Free Republic

SPRINGFIELD — Country rock band Confederate Railroad has been barred from performing at an Illinois state fair because of its use of the Confederate flag, setting off a firestorm by southern Illinois fans who believe they’re under Chicago liberals’ thumb of political correctness. The band was scheduled to appear Aug. 27 at the DuQuoin State Fair , but Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration canceled the appearance last week. “This administration’s guiding principle is that the state of Illinois will not use state resources to promote symbols of racism,” Pritzker spokeswoman Emily Bittner said. “Symbols of hate cannot and will not represent...

Yes, the Confederate flag offends us... Maybe the flag is about Southern pride, good ol’ rebel spirit. But it is about the South’s historic defense of slavery, segregation, the Ku Klux Klan, fascism, white supremacy, white nationalism and bigotry. Gov. Pritzker said, “The Confederate flag is a symbol of not just slavery, but of treason against the United States.” Why are we writing to criticize Pritzker for banning Confederate Railroad, a country band that uses the Confederate flag, from performing at a state fair? Because government should pick its battles wisely and rarely when curbing free expression, even free expression...

The 2019 Civil War Days might be the last hosted by the Lake County Forest Preserves after the district president questioned the appropriateness of the annual commemoration that features the Confederate flag. President Angelo Kyle said he would prefer to focus on environmental issues such as climate change. In 2015, the district staged Civil War Days shortly after South Carolina removed the battle flag from its Capitol. At the time, forest preserves officials said Confederate flags were not being displayed inappropriately and were used in a historical context. Kyle, who is African American, said that history is written by the...

During the walk-up to Memorial Day, with its evocations of respect for fallen warriors, hypercharged Dallas, found time to stick out a very official tongue at, you see, the wrong kind of fallen warriors: the Confederate kind. The business of establishment America, on the urging of the political left, has become that of saying, "Oh, 'scuse us for not living up to ideals we didn't know were ideals till you kind progressives kindly wised us up. " Dallas city government -- once fairly accused of patient commitment to reasoned dialogue -- bellied up enthusiastically, voting to sell and bar (unconstitutionally)...

On April 19, 2019, Frontpage Mag published Milo Yiannopoulos’ lamentation on the burning of the Notre Dame Cathedral. While I share his grief over this irreplaceable loss to Western Civilization and Christianity, I was shocked to discover that he felt the necessity to trash the Jews. He did so under the convenient cover that he is a Jew -- as he states, through matrilineal descent. But, more significant than his bloodline, his belief system seems to be Catholic as evidenced by his adoration of the Virgin Mary: Mary—the ‘Our Lady’ of Notre Dame—is proof of the incarnation. It is her...

Brian Lamb interviews author H.W. Crocker H.W. Crocker talks about his book 'Robert E. Lee On Leadership: Executive Lessons in Character, Courage, and Vision', published by Prima Publishing. The book profiles the life and career of the Confederate Army General. The author pays special attention to General Lee’s career as a farmer and president of the school now known as Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. He examines the general’s character, vision and spirit and how these principles can be applied in today’s marketplace

CHICKAMAUGA, Ga. — Next door to a plantation built by slaves, Gov. Brian Kemp defended Georgia's Confederate monuments as educational resources while he signed a bill to further protect them Friday. "It is true that there are monuments in our history that do not reflect our values," he said, during a ceremony in front of Gordon Lee High School. "We cannot erase them from our history. We must learn from them. These monuments and markers remind us of how far we've come not only as a state but as a country." Sponsored this year by state Sen. Jeff Mullis, the...

I must apologize. I do not have the time to make individual apologies to each one of you who I have offended, hence the general post. I have learned a lot in the last several years. Some of the things I've learned: I USED TO vote the lesser of two evils. No longer. God is Sovereign in illumination, as He is in salvation. He doen't give the same light to everyone at the same time. If you're in the dark; blame God, or get wisdom. Lincoln was NOT a good president. One of the most evil, actually. The CSA were...

A billboard with Confederate symbols is raising the question of basic decency in Kaufman County while taking aim at the city of Dallas. The billboard is on Highway 175 in the town of Kemp, about 45 miles southeast of Dallas. The sign shows a cartoon character with a Confederate flag urinating on the Dallas skyline and says “I support Confederate heritage.”

CNN hosted a town hall on Monday in Mississippi with presidential candidate and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) where she answered questions on a range of issues, including the Mississippi flag, which features in its field a Confederate symbol. “Mississippi’s the only state in the country that still has the Confederate battle emblem on the state flag — do you think Mississippi should adopt a new flag?” Jake Tapper, CNN anchor who moderated the town hall, asked Warren. “Warren replied with one word — ‘Yes’ — and was met with loud applause from the crowd,” CNN reported on its event....CNN also...

DUNN, NC (WNCN/CNN) - Authorities said vandals wanted to express their opposition to Confederate monuments by targeting a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. The problem is, they went after the wrong statue. Gen. William C. Lee was the commanding officer of the 101st Airborne Division during World War II, and his statue stands in front of his namesake museum, the William C. Lee Airborne Museum. Authorities say someone recently tried to set the statue on fire. “This is a hometown grown boy here that turned out to be an international hero in World War II, but to come...

The motive here is still unknown but the curator of the William C. Lee Airborne Museum has a compelling theory. Given that Confederate memorials have been defaced or torn down recently in the greater Raleigh-Durham area, where the museum is located, and in light of the fact that most Americans are abject ignoramuses about their country’s basic history, it seems likely that someone thought this General Lee was that General Lee and decided to torch a statue of him to protest racism.And so, between this and the Jussie Smollett saga, we have a recurring theme on the homepage today:...

Embattled Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam says that he wants to take down Confederate statues and monuments in the state. “I will take a harder line,” Northam told the Washington Post amid a scandal stemming from a racist photograph on his medical school yearbook page. “If there are statues, if there monuments out there that provoke this type of hatred and bigotry, they need to be in museums.” Northam is facing calls to resign ...

Virginia Democrat governor Ralph Northam refused to shake the hand of his black opponent E.W. Jackson during a 2013 televised debate in the Virginia lieutenant governor’s race. E.W. Jackson, his black opponent, said that Northam is “consistent” in his behavior, and not shaking his hand was just evidence of that. (READ: Fallout Continues From Ralph Northam’s Blackface Yearbook Photo). “It was insulting, but, on the other hand, I thought it was consistent with the way he behaves. Because, this spot he’s been running, saying that I believe that a child born with birth defects is born that way because of...

Dem. Presidential Candidate Calls for $100B in Slavery Reparations “We need a moral and spiritual awakening in the country.” Marianne Williamson, a best-selling author. spiritual teacher and activist, announced her bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination on Monday. On Thursday, she sat down on CNN’s New Day, where she said the United States needs to pay African-Americans reparations for slavery. “We need a moral and spiritual awakening in the country,” the candidate stated. “Nothing short of that is adequate to really fundamentally change the patterns of our political dysfunction.” Her platform includes proposal for free public college, universal health...

Stone Transferred To Wisconsin Veterans' Museum Storage After 113 years, a monument to Confederate soldiers in a Madison cemetery has come down. The stone cenotaph, inscribed with 140 names of prisoners-of-war, stood on an area known as Confederate Rest since 1906 — that is, until last week, when a crew from the Madison Parks Department and a local monument company transferred it from the Forest Hills Cemetery to storage at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum. Madison City Council voted in October to remove the monument and place it in a museum. Logistics and weather delayed the transfer until now, said Eric...

At least 79 teacher assistants and instructors at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill are threatening to withhold grades unless their demands in the Silent Sam controversy are met, local activists say. A proposal by the university’s Board of Trustees to rehouse Silent Sam in a $5.3 million historical center has been met with protests from students and community activists, but a proposed strike crosses a line, UNC System Board of Governors member Marty Kotis told Carolina Journal. “When people start saying you have to believe something or we’re not going to release your grades unless this is done, they’re...

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill trustees have agreed to move a toppled confederate statue on campus to another location. The Silent Sam Confederate statue depicting an anonymous soldier has long been a controversial topic on the campus and was brought down by protesters on August 20, 2018. The school's trustees approved a proposal on Monday to construct a new $5million building to house the fallen monument in another area further away from the heart of the campus. The group voted overwhelming in favor of the plan, though two members voted no. But before the move can be...

Beto O’Rourke is calling for the removal of a controversial Confederate plaque hanging in the Texas State Capitol building, tweeting on Tuesday to “take it down today.” The plaque contains the Children of the Confederacy’s creed, which is a statement that pledges “to study and teach the truths of history (one of the most important of which is, that the War between the States was not a rebellion, nor was its underlying cause to sustain slavery).”

Mississippi Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith once promoted a measure that praised a Confederate soldier's effort to "defend his homeland" and pushed a revisionist view of the Civil War. Hyde-Smith, a Republican, faces Mike Espy, a Democratic former congressman and agriculture secretary, in Tuesday's runoff in Mississippi -- the final Senate race to be decided in 2018. The measure, which was unearthed by CNN's KFile during a review of Hyde-Smith's legislative history, is the latest in a series of issues that have surfaced during her campaign, many of which have evoked Mississippi's dark history of racism and slavery. The concurrent resolution was...