the North, but none of his were of the right age to fight in the war. One cousin/uncle (not sure of the exact relationship off the top of my head) was a doctor in the Union Army and we have his license to practice medicine that was signed by Abraham Lincoln.

My husband's ancestors include a number of Union soldiers - one was with Sherman's Army while it marched through the South. I'm more proud of his ancestors than mine, especially his Northern ancestors who were Quakers and who advocated for abolition long before the Civil War - even though the Quakers did not fight in the war.

But you know, even with Mom's family history, she never would join the Daughters of the Confederacy, never advocating bringing back the "good old days" of slavery, and worked to increase the awareness of history for all groups in my home town by helping to set up the L.B. Brown House museum. http://www.lbbrown.com/

[Art_from_Ark]

38. The Confederacy had a draft

While the men at the top of Confederate society were usually able to get out of it one way or another, those at the bottom of the social ladder usually had to "suck it up" and serve their time, which could be for a period of up to 3 years. If your ancestor was at the bottom of the social ladder and his sons were called up, there likely was no choice for him except to hope that they made it back safely.

[csziggy]

46. They weren't drafted, they enlisted - I've looked up their records on Fold3.com

In fact, several of them enlisted on the same day in the same unit. They were not low on the social ladder either - their father was one of the larger slave owners in the county in central Alabama. The sons chose to fight for the Confederacy so I don't trust the claim of their father he didn't support it.

After the war, they lost just about everything - no slaves to work their land, few adult men to help made for poor crops and hard times. The women did as much as they could but given the labor intensive nature of cotton farming and production, they could not do enough. When the patriarch died, all his land had to be sold to divide up what was left among the heirs - they didn't get much out of it.

I don't feel sorry any of them - their lifestyle had been based on the labor of others without giving the workers their freedom or payment for their work. That family was never the high living plantation style of the movies, but they still accumulated a lot before the Civil War that was not passed down to their slaves.

[Art_from_Ark]

47. Well if that's the case, then maybe the father, um, "encouraged" his sons to enlist

The Confederacy had a lot of exceptions about who was draftable, maybe the sons qualified, maybe they didn't. Volunteers were usually treated better in the army (since it was assumed that they actually wanted to fight), so maybe the sons figured they'd be treated better if they volunteered. Or maybe the father "volunteered" them. At any rate, it does sound like the father was a supporter of "the cause".

[arely staircase]

39. one of my ancestors fought for the confederacy and endured terrible starvation

during the siege of Vicksburg. He never owned a slave. just another poor boy in a rich man's war. He was never well again after the war. Family records are too vague to say what exactly was wrong with him. But given the realities of that chapter of the war he may have just snapped (acute PTSD in modern terms.)

[StevieM]

55. Your mom sounds like an awesome person. (eom)

[underpants]

5. Racial = pro-Confederate

[Downwinder]

7. If they are so all fired up to honor Confederate

Veterans how about restoring the Confederate Veterans Cemetery that was made into a Corporate parking lot and bring back the grave markers that were hauled off dumped in a tank?

[father founding]

8. Look in the Mirror

The Confederates were the South's Muslims.

[Enrique]

45. ?

what is the relationship between Confederates and Muslims?

[City Lights]

9. Yeah, right.

Sure....whatever you say...

Racist fucks.

[librechik]

10. thx for the laughs

no racism there!

[Stephen Retired]

11. Personally, I think the two organizations are telling the truth

And Nicole Kidman, whom I've had sex with eight times in the past 5 hours, and is currently in my bed, completely nude and begging for more, agrees!

[fasttense]

12. In Baltimore? A True blue Union State

Maryland never seceded from the United States. People make way too much about the union soldiers sent to keep Maryland from leaving the union. I seriously doubt Maryland would have turned against their country. Davis sent troops to East Tennessee for the same reason. You hardly ever hear about how East TN wanted to secede from the secession. Do black Union soldiers march through Johnson City, TN on the days before a white person's holiday celebration? No, but maybe they should.

Way more men from Maryland fought on the Union side than they fought on the pro-slavery side. When Lee invaded Maryland he got a chilly reception. When McClellan marched through, the people ran out in the street to greet him and give him flowers. One person said the women were kissing his clothing and hugging his horse's neck.

So, marching through Baltimore all dressed up as long dead pro-slavery soldiers does no honor to Maryland.

[KingCharlemagne]

17. I'm not sure I'd call Maryland a "true blue Union state" in the same

way one speaks of Massachusetts as such. When Lincoln came to Washington, D.C. to be inaugurated, for example, he had to spirited in through Balitmore under cover of darkness, so questionable were the loyalties of its city's residents. Slavery was legal there and, ironically, she provided the decisive battleground (Antietam\Sharpsburg) that led to the beginning of the end of chattel slavery as an institution.

Maryland also gave us Spiro T. Agnew, a far more recent ignominy she has yet to live down, imo

[fasttense]

52. Well Maryland was far from the perfect blue union state

She does have her glaring issues.

[RufusTFirefly]

20. Question: Who won Maryland's 1972 Democratic Presidential Primary?

Answer:



I grew up in Maryland, have family there, and have many fine things to say about it. But I was also called an n-word lover more than once, knew of a couple that was hounded out of their suburban apartment because they were interracial, and was told while campaigning for George McGovern in 1972 that "Son, you've got the wrong George!"

At least when I was growing up there, racism wasn't simply present in Maryland; it was commonplace.

In fact, Baltimore had several notorious "sunset neighborhoods," where you knew you didn't want to be after dark if you were African-American.

[PosterChild]

49. some of the last few lynchings...

..took place in Delmarva, eastren shore. (My understanding is.)

[fasttense]

53. There are and were a lot of racist people from Maryland

I'm NOT saying there aren't any racists there. My own grandfather was one of them. I was called an "N" lover too in the 70s there.

I just think we make way too much of Lincoln's involvement in keeping MD in the Union than we do about Davis keeping the other southern states in the confederacy.

[arely staircase]

40. yeah, because Lincoln disolved their legislature before they could vote on it

had Maryland left the Union DC would have been completely surrounded.

[Art_from_Ark]

44. And John Wilkes Booth was from Maryland

[kwassa]

42. The southern sympathizers in Maryland went south, in Maryland units in the Confederate army.

Eight full Maryland regiments in this army with Maryland units in other regiments as well.

Maryland was a divided state, but went for the Union. Some slaveowners agreed to support the north if they could be compensated financially for the loss of their slaves after the war.

Rockville, Maryland, the county seat of Montgomery County, MD, north of DC has a statue of a Confederate soldier in what was the town square. Supposedly the northernmost civic statue.

[PosterChild]

48. Maryland is on the Wrong Side...

...of the Mason Dixon line. In Baltimore , overlooking the harbor is Federal Hill , so named because it was the overlook that the federal troops set up their artillery on to threaten the city and avert succession.

[yallerdawg]

13. Today, MLK/Robert E Lee Birthday in Montgomery, Alabama...

Governor's Inaugural Celebration festivities, including parade down Dexter Avenue and rallies, all day events!

Sweet home Alabama.

http://alabamainauguration.com/

[SwankyXomb]

14. Becasuse there's nothing more American

than celebrating your ancestors' treason against America.

[radicalliberal]

16. Let me see now. . . .

White conservatives are always telling black Americans to stop dwelling on the past. The conservatives tell them to not dwell on the grotesque injustices of slavery and Jim Crow and to look to the future. What about white Southerners who live in the past and dwell on an event that preceded Jim Crow; namely, the defeat of the Confederacy? Shouldn't they "get over it" and "move on"?

But I think we know what this is really all about. I agree completely with this statement in the OP:

In public these Sons of the South might say it is about heritage and pride but in private
I have know doubt that they call blacks n****rs and Dr. King Martin Luther C**n.

By the way, I'm speaking as a 64-year-old white Texan who grew up under Jim Crow and saw enough to realize just how evil Jim Crow was.

[Botany]

19. boy am I stupid

"I have know doubt ..... "

Botany =

[radicalliberal]

31. Don't be so hard on yourself.

I didn't even notice it.

Besides, I make plenty of boo-boos of my own.

[Botany]

32. Trust me because i have lived w/me my whole life and I can put the da back into dumm

Last edited Mon Jan 19, 2015, 10:51 PM - Edit history (1)

radicalliberal

[radicalliberal]

50. Take care.

[oldandhappy]

18. no, no, of course not

It was just convenient that it was a three day weekend!

[SoapBox]

21. In a word...

Bullshit.

[onehandle]

22. This is like when gun rightists flood in when there has been a mass shooting.

Gun culture doesn't fall too far from the Confederacy lovers tree.

[hack89]

24. Really? So all those AAs that like guns are neo-Confederates?

didn't know that. Thanks.

[christx30]

23. Is this an event they regularly do,

I might *kind of* believe them.
But with the increased racial issues caused by white police killing unarmed black suspects, and the gutting of the Voting Rights act by the Supreme Court, I have a heck of a lot of trouble believing it. Especially if this isn't an annual event. This seems to be a "let's keep those n*****s in their place." Kind of thing. It's a show of contempt. Like celebrating Margaret Sanger during some kind of Catholic holiday.

[hack89]

25. Lets celebrate treason on MLK day weekend.

that's pretty fucked up.

[Frank Cannon]

26. Seriously, why is anyone "proud" of their ancestry?

It's not like you had anything to do with it.

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

29. Carlin had a good bit on that

[FLPanhandle]

27. Down south this was Robert E Lee day long before MLK day.

Not sure why Maryland would celebrate though.

[muntrv]

30. They say Robert E. Lee, I say William Tecumseh Sherman.

[iandhr]

35. Surely you can't be serious.

[inanna]

36. Meanwhile in Pittsburg....

Posted: 10:56 a.m. Monday, Jan. 19, 2015

KKK flyers criticizing MLK found littering street in Pittsburgh neighborhood

PITTSBURGH — Residents in Pittsburgh’s Manchester neighborhood woke up Monday to find flyers criticizing Martin Luther King Jr. littering one of their streets.

About a dozen flyers, which claim to be from the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, were found scattered on Pennsylvania Avenue.

"They are obviously trying to incite somebody; it’s Martin Luther King Day. This is a national holiday. There is absolutely no reason that those things need to be passed out,” said one man who didn’t want to be identified.

<snip>

"I don’t think that there’s probably a lot of people out there who think like that anymore. I think that’s why they are putting it out. They are trying to get some people to think like them. I don’t think it’s going to happen,” said the unidentified man.

Link: http://www.wpxi.com/news/news/local/kkk-flyers-criticizing-mlk-found-littering-street-/njrPd/


I agree with the man who wishes to remain unidentified in the above report. I think this is the work of a small, but very belligerent and vocal faction of wing-nuts. At least, I hope it is.

I chose not to post the images of the KKK flyers here - but they can be viewed at link.

[Babel_17]

37. Provocative, and a denial of the war's resolution

So it's sad, on more than one level.

[blkmusclmachine]

41. "Not racist." Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight...

[kwassa]

43. I googled and discovered a group right here in my town.

Meets at the VFW once a month. Why they are allowed there, I have no idea. Gaitherburg, MD.

[Marthe48]

51. The southern Confederacy was treasonous

Would Americans tolerate German soldiers' descendants marching to honor WWII? Or other enemies of our country? The older I get, the more I dislike public displays of confederate sympathy.

[crim son]

54. "Honestly, that was the

only weekend everybody had free."

Disgusting.