The Secesh category archive

Leonard Pitts, Jr., considers the resilience of the Secesh. A snippet–read the rest.

Twice now — at gunpoint in the 1860s, by force of law a century later — the rest of the country has imposed change on the South, made it do what it did not want to do, i.e., extend basic human rights to those it had systematically brutalized and oppressed. No other part of the country has ever experienced that, has ever seen itself so harshly chastised by the rest.

Both times, the act was moral and necessary. But who can deny, or be surprised, that in forcing the South to do the right thing, the rest of the country fostered an abiding resentment, an enduring “apartness,” made the South a region defined by resistance. Name the issue — immigration, race, abortion, education, criminal justice — and law and custom in Dixie have long stood stubbornly apart from the rest of the country.

Reg Henry finds the Sons of Confederate Veterans’ suit to compel Texas to allow them to display the flag of the secesh on their Texas license plates to be less than salutary.

To be fair, those who see the Confederate battle flag as merely a historic artifact of Southern culture cannot be collectively condemned as racists. But those who are offended have their reasons, too. Through the filter of nostalgia, the Confederate cause may seem to be about honor and duty in the service of states’ rights but there’s no getting around the fact that the war to preserve that way of life was at base about preserving bondage based on skin color.

Do follow the link and read the rest.

The South may have lost the war, but it is still fighting to win the peace.

Nixon’s odious Southern Strategy rides again!

Alabama opts for nullification, because it worked so well the last time.

Via Job’s Anger.

In an article about Longwood University, which was Longwood State Teachers College when my aunt attended it during the roaring 20s (I wonder if she roared? Probably, knowing her) my local rag looks back. A snippet:

In 1951, hundreds of students walked out of Farmville’s all-black high school to protest dismal conditions. Their electrifying strike played directly into the Supreme Court’s ruling three years later that racial segregation of public schools was unconstitutional.

Then, from 1959 to 1964, Prince Edward County public schools were shut down as local officials resisted desegregation orders.

Read the rest.

This is what the New Secesh look back on with longing.

What better time to demonstrate your allegiance to the Secesh than Martin Luther King’s birthday?

. . . read this.

Yes. That is what it was like, and that is what some persons consider the “Good Old Days.”

Via PoliticalProf.

In the Roanoke Times, Halford Ryan traces the history of the Stars and Bars. He concludes that its symbolism cannot be (you will pardon the expression) whitewashed:

Chauvinistic Neo-Confederates and their fellow travelers want currently to hawk the Stars and Bars without regard for its historical, symbolic and divisive impact on others.

But many recognize the flag’s disruptive symbolism for what it was then and for what it is now. They do not honor the flag now nor respect what it stood for then.

The Confederate flag in 1861-65 symbolized exactly what it signifies in 2014: rebellion over slavery against the United States of America.

Follow the link to see how he reached this conclusion.

I’m not sure which is worse: Racists or politicians who pander to racists. (Of course, sometimes, a pol is both at the same time.)

Nevertheless, it can be fun to watch them wriggle when they get caught, even when you know that, ultimately, they will slip off the hook because they do, indeed, represent their constituents.

I guess this shows some progress. At least, it has become–er–unseemly to be openly racist; now, racists are restricted to code words except when they are amongst their own. When I was a young ‘un, it was perfectly acceptable to be an openly racist politician.

John Crisp wonders about motivation and memory. A nugget:

But one wonders why it (the Sons of Confederate Veterans–ed.) wishes to force an image of its battle flag into such a prominent, publicly sanctioned place as a license plate, where it might cause in-your-face offense to a black citizen who happens to be sitting behind an SCV member at a red light.

For that matter, some white Texans might cringe a little, too. My mother’s direct line of descent includes Francis Marion Hayes, a Texas frontier lawyer and eventually a state legislator. On March 7, 1860, he wrote to his brother: “I have nothing of importance to write in the way of news. I attended another negro sale yesterday. Negroes did not sell so high as they did the first of January. I bought one little boy about 10 years old for $1151.00, about as good a bargain as was sold on that day.”

The next time you hear someone get all misty-eyed about the Old South and the Lost Cause, ask, “What, exactly, was the cause that was lost?”