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I’m not sure it’s politically OK to mention this, now that we’ve elected President Obama and we’re officially in a post-racial age. But I saw more black people in a recent four-day, 1,600-mile road trip from Atlanta to the Mississippi Delta and back than I have in Pittsburgh in the last year. The New South, in case any other dumb Yankee besides me hasn’t noticed what’s been obvious for decades, is far more racially integrated – from top to bottom – than the Old North. I’m sure this is no newsflash to Georgians, where blacks make up 30 percent of...

by Charley Reese Most of the political problems in this country won't be settled until more folks realize the South was right. I know that goes against the P.C. edicts, but the fact is that on the subject of the constitutional republic, the Confederate leaders were right and the Northern Republicans were wrong. Many people today even argue the Confederate positions without realizing it. For example, if you argue for strict construction of the Constitution, you are arguing the Confederate position; when you oppose pork-barrel spending, you are arguing the Confederate position; and when you oppose protective tariffs, you are...

Frustration and disappointment that have arisen out of the town of Jonesborough’s decision to not allow bricks honoring Confederate soldiers to be placed in the Veterans Memorial Park have spread beyond the town limits. The Southern Legal Resource Center, a nonprofit organization based in Black Mountain, N.C., that advocates in matters involving Southern history, heritage and culture, has contacted Jonesborough officials cautioning them about excluding the Confederate soldiers and urging them to reconsider the town’s current policy. The town decided nearly a decade ago, when the park was originally built, that the park would honor soldiers who served in the...

No one can deny the importance of slavery to the feud that split the United States, or that the CSA states made protection of slavery one of their central purposes. But the Southern confederacy -- that is, the national government of the CSA -- was no more built on slavery than was the Northern Union . . .

A flag fight is brewing in southern Florida. Members of the Miami-Dade branch of the NAACP want the Confederate flag banned from the Homestead-Miami Motor Speedway, and they will meet Thursday to decide whether to boycott a NASCAR race slated there for November. Debra Toomer, the branch's chairwoman of press and publicity, said a planning session has been scheduled to decide on a course of action regarding the display of the flag at the Nov. 20-22 event, as well as its presence at city-sponsored events like last year's Veterans Day parade. "The concern is there," Toomer said of Confederate flags....

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama avoided a racial controversy on his first Memorial Day in office by sending wreaths to separate memorials for Confederate soldiers and for blacks who fought against them during the Civil War. Last week, a group of about 60 professors petitioned the White House, asking the first black U.S. president to break tradition and not memorialize military members from the Confederacy, the group of Southern states that supported slavery. "The Arlington Confederate Monument is a denial of the wrong committed against African-Americans by slave owners, Confederates and neo-Confederates, through the monument's denial of slavery as...

President Barack Obama sent a wreath Monday to a memorial for soldiers who fought on the side of slavery during the Civil War, continuing a 90-year-old Memorial Day tradition despite being urged by historians to “break this chain of racism.” The first black U.S. president also started a new tradition by sending a wreath to the African American Civil War Memorial in Washington honoring the 200,000 black soldiers who fought for Union forces in America’s bloodiest conflict. “We ask you to break this chain of racism stretching back to Woodrow Wilson and not send a wreath or other token of...

Officials of a South Florida branch of the NAACP say the organization could stage protests during NASCAR races in an effort to have the Confederate flag banned from events. The Miami-Dade branch's leaders said they would first ask for help from NASCAR officials in banning the flag, but are prepared to begin contacting sponsors. Also under consideration are a boycott and a march during the season-ending race weekend at Homestead-Miami Motor Speedway, according to the South Florida Times. The Times article, quoting NAACP officials, said correspondence was being prepared to Brian France, NASCAR's chairman and CEO. France has spoken out...

Charleston was in ruins. The peninsula was nearly deserted, the fine houses empty, the streets littered with the debris of fighting and the ash of fires that had burned out weeks before. The Southern gentility was long gone, their cause lost. In the weeks after the Civil War ended, it was, some said, "a city of the dead." On a Monday morning that spring, nearly 10,000 former slaves marched onto the grounds of the old Washington Race Course, where wealthy Charleston planters and socialites had gathered in old times. During the final year of the war, the track had been...

The Morehead chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans have been denied a request to march in the Ironton Lawrence County Memorial Day Parade. The 5th Kentucky Infantry Camp #2122 received a letter from Arthur J. Pierson, parade grand marshal, rejecting the group’s request to participate in the parade, without giving any reasons why. “Your parade request for SCV, 5th Kentucky Infantry camp #2122 Morehead, KY, has been considered and NOT APPROVED,” the letter stated. The 5th Kentucky wanted to march with a color guard that would feature two Confederate flags – the Kentucky Confederate flag and the Confederate battle...

In these hard times, Americans are trying hard to relax and take refuge in entertainment. But The Washington Post is insisting that country music fans are not really sympathetic figures. They are prone to self-congratulation and "closing ranks" behind the thought that they live in the "real America." The Post music critic going by the name Josh Freedom du Lac -- that just can't be his name -- doesn't really seem to like patriotic music, despite the patriotic byline. He worries that songs like Jason Aldean's "Hicktown" or the Zac Brown Band's "Chicken Fried" do something wrong: They are "narrowcasting...

One of the greatest misconceptions of American history is that the Civil War was fought over slavery. Those who subscribe to this belief see President Abraham Lincoln as the benevolent leader who made unimaginable sacrifices in human blood to wipe out America’s greatest sin. While the human sacrifice is indisputable and the sin was monumental, the war’s purpose was not to free blacks from the shackles of bondage. Rather, the Civil War was fought with one purpose in mind: To preserve the Union at all costs. And, to put it in Lincoln’s terms, with no ifs, ands, or buts. You’d...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - A white fraternity that traces its roots to the Civil War and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee is again facing complaints over its antebellum-themed events. This time, University of Alabama alumnae are upset after Kappa Alpha Order members wearing Confederate uniforms and carrying battle flags paraded past a historically black sorority as the women celebrated the group's 35th anniversary. The fraternity has been forced to halt its "Old South" festivities on some campuses because of claims of racial insensitivity, and Alabama members have apologized for pausing in front of Alpha Kappa Alpha's sorority house during this...

There is a sign in Madisonville that states he was born here and one in Morristown that says he fought there, but it took some digging to unearth more savory details of the life of John Crawford Vaughn, a hero and a rogue by anyone's standards. Vaughn was a Confederate brigadier general, one of only three general officers from East Tennessee and the only one still in command when the war was over. He was born in 1824 and was even elected sheriff of Monroe County. Before that he tried his luck in the California Gold Rush, but failed. He...

An advisory board that addressed racial issues in Homestead and Florida City has been dissolved, leading some residents to question whether the move was an attempt to stop their fight against the Confederate Flag. Led by Homestead Mayor Lynda Bell, all seven members of the Homestead City Council voted on April 20 to shut down the Homestead/Florida City Human Relations Board (HRB).

An Auburn city councilman has apologized for removing miniature confederate battle flags from the graves of confederate soldiers.

Lorenzo Deming, a 20-year-old from New Britain, Conn., was one of the soldiers captured in the attack and was later transferred to Salisbury to one of the 11 prison camps established by the Confederates. Deming died in captivity at the age of 21 from pneumonia, his remains thrown in one of the 18 trenches alongside the bodies with 11,700 other Union prisoners that died from disease and starvation at the camp. For 143 years, his grave has been unmarked.... On Feb. 17, I received a response from the VA saying that it would not allow a headstone at the grave...

Actor Duvall enters battle to save Va. battlefield By STEVE SZKOTAK LOCUST GROVE, Va. (AP) - Academy Award-winning actor Robert Duvall has fired a verbal salvo against plans to build a Wal-Mart Supercenter near a Virginia Civil War battlefield where Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee first fought the Union's Ulysses S. Grant. Duvall, who is a descendant of Lee, said he will help preservationists in "chasing out" the retailer from a site near the Wilderness Battlefield. At a news conference on Monday, Duvall said he has no grudge against Wal-Mart but believes in capitalism coupled with sensitivity. Duvall was joined...

Confederate Memorial day goes on. The dispute began Thursday after Auburn City Councilman Arthur L. Dowdell removed a handful of Confederate flags from grave sites at the cemetery, saying they offended him and others and were reminders of racism. http://www.oanow.com/oan/news/local/article/confederate_memorial_day_local_services_go_on_as_planned/69981/

Mary Norman, president of Auburn (AL) Heritage Association, said she was at her family's burial plot in Pine Hill Cemetery when Councilman Arthur Dowdell removed the small Confederate flag from her great-grandfather's grave Thursday afternoon. "He pulled up the flag, snapped it in two and put it in his car," said Norman, who is white.

The cool thing about attacking someone that's been dead for over 100 years is that they can't fight back. The other cool thing is that you can use them to fuel your race baiting so that you can get some cheap publicity, get noticed, or play the faux "civil rights leader" on TV. Such is the case in Auburn, Alabama where a city councilman decided to get noticed by ripping tiny Confederate flags from the graves of long-dead Confederate veterans buried in a local cemetery. Shockingly those flags were placed there on Confederate Memorial Day. Who wouldda thunk it, eh?...

Black official removes graves' Confederate flags (AP) — AUBURN, Ala. (AP) Several Confederate flags placed on the graves of Civil War soldiers got pulled up by a black Auburn city councilman, who called them symbols of racism and hatred. Mary Norman, president of Auburn Heritage Association, said she was at her family's burial plot in Pine Hill Cemetery when Councilman Arthur Dowdell removed the small Confederate flag from her great-grandfather's grave Thursday afternoon. "He pulled up the flag, snapped it in two and put it in his car," said Norman, who is white.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry rattled cages when he suggested that Texans might at some point become so disgusted with Washington's gross violation of the U.S. Constitution that they would want to secede from the union. Political hustlers, their media allies and others, who have little understanding, are calling his remarks treasonous. Let's look at it. When New York delegates met on July 26, 1788, their ratification document read, "That the Powers of Government may be resumed by the People, whensoever it shall become necessary to their Happiness; that every Power, Jurisdiction and right which is not by the said Constitution...

Today is Friday, April 17, 2009 Today in U.S. Civil War History 1861 - Virginia left the Union. Within the next 5 weeks Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina seceded bringing the total of Confederate states to eleven.

Speaking at an anti-tax protest yesterday, the Texas governor brought up the fact that Texas had the right to secede from the union if thing in Washington got bad enough. Now before we go further, let's set a little background: Texans are fiercely prideful. You've probably seen the phrase "Don't Mess with Texas" before. It was originally meant to be an anti-littering slogan, but Texans have turned the phrase into a catch-all statement of the state's independent spirit. Texans like to talk about independence and the fact that it's been part of six countries in its history. That being said,...

(AP) — WASHINGTON - Nearly 145 years after it was stolen by a Union soldier during a Civil War raid, a missing library book has been returned to the Washington and Lee University library by an Illinois man who inherited it from the soldier's descendants. The book was passed down through the soldier's family, then on to Mike Dau of Lake Forest, Ill., who tracked down the original library and returned it.

A Confederate re-enactor has pleaded not guilty to reckless handling of a firearm in the accidental shooting of a Union re-enactor during the filming of a Civil War documentary in September. Joshua Owen Silva of Norfolk appeared in court Wednesday on the misdemeanor charge, which stemmed from the shooting of 72-year-old Thomas Lord Sr. of Suffolk. A June 24 trial date was set, but prosecutors say they hope to reach a plea agreement with Silva before that. Lord was struck in the right shoulder by a .45-caliber musket ball during the filming of the "Civil War Overland Campaign Web Series...

The diversity of the Old South still holds the imagination of many people who come from around the world to see; Southern Belle’s with hoop skirts, Confederate flags and soldier memorials like the Confederate Memorial carving of: Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis at Stone Mountain Memorial Park near Atlanta. This story is written in the spirit of the Sesquicentennial, 150th Anniversary of the War Between the States, which will be commemorated throughout the USA from 2011 to 2015. Americans observe Black, Jewish, Hispanic, Native American and Women’s History Month...And in April we also remember ‘Confederate History Month’...

TAMPA - A park memorializing Confederate veterans will officially open April 25 with cannon fire, live music and re-enactors impersonating famous Southern generals. The park, near the junction of Interstates 4 and 75, gained notoriety last summer when the Sons of Confederate Veterans raised a 30-by-50-foot Confederate flag there. In October, the group replaced the first flag with a larger one. The veterans group said they raised the flag to draw attention to the 1.9-acre memorial park at its base. David McCallister, a lawyer and officer with the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said the park was built to relate the...

Maryland lawmakers are thinking maybe it's time to find a way to scrub "Northern scum" — and a few other sensitive pre-Civil War phrases — from the official state song. "Maryland, My Maryland," set to the traditional seasonal tune of "O, Tannenbaum," was written in 1861 and adopted as the state song in 1939. But now some lawmakers are pushing for a change to the warlike language in what was originally a poem that doubled as a call to arms. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller wants a new commission to examine the song and consider changing some stanzas to...

(Fredericksburg, VA) -- Virginia Governor Tim Kaine will speak at an event today aimed at raising awareness and funding for the state's historic battlefields. Kaine will speak at 10 a.m. to a group in Fredericksburg that helps fund and upkeep the Fredericksburg battlefields, where Robert E. Lee is credited for a victory against the Union Army during the Civil War. In the first year of his administration, Governor Kaine set up the Virginia Historic Battlefield Preservation Fund which helps upkeep the state's numerous battlefields.

“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.”—Marcus Garvey

The protest remained peaceful until the main group arrived at Civic Center Plaza. There, a couple hundred pro-Israel protesters waving Israeli flags were waiting for the larger contingent, which included many pro-Palestine protesters. The pro-Palestine group broke off from the larger demonstration to confront the Israel supporters, who were carrying signs including "Hamas, stop using children as human shields." Both sides yelled angrily at each other and some protesters got into a physical fight, shoving each other. Police arrested at least two people. About 100 police in riot gear were at the scene, and a dozen police vans were parked...

"With The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War, by H. W. Crocker III, we are presented with the same old Lost Cause rhetoric in a new bag, a Confederate catechism for the 21st century." Here's the one quote Smeltzer pulls off the cover to criticize: "You think you know about the Civil War, but did you know: That the Emancipation Proclamation did not free a single slave?" So, stating that the Emancipation Proclamation didn't free the slaves now automatically gets you labeled as a "Lost Causer." Really? (Follow the link and read the rebuttal)

ATLANTA — In a cultural war that has pitted Old South against new, defenders of the Confederate legacy have opened a fresh front in their campaign to polish an image tarnished, they said, by people who do not respect Southern values. With the 150th anniversary of the War Between the States in 2011, efforts are under way in statehouses, small towns and counties across the South to push for proclamations or legislation promoting Confederate history.

A series of reenactments, dramatic productions, family activities and special tours are scheduled this year as Civil War sites in West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania commemorate the 150th anniversary of abolitionist John Brown’s October 1859 raid on the arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Although the raid itself failed, it succeeded in exacerbating the divide between North and South, pushing the nation closer to civil war. “Before the raid, negotiations and a compromise between North and South might have been possible; however, after the attack—and Brown’s trial and hanging—emotions ran so high that armed conflict became inevitable,” says Tom Riford of...

"When Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton traveled to China this month, she said human rights concerns could not interfere with talks about the economic crisis." Doesn't that sound eerily similar to the South's . . .

Remember how during the run up to the election, all the left pundits and talking heads and their compatriots in the Old Media said that no white person would vote for Barack Obama? Well, despite the singular fact that Barack Obama convincingly won the popular vote in a country that sees a majority of its voters are white, the Old Media is still insisting that all southerners are slavery-loving, neo-confederates that are no different than they were in 1860.

Yet it remains Raleigh's most prominent piece of public art, a signature symbol with an ugly past representing values and ambitions that no longer reflect who we are.

Is there any political caricature more threadbare than casting the Republican Party as "the Confederacy?" CNN analyst Gloria Borger tossed that one on Thursday, with all its pejorative assumptions about hidden or not-so-hidden racial animus, noting New England states had no House Republicans.

<p>Make no mistake—I love my country. But the country that I love is almost gone. And I am worried. Worried to the point where the idea of succession from the Union does not seem so farfetched anymore.</p>

William Jackson was a slave in the home of Confederate president Jefferson Davis during the Civil War. It turns out he was also a spy for the Union Army, providing key secrets to the North about the Confederacy. William Jackson, a slave, listened closely to Jefferson Davis' conversations and leaked them to the North. Jackson was Davis' house servant and personal coachman. He learned high-level details about Confederate battle plans and movements because Davis saw him as a "piece of furniture" -- not a human, according to Ken Dagler, author of "Black Dispatches," which explores espionage by America's slaves.

I see that Virginia Senator James Webb is in the news with an announcement about preserving "Virginia’s abundant natural, historical, and cultural resources." That's great. In his editorial, Webb stated: "Virginia is fortunate to have such an abundant supply of pristine lands steeped in history. Extending the Civil War Battlefields Preservation program will enable children to experience the same untouched landscapes of their ancestors and visit the places where so many sacrifices were made, by soldiers and civilians, alike." I'm grateful that Senator Webb recognizes this emotional connection Virginians have to their ancestors and the land. (Too bad others don't.)...

Maryland, My Maryland," the state song which "spurns the Northern scum," stings the legislators, too, even if some don't know the words. "Actually, I really have never paid a lot of attention to the words," said Delegate Pamela Beidle, D-Anne Arundel, who introduced a bill (2009 SB 892) Friday in the House to change the lyrics of the state song to pay tribute to Maryland rather than express "Confederate sympathies."

A recent poll of more than 350,000 Americans on the importance of religion revealed that the nation is separated into enclaves of widely divergent viewpoints on faith, with some states and regions clearly religious and others significantly secular. Gallup conducted a telephone poll of 355,334 U.S. adults, asking the question, "Is religion an important part of your daily life?" As one might suspect, states from the "Bible Belt" scored the highest, with 85 percent of Mississippians and 79 percent of Tennesseeans, for example, answering yes. The poll also revealed, however, that in addition to the Bible Belt, the U.S. also...

A few months ago, another Civil War blogger mocked my contention that the South remains the last great bastion of Judeo-Christian conservatism in the United States, even though poll after poll shows that to be the truth - the South is still the "Bible Belt." Now comes this story . . .

Shortly after Barack Obama won the presidency, the gleefully snarky Web site Gawker.com trumpeted "North Finally Wins Civil War." Speaking on behalf of what Sarah Palin and other conservatives famously dismissed as the "un-American" parts of America, Gawker rejoiced that the South is no longer the big dog of national political discourse, citing the New York Times and other respectable news outlets, which claimed Obama's new Midwestern wave drove old Dixie down. Still, it's tough to be left out. U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia complained, "Where is the South in this administration?" A postelection analysis dated Nov. 11, 2008,...

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A black state senator is pushing a bill that would require South Carolina cities and counties to give their workers a paid day off for Confederate Memorial Day or lose millions in state funds. Democratic Sen. Robert Ford's bill won initial approval from a Senate subcommittee Tuesday. It would force county and municipal governments to follow the schedule of holidays used by the state, which gives workers 12 paid days off, including May 10 to honor Confederate war dead. Mississippi and Alabama also recognize Confederate Memorial Day. Years ago, Ford said, he pushed a bill to...

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- A black state senator is pushing a bill that would require South Carolina cities and counties to give their workers a paid day off for Confederate Memorial Day or lose millions in state funds. Democratic Sen. Robert Ford's bill won initial approval from a Senate subcommittee Tuesday. It would force county and municipal governments to follow the schedule of holidays used by the state, which gives workers 12 paid days off, including May 10 to honor Confederate war dead. Mississippi and Alabama also recognize Confederate Memorial Day. Years ago, Ford said, he pushed a bill to...

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: One of the most overlooked facts of the American Civil War Era is the sympathy the South gained from Europe's most influential monarch - the pope of Rome. Pope Pius IX never actually signed any kind of alliance or 'statement of support' with the Confederate States of America, but to those who understand the nuance of papal protocol, what he did do was quite astonishing. He acknowledged President Jefferson Davis as the "Honorable President of the Confederate States of America." From this we can glean three things about Pope Pius IX... 1. He considered Jefferson Davis worthy...