Free Republic

Bernd Osterloh, who is the Volkswagen AG General and Group Works Council chairman, said that future investments in the South might be hurt if workers will not unionize, according to Reuters. The comments come days after Volkswagen Chattanooga workers voted against representation by the United Auto Workers Union. After years of quiet work by union leaders and a contentious campaigning period, officials announced Friday night that Volkswagen employees opted against UAW representation with a 712-626 vote. But at that announcement, Volkswagen Chattanooga President Frank Fischer said the vote wasn't against the works council and that there is still support for...

Florida’s first state park has become ground zero for a raging political fight to establish a monument honoring Union Army soldiers who died during the Civil War. The three-acre Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park currently includes three monuments honoring Confederate soldiers who died fighting to secede from the country. The park, first established in 1912, was the site of Florida’s largest and bloodiest Civil War battle that killed 3,000 Union and 1,000 Confederate soldiers. It occurred on February 20, 1864, and raged on for four hours. With no marker respecting the sacrifice of so many northern men, the Florida chapter...

It seems fitting that the de facto anthem of the Confederacy during the Civil War, which some people might still be shocked to learn the North won, turned out to be "Dixie." After all, since Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox there's been no shortage of looking away, looking away at the reality of history when it comes to the Civil War. Nowhere is that full flower of denial more apparent than among the followers of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which is upset about a proposal to erect a monument to Union soldiers who died in the Battle...

President Lincoln has been all but deified in America, with a god-like giant statue at a Parthenon-like memorial in Washington. Generations of school children have been indoctrinated with the story that “Honest Abe” Lincoln is a national hero who saved the Union and fought a noble war to end slavery, and that the “evil” Southern states seceded from the Union to protect slavery. This is the Yankee myth of history, written and promulgated by Northerners, and it is a complete falsity. It was produced and entrenched in the culture in large part to gloss over the terrible war crimes...

“Here I greet you in the shadow of the statue of your Commander, General Robert E. Lee. You and he left us memories which are part of the memories bequeathed to the entire nation by all the Americans who fought in the War Between the States.”

This is a "revised and extended" re-post of an article I wrote in 2011 to mark an anniversary of General Lee's death. It celebrates instead the two hundred and seventh anniversary of his birth on January 19, 1807, a happier occasion. It's a couple days early, but I don't think he would mind. We have changed as a nation, often for the worse.We, as a nation, seem to have done with heroes of General Lee's type. Yet he inspired a fledgling nation, the Confederate States of America -- young, old, rich and poor alike. Those who reminisce about him do...

However if one truly wants to make such a big deal out of what we call the armed conflict which occurred in America from 1861 to 1865 , and if its historical accuracy and honesty that one truly seeks, then I think Douglas Southall Freeman is, perhaps, the truest to historical accuracy in coining the proper term . . .

The Georgia Division Sons of Confederate Veterans will again sponsor their annual Robert E. Lee Birthday Commemorative on Saturday January 18, 2014 at the Old Capitol Building, 201 E. Greene St., Milledgeville, Georgia.

Lawyers from California have cast accusatory eyes on Mississippi, declaring that the state’s Confederate symbol on its flag that’s flown at a Santa Ana display is racist and needs to go. The Orange County Bar Association has passed a resolution to remove the Mississippi flag from the Santa Ana civic center where it now hangs, along with the flags of all other states, The Los Angeles Times reported. Members of the group say the Confederate symbol is an outdated relic that represents racism and hatred, The Associated Press reported.

An ESPN senior writer said that Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson is a "disgrace to the South" and either a "racist or dumb" for saying that he did not witness the mistreatment of blacks in his personal experience in the Jim Crow South. Robertson described himself as someone who was "white trash" and worked in the fields with blacks in his controversial interview with GQ magazine.

Gay-rights activists have won the culture war—why the need to act like sore winners?Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson’s victory over the A&E network, which sheepishly reinstated him late Friday, is a rare culture war victory for conservatives. Though Robertson’s controversial remarks to GQ magazine were fairly cringeworthy, it is exhilarating to see the zero-tolerance liberal commissars who police the public square with such Javert-like zeal get their, er, goose cooked by their worst nightmare: a rural, Southern, fundamentalist Christian duck hunter who does not give a tinker’s damn what they think. Bien-pensant activists and their corporate and media enablers lecture...

In Latin America, hot tamales are as ubiquitous as the sandwich. This holds true in, of all places, the Mississippi Delta. Better known for its association with cotton and catfish, the Mississippi Delta has a fascinating relationship with tamales. In restaurants, on street corners, and in kitchens throughout the Delta, this very old and time-consuming culinary tradition remains vibrant. But how and when were hot tamales introduced to what has been called “the most Southern place on earth”? And why have they stayed? There are as many answers to those questions as there are tamale recipes. Oral history interviews with...

'The thriving cotton industry brought Jewish merchants to the southern states of the US in the 19th Century. Their synagogues once attracted hundreds of worshippers but now, many Deep South Jewish communities are preparing to shut up shop.'

The U.S. Army War College, which molds future field generals, has begun discussing whether it should remove its portraits of Confederate generals

Refusing to surrender he led his men on an epic 1500 mile flight through the anarchy of a lost war to continue the fight. Joseph Orville Shelby was born December 12, 1830 in Lexington, Kentucky. He was classically educated at Transylvania University before moving to Missouri. Before the civil war He was a hemp rope manufacturer and espoused the pro-slavery cause and took active part in several shady schemes to make Kansas a slave state. At the beginning of the war he accepted a commission as a Captain of Cavalry in the Missouri Confederate militia, being bloodied at the Battle...

‘Now, this here tale didn't happen just yesterday, nor the day before.’Twas a long time ago. And in them days, everything was mighty satisfactual. The critters, they was closer to the folks, and the folks, they was closer to the critters, and if you'll excuse me for saying so, 'twas better all around’----Uncle Remus from Disney’s Song of the South.

It’s time to get your Deacon and Gunnar fix—tonight marks the return of ABC’s Nashville. We at SL have come to love this show for its spotlight on Music City, its cameos, Connie Britton’s amazing hair, and especially the music. Over the summer, we spent some time with the incredibly talented Erin McCarley for a Southern Living Biscuits & Jam session. This feisty, Texas-born singer-songwriter, known for her raw lyrics and electric hooks, also happens to be in Rayna Jaymes’s band on the show. Check out our Southern Minute interview with Erin below—and find out whether she’s a Deacon or...

Duval County School Board members voted unanimously Friday to start the process that likely would remove the name Nathan B. Forrest from one of its high schools. All seven board members voted to formally accept the written request of District 5 board member Constance Hall to begin the name-change procedure.

JACKSONVILLE, Florida (Reuters) - A north Florida school board has voted unanimously to change the name of a local high school honoring a Confederate general who made a fortune as a slave trader and was linked to the Ku Klux Klan. "It's time to move forward with the renaming of Nathan B. Forrest High ... it's time to really put it to bed," said School Board member Constance Hall, who asked the Board to finally begin the process of changing the name on Friday. Hall and the board's other African American member were joined in the 7-0 vote by four...

Born as a symbol of rebellion, the Confederate battle flag retains much of that symbolism to this very day. What is even more intriguing is the fact that the very commissioning of the original Confederate battle flag was itself, an act of rebellion. This little-known part of the flag’s story is told in a fascinating new documentary written and produced by historian Kent Masterson Brown.