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Sunday,
February 19, 2006 The Times and Democrat
In a recent column, "In Other Words: Symbols and how they're used," this is what
Lisa Stokes had to say about those of us who staged the protest against the
NAACP rally held at the Statehouse on Jan. 16. "People who showed up in
Columbia Monday waving the Confederate flag around at Dr. King's birthday
celebration as if it were a weapon were politically incorrect at best. This was
an inappropriate time to display their support for a flag that they claim to
love so."
If Lisa Stokes had actually been at the "birthday celebration” she would have
seen that no one was waving flags "like a weapon" or like anything else. We were
holding them in our hands. Be that as it may, why was it inappropriate for
those of us who love the flag to protest a public event where a past speaker has
yelled "take down that rag”?
Indeed,
the protest (staged by the South Carolina League of the South) is entirely
appropriate because the NAACP uses this event as a platform to rail against the
flag. The NAACP protested against the flag being flown over the Statehouse. Now
that it has been relocated, is the NAACP willing to declare victory and
concentrate on practical matters? No, it continues to wage war against "a
symbol of idiotic white supremacy" and "an odious blight upon the universe,"
and has pledged the organization to "the removal of the Confederate flag from
all public properties".
How would the absence of a counter demonstration serve the interests of those of
us who love the flag and wish it to remain flying where it is? If we stayed
away, would the NAACP change its rhetoric? You know the answer. The NAACP stages
its public rally as a news event. Our being there has nothing to do with a
"birthday party" and everything to do with the NAACP's anti-flag rhetoric.
The NAACP will go on attacking and tearing down Southern symbols until they are
all hidden away or until the NAACP is stopped. Our protest is entirely
appropriate because the NAACP, by declaring war on Southern symbols, has
declared war on Southern heritage, Southern pride and the Southern people.
By insisting that the flag is a racist symbol, the NAACP defines it in a way
contrary to the meaning it holds for us. Can you guess their motive?
The radical agenda of the NAACP is extremely ambitious. It is nothing less than
the erasure of a wide range of symbols from American history, many of which
have no association with the South. Their agenda is to redefine American
civilization itself as inherently "racist." The defining institutions, songs,
icons, symbols and heroes of the past have to be either discarded or radically
reconstructed.
The NAACP cannot be appeased because it is on a revolutionary course, intent
on the eventual destruction of the traditional civilization of America and the
replacement of our real, historic traditions with new ones imposed by a group
that claims to be for equal rights but actually supports total control by a
dictatorship.
At issue is more than the fate of one flag. Much more is at stake. If they
succeed in removing the flag from its present place of honor, don't expect
that the NAACP will be appeased. It will remain on the offensive. Will the
majority of the citizens of South Carolina finally rise up and stop them or
retreat until freedom of expression itself is banned?
For the NAACP leadership, the flag is just a convenient target. The leaders of
that organization feed on the work that the notion of injustice and inequality
does for them. They must keep these notions alive in order to keep their fat
paychecks. They fan the flames of mistrust in order to keep members from
turning their attention toward the NAACP's general Ineffectiveness and dismal
record of resource management. Simply put, the NAACP is dedicated to keeping
hate alive.
In her article, Lisa Stokes writes that she "was taught that anyone who
associated with a Confederate flag was a racist," and that, "there was a time in
life when I would not have anything to do with anyone who had an attachment to
the Confederate flag", but she now knows that it "is just not true", and now she
has "friends who are obviously flag supporters".
Now she says, "I think the vast majority of Confederate flag supporters actually
don't think that it has anything to do with racism". Lisa Stokes has discovered
something important. Then why does she not write a column dedicated to
improving the understanding of her readers?
Actually, the flag is a symbol of self-determination. It was flown by a people
who were invaded by foreigners waging war against defenseless women and
children. The defenders were our ancestors. Many of those who opposed the
invaders were free black Southerners. Why not point that out instead of
criticizing the flag's defenders? Why not publicize the suffering inflicted on
both blacks and whites during invasion and reconstruction? Lisa Stokes could
point out the truth about the terrible Yankee invasion and how it still hurts
all Southerners. The NAACP never will.
The NAACP is not interested in spreading true insight or building bridges that
unite Southerners under the banner of truth. The NAACP is dedicated to keeping
the pot stirring. In fact, at this very moment the NAACP is conducting an
illegal secondary boycott against South Carolina. They are attempting to
financially hurt the citizens of this state until they give in to their
demands. Although the boycott is totally ineffective, the NAACP's intent is to
damage businesses and individuals until the flag is taken down. Doing real harm
is perfectly OK by them.
To actually
honor Martin Luther King Jr. would be to acknowledge that his aims were
achieved. But such a message would necessarily emphasize that segregation was
ended. Instead, the NAACP continues to repeat the same old tired rhetoric
falsely claiming that racism is everywhere, that inequality is rampart and that
the flag stands in the way of black fulfillment. The NAACP is keeping this
controversy alive in order to keep itself alive. We see through their motives,
as do most South Carolinians.
Calvin Hanks,
Director
South Carolina
League of the South
League of
the South
– Sunday, January 2, 2005
EDITORIAL
COMMENTARY
Independence for South
Carolina
Federal government cannot be
saved;
‘We will work for peaceful
secession’
By James E. Layden
The League of the South (LoS) and various state
organizations such as the South Carolina League of the South
(SCLoS) are dedicated to defending and enhancing the
cultural and political interest of the Southern people.
Members of the League are drawn from all levels of society.
They include distinguished professors, authors, businessmen,
doctors, attorneys, and workingmen and women from all walks
of life. We believe in the same principles of government
that motivated our Founding Fathers: local self-government
(as is articulated in the 10th Amendment); the
preservation of historic local cultures and communities; and
the idea of the “consent of the governed.” We have embraced
the best of the American tradition of ordered liberty.
We do know that sentiment for self-determination and
government by the consent of the governed is a powerful
force and is on the rise throughout the world and in the
United States. For the past 12 years the Odum Institute in
Chapel Hill, N. C., has taken a yearly Southern Focus Poll
about Southern identity. Over this 12-year period, an
average 12 percent of Southerners have favored independence
if we can achieve it by peaceful means. Another 7 percent
are not sure. If only one half of the not sure decides for
freedom, we would have nearly one in six or about 16 percent
of Southerners who favor our cause. This figure becomes
significant when compared to the 15 percent to 20 percent of
American colonist in 1776 who favored secession from
England, and we know how that came out.
The SCLoS is working to regain 10th amendment
rights under the Constitution and failing that, we will work
for peaceful secession through the ballot box. Secession,
or self-determination, is the ultimate right of free men;
and in the spirit of our Founding and Confederate
forefathers, we shall, if necessary, invoke that principle
once again. Devolution is a worldwide trend-taking place in
the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Quebec and
Scotland. Credible independence movements have formed in
the South, Southwest, Alaska and Hawaii.
The SCLoS seeks to advance the cultural, economic, political
well being and independence of all South Carolinians by all
honorable means. We will secure a free and prosperous
Republic of South Carolina in the 21st century
and a government by the consent of the governed. Our own
nation founded on private property, free association, fair
trade, sound money, low taxes, equal justice before the law,
and armed and vigilant neutrality. It will be a
self-governing State and local communities invoking the
favor and guidance of Almighty God, with a bold,
self-confident civilization based on European roots.
Why secession?
This action is deemed necessary because the federal
government of the United States continues its attack against
families, Christian values and symbols. The forced removal
of the Ten Commandments from the Alabama Supreme Court
building is but another in a long train of attacks,
including the forced acceptance of abortion, kicking prayer
out of public schools and high school football game, and
recently, the U. S. Supreme Court decision that
homosexuality is acceptable, as long as it’s kept behind
closed doors. The newest attacks on Christians and families
are sodomite illegitimate unions and the ban on praying in
Jesus name.
The U. S. government separates itself in every way possible
from God, and especially, from Christianity. In some ways,
it even puts itself in God’s place. That is, the government
god is a jealous god and will have no other gods before it.
Add to the moral decay promoted by government, a multitude
of intrusive laws, confiscatory taxation, perpetual war for
perpetual peace and we have an intolerant situation that
will only get worse. This trend will not change unless
enough Christians stand up and say “NO”. We do get the
government we deserve, but we can make a difference.
Economic and political change will occur through personal
commitment and
political action. The goals of the SCLoS are:
-
Implement God’s
laws as the acceptable standard of behavior adopting a
Biblical world view.
-
Eliminate all
federal government control and influence in South
Carolina.
-
Reduce the size
and scope of all levels of government from state, county,
and town to the absolute minimum needed to maintain law
and order.
-
Promote and
institute Southern culture relying on Biblical truth.
Our ideas and solutions will be presented to the citizens of
South Carolina for consideration. They will make the final
decision and will determine our future. We have the
ability to make our case, as some eighty percent of members
are college graduates and about ten percent of these are
PhD’s
The enemies of freedom are trying to distort our message by
making wild charges unrelated to our agenda. The LoS and
the SCLoS has been the subject of false information provided
by Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) of
Montgomery Alabama since autumn 2000. The misinformation
consists of claims that our views represent “hate,” that we
are “haters,” and so on—mere emotional labels and
innuendoes. These charges are scurrilous, misleading, and
inaccurate.
Liberal media
The liberal news media has seized upon this opportunity to
call the LoS and SCLoS ‘hate groups” and “extremist groups”
by quoting the SPLC as an infallible source of information.
This gives them some semblance of honesty when someone else
is quoted with the information they want to convey to the
public. The Greenville News and The State newspapers are
the worst offenders in South Carolina, but the T & D has
learned from them and is now following their lead.
Officers of the SCLoS met with the editors of The State and
the Greenville News and provided documentation to them such
as “ The Church of Morris Dees” by Ken Silverstein, Harpers
Magazine, November 2000. This and the other documents
provided would make any honest person suspect when quoting
such a source. In addition, they were reminded when they
quote a source known to be untrue they are in fact lying and
in a court of law would be guilty of perjury. This
revelation has had no affect on The State and Greenville
News as they continue there lies. In defense of both
papers, it can be said they are not discriminatory as they
also print lies about the Sons of Confederate Veterans,
United Daughters of the Confederacy and even the Boy Scouts
of America. They don’t like God’s Laws either as the SPLC
was the moving force behind the removal of the ten
Commandments from the rotunda of the Alabama Supreme Court
building.
We live in perilous times and freedom for the citizens of
sister Southern states and South Carolinians is a serious
matter that must be considered on an individual basis with
prayerful thought. I want to invite everyone interested in
freedom to read “The Grey Book – Blueprint for Southern
Independence.” It is a scholarly work published by the LoS
to convince you that the U. S. government is indeed beyond
reform, and to spark serious thought and discussion as to
what good government should be like. In addition, please
review the LoS and SCLoS websites at
www.dixienet.org and
www.sclos.org respectively. The Grey Book may be
purchased on Dixienet and other appropriate literature and
Southern symbols are available on
www.leaguebuilding.com. In addition, you are welcome to
visit our Southern Patriot Shops at 107 E. Main St,
Abbeville, SC and soon to open 3018 Charleston Hwy, Cayce.
Our meetings are open to the public and everyone is invited
to attend. Many book reviews and speeches at state and
national conferences are recorded and offered to the
public. Other individuals are presented to the community
via talk show appearances and locally advertised events. We
ask only that South Carolinians “Give truth a
Chance.”
For a free South Carolina,
·
James E. Layden of Bamberg is chairman of the
board of the S. C. League of the South
Monday, October 25, 2004
Members of
the Sons of Confederate Veterans, some of whom are
re-enactors, stress that heritage rather than politics has
been the main goal of the international organization since
its inception in 1896.
RICHARD WALKER/T&D
Question
today is over independence from extremists — and the war is
on
By
LEE HENDREN, T&D Staff Writer
The Sons of
Confederate Veterans says it engages in "preservation work,
marking Confederate soldiers' graves, historical
re-enactments, scholarly publications and regular meetings
to discuss the military and political history of the War
Between the States."
On its Web site, the SCV says it
"continues to serve as a historical, patriotic and
non-political organization dedicated to insuring that a true
history of the 1861-1865 period is preserved."
Those were the dates of a conflict
most people call the Civil War or the War Between the
States. Others call it the War for Southern Independence or
the War of Northern Aggression. The SCV Web site refers to
it by several names including "the Second American
Revolution."
The citizen soldiers who took up arms
against the United States "personified the best qualities of
America," according to the SCV's Web site. "Today, the Sons
of Confederate Veterans is preserving the history and legacy
of these heroes, so future generations can understand the
motives that animated the Southern Cause."
The SCV is
the direct heir of the United Confederate Veterans, whose
leader, former Confederate Gen. John B. Gordon, described
his vision for the group as "strictly patriotic, historical,
educational, benevolent, non-political, non-racial and
non-sectarian."
Walter Charles Hilderman III of
Eutawville, an active Civil War re-enactor and the
great-great-grandson of a Confederate soldier, joined the
SCV a few years ago to pursue ways to express his pride in
his heritage and educate others about the true history of
the South.
"Our ancestors are not pre-Nazi
racist demons who were trying to destroy America," he said
in an interview.
"History will decide who were the
good guys and who were the bad guys, and I'm willing to wait
for the jury to come in on that," he said.
The court of public opinion can take
a while.
But at 1 p.m. this Saturday, a
different kind of tribunal — the SCV's General Executive
Council — is preparing to put Hilderman on trial at SCV
headquarters in Columbia, Tenn.
In an Oct. 11 letter, the SCV's
leader, Denne Sweeney, formally notified Hilderman that he
has been accused of "disloyalty, conduct unbecoming a member
and commission of acts repugnant to the SCV constitution
..."
Specifically, Hilderman was accused
of violating a resolution the SCV passed at its 2002
convention in Memphis that said no member of the group could
criticize any other member of the SCV in any public forum —
and particularly not in the news media.
Hilderman also stands accused of
"founding and advocating the agenda of the Save the SCV
group," which has been critical of the former and current
SCV leadership.
If found guilty, Hilderman could be
suspended or expelled from the SCV.
Sweeney advised Hilderman of his
right to attend the hearing, but Hilderman said, "I don't
see any reason to, really."
"What they have charged me with is
things I have done," Hilderman readily acknowledged. "I did
that, and I am quite proud of it."
‘Saving' the SCV —
Hilderman's cause
Hilderman was one of three
co-founders of Save the SCV in October 2002.
He said most SCV members "carry on
their programs and do all kinds of things they should be
doing, with little or no contact with the hierarchy of the
SCV," not realizing that the leadership is veering toward
what Hilderman says is "political extremism."
"The SCV needs to be an aggressive
defender and promoter of Confederate heritage," he said. "We
need to defend the flag and make sure it is displayed in its
proper historic context, not to further modern social
agendas."
He says modern-day separatists,
neo-Nazis and racists are co-opting Confederate heritage and
symbols and attempting to take over the SCV.
Hilderman said he believes the
Confederate battle flag rally at the Capitol in Columbia in
January 2000 was a turning point: members of the League of
the South and the Council of Conservative Citizens "looked
at that huge crowd of flag-waving Southerners" and saw a
vast, largely untapped pool of potential recruits, he said.
He said they see the SCV as an
attractive plum because of its "$5 million endowment, $1
million annual operating budget" and, perhaps most of all,
"its infrastructure, down to the city and county level, all
across America."
The SCV leadership initially tried to
dismiss Save the SCV as "just a couple of guys with a Web
site," Hilderman said.
And without formal membership rolls
and dues, it's hard to provide evidence to counter that
image, he acknowledged.
"About a hundred or so individuals
and groups identified themselves on the Web site as
supporting Save the SCV shortly after we started it,"
Hilderman said.
"But people got subjected to a lot of
threats and harassment, and we took the names off the Web
site," he added.
Hilderman was a member of an SCV
chapter in the Charlotte suburb of Matthews, N.C., until he
and hundreds of SCV members in several North Carolina
chapters — known as camps — were suspended after openly
criticizing Ron Wilson of Easley, then the
commander-in-chief of the SCV.
"They want to systematically hunt us
down and run us off," said Hilderman, who has since moved to
Eutawville.
Although barred from voting in SCV
elections, he discovered he was still allowed to run for SCV
office, so he declared his candidacy for commander-in-chief.
He says the SCV has been "infiltrated
by members of the League of the South, which advocates
secession, and the Council of Conservative Citizens, an
anti-immigration group that is a descendant of organizations
that fought integration," according to The Associated Press.
To this accusation, SCV officials
give opposite and contradictory rebuttals.
Some, like the SCV's state commander,
Michael Givens of Beaufort, say "there is no connection
between the SCV and ... the League of the South and the
Council of Conservative Citizens. ... Where does Hilderman
get this wild information?"
When asked about this, Hilderman
replied, "I'm going to have to refer you to the Southern
Poverty Law Center. They're the only folks that keep tabs on
this sort of thing, outside the U.S. government," and the
government doesn't share its findings publicly.
Other SCV officers, like Tillman
"Tim" J. Abell Jr., former commander of the Olin M. Dantzler
Camp 73 SCV in Orangeburg, acknowledge the ties but dismiss
them as unimportant.
"Mr. Hilderman seems offended that
some national officers are members of groups that he finds
offensive. It is the right of any American to freely
associate with any group that he or she chooses," Abell
wrote in a letter to the editor published in The T&D.
Hilderman acknowledged that "anybody
can belong to any group they want to," but added that it
must be difficult to be a member in good standing of two
groups that are at opposite purposes.
"The League of the South in
particular, that's the one I find most offensive," Hilderman
said. "They are a neo-secessionist organization."
Heritage gone too far?
Finding connections between the SCV
and the League of the South is as easy as browsing the
League's Web site, Dixienet.org. On it, Michael Tuggle of
Charlotte, N.C., is identified as a member of the League of
the South National Board of Directors.
A candidate for SCV
commander-in-chief this year was identified on the SCV Web
site as Michael Tuggle of North Carolina.
In 1998, the League's president, Dr.
J. Michael Hill — who is, incidentally, a member of the
Thomas O. Benton Camp, SCV, Monroe, La. — posted the
following on Dixienet.org:
"The prospects of protecting and
advancing Southern culture have just been given a
much-needed boost. The Sons of Confederate Veterans has
approved an affiliation policy that allows it to cooperate
with the League in non-political matters. ...
"Our policy from the beginning has
been to encourage men to belong to both the League and the
SCV, since the two organizations have different basic goals.
However, on issues such as the preservation and advancement
of Southern culture, there is no reason why we cannot now
work together.
"Indeed, the League looks forward to
establishing good relations with those SCV leaders and
members who also believe in the League and its purpose."
In an essay, Hill said the League's
"political objectives" are "a return to constitutional
republicanism and true federalism, or if that should prove
unattainable, secession. Secession, or self-determination,
is the ultimate right of free men. ..."
In another essay, Hill wrote that the
Save the SCV supporters "hide behind the dubious assertion
that the SCV ought to be nothing more than a club of amateur
historians and gravestone polishers" and "are unwilling to
admit that the principles for which (their forebears)
struggled — states rights and secession, in particular —
were right.
"How can a man claim to honor his
Confederate ancestors and at the same time deny the very
things for which they fought and died? To equate the
righteous principles of the Confederacy with treason,
revolution and radicalism, and to pledge allegiance to the
usurper's flag that denied the right of self-government to
the Southern people is to spit on the graves of noble men
and a noble cause," Hill wrote.
Hilderman, on the other hand, cites
the Preamble to the SCV's constitution in insisting that the
SCV's stated role is as a "patriotic American organization
with allegiance to the United States."
The SCV's mission is "to protect and
honor the image of the Confederate soldier, tell future
generations what they did and defend the decisions they made
in their time," Hilderman said.
It is not, he maintained, to emulate
the Confederate soldiers' active efforts to secede from the
Union.
"They fought for certain principles
140 years ago," Hilderman said. "All that's over with. The
war ended in 1865. Linking the Confederate soldier to some
sort of freedom fighter in 2004 is dishonest."
Modern-day secessionists can "try to
get the (U.S.) Constitution changed and have at it,"
Hilderman said. "But do not stand on my
great-great-grandfather's shoulders and do that."
Hilderman told The New Republic
magazine, "Local SCV camp meetings are more likely to
feature anti-government diatribes and odes to the unique
Anglo-Celtic nature of the South than plans to commemorate
Robert E. Lee Day."
Hilderman says some camps have
stopped reciting the Pledge of Allegiance or displaying the
American flag at meetings.
"They view this as a cultural war,"
Hilderman said. "All of this has national political
implications. Our society needs to have these things
settled."
One of Hilderman's most controversial
opinions is that the SCV should seek to make peace with its
two main critics: the NAACP, which has called for the
"destruction of all things Confederate," and the Southern
Poverty Law Center.
"I'm trying to build bridges,"
Hilderman explained. The SCV leadership "were afraid that
message might sell," so "they demonized me."
Hilderman knows many of his views are
not shared by the SCV leadership. To them, "I am the enemy,"
he said.
SCV leader promises
‘Heritage offense'
When Hilderman showed up at the SCV's
109th annual "reunion" — national convention — July 28-31 at
Dalton, Ga., he "was met at the door of the Northwest
Georgia Trade and Convention Center by security guards. ...
Lawyers (for the SCV) told him he would be arrested for
trespassing if he tried to attend any SCV business
meetings," the Associated Press reported.
The election was "held behind closed
doors" and reunion rules forbade delegates from talking to
reporters, the AP reported.
An Internet search turned up only one
detailed account of the event: an Aug. 1 posting by "MCT" on
the League of the South site, Dixienet.org.
Under the headline, "SCV Ready for
Battle," the author wrote, "I've just returned from the SCV
Reunion in Dalton, Ga., and couldn't be happier."
The author said delegates "rejected
the ‘history club' model that the ‘lay low and maybe they
won't hurt us' SSCV wanted ....
"Denne Sweeney won the election for
commander-in-chief, and Anthony Hodges won the race for
lieutenant commander. Both promised increased activism in
the defense of Southern heritage, and backed those promises
with impressive resumes of actual success stories dealing
with politicians, fund-raising and managing people.
"In other words, just the kind of men
the SCV must have to deal with an increasingly hostile
political environment. One of Hodges' slogans I particularly
liked was 'Heritage OFFENSE — not defense!'
On his Web site, Hodges related: "I
fought my first ‘heritage battle' at the age of 6 ... when a
northern-born classmate had the audacity to suggest the
Yankees had won the war.
"Fisticuffs ensued, but much like the
battle of Sharpsburg, there was no conclusive outcome.
"However, I have spent much of my
time over the next 43 years defending the reputation and
good name of the Confederate soldier.
"I would like to continue that
defense as Lieutenant Commander-in-Chief of the Sons of
Confederate Veterans ..." The Chattanooga, Tenn., dentist
got his wish.
MCT also wrote that "the mood of the
convention was firmly in favor of reforming the SCV to meet
the challenges of today, such as aggressive heritage
defense, pro-active educational projects such as the Sam
Davis Youth Camp and the continuation of the field
representative program."
Gilbert Jones of Greensboro, N.C.,
was another co-founder of Save the SCV. He was suspended
from the SCV in 2002 and subsequently quit the SCV, only to
have a falling out with Hilderman as well.
Jones told The T&D that the Sam Davis
Youth Camp sponsored an oratory contest in 2003 with the
topic, "Why Should My State Secede?"
Vowing to defend
Southern rights
Sweeney, the new SCV
commander-in-chief from Ferris, Texas, is a U.S. Military
Academy graduate, Vietnam War veteran and retired computer
engineer. He had been the lieutenant commander under the
former commander-in-chief, Ron Wilson.
One of his first actions was to
announce a rally on Sept. 2-3 in Gettysburg, Pa., the scene
of the Civil War battle that inspired President Abraham
Lincoln's famous address.
The rally protested Gettysburg
College's sponsorship of an exhibit "featuring the hateful
anti-Southern artwork of John Sims," the SCV said in a
statement.
Sims is a 36-year-old artist and
teacher who explores the power of symbols, according to a
report by The Associated Press.
His artwork recolors the Confederate
battle flag in pink and purple, and in the black nationalist
colors of red, black and green.
But what really riled the SCV was the
Florida artist's "mock lynching of a Confederate flag" as
part of the exhibit. Sweeney called for an economic boycott
of the entire Gettysburg area.
Hilderman said he is "thoroughly
outraged at what the college is allowing to happen." He
called it "inflammatory" and a "hate crime."
However, Hilderman said, "the SCV has
once again gone off half-cocked. Calling for a boycott of
the entire town, which is the most popular Civil War
historic site in the nation, is probably a mistake" because
it would fail and the failure would reflect negatively on
the SCV.
In an interview with the Columbia
(Tenn.) Daily Herald shortly after his election, Sweeney
said, "We're a heritage group and we want to stay that way.
We aren't a political group. We get involved with things
perceived as political, but we view it as First Amendment
rights and anyone can sue over that."
Specifically, he spoke of people who
"are discriminated against, like getting fired from jobs for
putting a Confederate flag on a tool box" or wearing a
"picture of Robert E. Lee on their T-shirt. ... We want to
make sure they have some kind of protection like other
minority groups."
These are the kinds of cases taken by
the Southern Legal Resource Center of Black Mountain, N.C.,
and its chief trial counsel, Kirk Lyons.
Jones says the SCV, at its July
reunion in Dalton, voted to give Lyons and the SLRC $20,000
to pursue legal arguments that Southern Confederate
Americans should be a protected minority.
Lyons "has represented members of the
Ku Klux Klan and, in 1990, he married the daughter of a
leader of the Aryan Nations," according to a lengthy,
detailed article in The New Republic magazine.
Hilderman said a League of the South
sympathizer claimed, in an e-mail to him, that the group had
"infiltrated" South Carolina law enforcement agencies,
institutions of higher education and the General Assembly.
"That is news, that a
neo-secessionist organization has infiltrated South Carolina
government. That is news," Hilderman said.
Earlier this month, state Sen.
Darrell Jackson, a Democrat, made news of his own when he
held a press conference to call attention to the League of
the South's endorsement of Republican Ken Wingate for
governor in 2002.
Wingate, who is running for a state
Senate seat this year, said the endorsement was "irrelevant"
and that he had no position on the group, according to The
Associated Press.
But his opponent, Democratic state
Rep. Joel Lourie, said he was concerned that Wingate did not
immediately distance himself from the group and the
"deplorable views they espouse" and "the hatred they spew."
The Southern Poverty Law Center has
called the League of the South a "hate group" — a
characterization the group vigorously denies.
As Hill said, "We are a Southern
nationalist organization and have been so since day one. We
believe in the right of secession, the right of Southern
independence."
-Monday, October 25, 2004
Local
Sons see misunderstanding of Southern cause — then and now
By
RICHARD WALKER, T&D Staff Writer
"To you, Sons of Confederate
Veterans, we will commit the vindication of the cause for
which we fought. To your strength will be given the defense
of the Confederate soldier's good name, the guardianship of
his history, the emulation of his virtues, the perpetuation
of those principles which he loved and which you love also,
and those ideals which made him glorious and which you also
cherish." — Lt. General Stephen Dill Lee, Commander General,
United Confederate Veterans, New Orleans, Louisiana, April
25, 1906.
Read before the opening of every
monthly meeting in each camp in each state, the creed of the
Sons of Confederate Veterans reflects the purpose of a
generations-old heritage group caught up in the modern era.
Originally created as a financial and
medical support group for the aging Confederate veterans,
today's Sons of Confederate Veterans has taken on an evolved
role to defend what members say is an ever-growing
propaganda machine aimed at painting the Southern soldier in
a negative light.
Thomas McClain, commander of the Col.
Olin M. Dantzler SCV Camp 73, says the group's purpose today
is to combat that effort with truth and preserve an accurate
history of the Confederate soldier, his principles and his
motivations.
To do otherwise would be an
injustice to the group, the Cameron resident said.
McClain bristles with what he calls a
distortion of history by Northern accounts of the war and by
extension, a misrepresentation of the Southern soldier.
McClain said the government's stance
that slavery caused the war and the North fought to preserve
the Union is a pack of lies and myths that serves to cover
up what amounts to an invasion of the Southern states.
In the preamble to the Declaration of
Independence, McClain said all states were given the right
to secede just as the colonists did so from England in 1776.
Citing New York author Charles Adams'
work "When in the Cause of Human Events," McClain said
Northern economists knew the Southern states had been paying
up to 87 percent of the entire federal budget. There would
be little chance the South would be allowed to simply leave
in peace. "They couldn't let us go," he said. "We were
paying for everything."
South Carolina troops in Charleston
opened fire on Fort Sumter for a reason. McClain believes
the Lincoln administration would not negotiate an exchange
price for the fortification as it had other military
facilities in the South.
"And all this time, he (Lincoln) had
three warships to blockade Charleston, three heavily-armed
battleships sitting out there," McClain said. "They say
South Carolina fired the first shot, but they don't explain
what caused that first shot."
The SCV also takes issue with the
Northern claim the war was fought to end slavery.
Absurd, McClain said.
When preserving the Union lost its
glamour for Northerners after 20 months of war and "On to
Richmond" cries began to subside, the Lincoln administration
attempted to take a high moral road by issuing its
Emancipation Proclamation, he said. But the document would
free slaves in the South, an area where Lincoln had no
control, McClain said, but did nothing to address the people
in bondage in the North, where Lincoln governed.
"Why didn't they free the slaves in
the North?" he said. "They're distorting history, and what
we're trying to do is preserve history."
This distortion of history has also
led to the distortion Confederate symbols, McClain said. And
the meaning of those symbols has led to a more visible fight
for the SCV that drew international attention in recent
years.
In the 1990s, South Carolina SCV
camps were joined by those from around the world to combat
an effort to remove the Confederate battle flag from atop
the South Carolina Statehouse dome.
Other organizations labeled the
Confederate banner as racist, McClain said. But Europeans,
McClain believes, know more of American history than many
Americans.
"Did you know that when they were
tearing down the walls in (Europe), they flew the
Confederate battle flag?" he said. "They know what it stands
for, it stands for fighting a tyrannical government."
However, while fighting what the
group sees as propaganda, the local SCV camp plans to adhere
to its original national charter of staying out of politics.
Personal campaigns and preferences in politics are fine, but
are to be checked at the door before a monthly SCV meeting,
McClain said.
"We don't allow candidates to come to
our meetings and talk about politics," he said. "We open the
meeting with a prayer, a pledge to the American flag, the
South Carolina flag and the Confederate flag."
The recent ruckus with Walter
Hilderman III is not the first time the SCV camp has taken a
different view.
McClain said a Hilderman visit to an
SCV meeting last year didn't go too well. The Eutawville
resident had asked for floor time.
"I told him straight up I won't
tolerate any hate talk," McClain said of Hilderman. "I asked
him to leave, and he left. We're a heritage group trying to
promote our heritage."
Locally, the camp has taken on
several projects geared toward area youth and cultural
preservation.
As financial officer of SCV Camp 73,
Mark Trimmier said this year the unit sponsored three area
high school students to attend the Sam Davis Youth Camp held
the last week in June in Georgia.
Trimmier describes the camp as
"basically a youth camp that teaches them values, Southern
values, which are passes these days."
Because the attendance cost for each
student is $395, the Orangeburg SCV is currently holding a
raffle for a Remington 700 shotgun in order to perpetuate
the youth fund.
Members of the local camps will
travel statewide when the call is received from state or
local park officials asking for volunteers to join clean-up
efforts at South Carolina's battlefields.
The local units also receive requests
not only for manpower, but financial aid as well. Requests
for assistance from area churches or other civic groups for
help in clearing historical cemeteries do not fall by the
wayside, either, Trimmier said.
"We try to help out with $100 or
$200," Trimmier said.
The Olin M. Dantzler camp has about
75 members, McClain said, with an active membership of about
40.
In addition to a nominal annual fee,
membership into an SCV unit requires a bit of genealogical
work, said Tillman Abell, former commander of Camp 73, and a
member for more than 10 years. Those genealogical records
must indicate the potential member is a direct descendant of
a Confederate representative.
"You have to prove that you have an
ancestor, either collaterally or an officer in the
government, and find some evidence of that lineage," Abell
said.
Once that lineage is established, the
prospective member can then join an organization its members
say is an upstanding entity whose aim is to preserve an
accurate picture of history surrounding the Southern
soldier.
"It's an honorable heritage," McClain
said. "We're proud of our ancestry."
·
T&D Staff Writer
Richard Walker can be reached by e-mail at
rwalker@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at
803-533-5516.
|
