Posted on 01/26/2005 11:08:23 AM PST by Constitution Day
Confederate group, blacks to clean up cemetery
The Associated Press
January 26, 2005 2:03 pm
HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. -- Descendants of slaves will work along with men of Confederate ancestry to clean up an overgrown cemetery where the oldest graves belong to free blacks buried before the Civil War.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans Walt Bryson Camp 70 began visiting old family and church cemeteries in Henderson County in an effort to find Confederate veterans. They soon discovered many of the historic cemeteries were endangered by development and neglect.
Some had houses built on top of them and others were plowed under in fields.
Louis Dunbar, who represents blacks on the county Cemetery Advisory Committee, also discovered that Mill Pond Cemetery was in bad shape and asked for some help.
The upper section of the cemetery is well maintained, but the lower section is covered in 7-foot-tall pampas grass, small trees, stumps and fallen logs.
"These cemeteries need preserved out of respect and for their historical value," Dunbar said. "There has been too much disrespect of the grave sites in this county."
Whites and blacks are buried in the lower portion of the cemetery, said James Miller, whose ancestors deeded the land for a church and cemetery in 1859. That section of the cemetery was open to paupers for free burials, he said.
The oldest graves apparently belong to blacks.
Ellen Jones, who died in 1812, and Markus Henry, who died in 1865, are listed in early census reports as free blacks. James Harren, also buried in the lower section, was one of three men deeded land by Noble Johnson to establish a school in Colored District No. 4 in 1875, only 10 years after the end of the Civil War.
"We know there was a community of free blacks who lived in that area," said Evelyn Jones with the Henderson County Genealogical and Historical Society. "But not much else about them."
The tall, thick grass is growing so fast that it is encroaching on the upper section of the cemetery. The grave marker of Edgar A. Lamb, 1890-1962, was found hidden in the grass.
Norman Miller of the Sons of Confederate Veterans said the cleanup will take hours of work with many volunteers wielding machetes, bush axes and swing blades to clear out the grass.
During a cleanup about five years ago, the grass at the cemetery was burned.
"I can understand why they burned it," Norman Miller said. "But I don't feel comfortable with that myself. It will blacken the stones and we need to decipher every stone we possibly can."
Careful. Henderson is the county seat of Vance County in eastern N.C., while Hendersonville, the topic of this article, is the county seat of Henderson County, in western N.C.
North Carolina has many confusing names - Asheville, where I grew up, is the county seat of Buncombe County, while Jefferson is the county seat of Ashe County.
Go figure...
there are THOUSANDS of cemeteries that NEED work.
free dixie,sw
I didn't say anything about *propaganda*; you did.
I simply said the race pimps and MSM trash would ignore a project where the opposing racial sides got together and did something positive. That, in and of itself, is hateful, racist and bigoted to the Jack-scum and Sharp-scum etc shakedown, race-whores.
Why do the same, local stories of "hate crimes" etc, make national news, NJ N? Why don't the opposite stories rate national news?
Inquiring minds, and all that...
I simply said the race pimps and MSM trash would ignore a project where the opposing racial sides got together and did something positive. That, in and of itself, is hateful, racist and bigoted to the Jack-scum and Sharp-scum etc shakedown, race-whores.
Why do the same, local stories of "hate crimes" etc, make national news, NJ N? Why don't the opposite stories rate national news?
Inquiring minds, and all that...
Because THEY are using it as propaganda. That was my point.
Because lefty race-baiters use stuff like you described as propaganda to advance their agenda does not mean we should stoop to their level and do the same - either to counter their's or advance a different one.
"Because THEY are using it as propaganda. That was my point."
Then, we should. We're getting smeared by so-called propaganda. High-time we used it to dispell their lies.
Is this story also propaganda?
Worthy of national ink, to me. NJ_N isn't convinced... go figure.
I see this as being groovy as opposed to being cool.
I said lets not MAKE it into propaganda. Re-read my original post.
For all you know this is, like I said, a case of neighbors coming together for a community project. Do you think its fair to elevate them as soldiers in a war against...whatever?
What makes this worthy of front-page national news?
I can live with groovy. :-)
Nevertheless, I don't see how 7.62 was "making" this story into propaganda via his comments. Do you think that the MSM is yearning for stories regarding possible racial harmony in the South?
Think *** regional/national***; not merely local. Coffee?
No problem. We all do that sometimes.
Nevertheless, I don't see how 7.62 was "making" this story into propaganda via his comments.
Because, in my view, he was setting the thread up for people to start elevating this into something it is not, in the name of advancing an agenda OR to counter one they saw (and I understand the race-baiting examples he used and agree with him that they are reprehensible).
Do you think that the MSM is yearning for stories regarding possible racial harmony in the South?
Probably not. It does not gel with their desire to paint Southerners as ignorant, racist hicks. But here is the rub - trying to elevate this warming story into an "a-ha! See! See how NOT Racists we are! See the decendents of Slaves & Confederates holding hands!" is simply setting up the MSM to twist things to their liking.
Sometimes understatment is best. Consevatives are not SUPPOSED to notice race. Is that not what we rail against the left for doing all the time? Some people see color here. I see neighbors. Americans.
Just for the record, I don't agree with 7.62's (apparent) contention in post #26 that Southerners should 'fight fire w/ fire' when it comes to propaganda.
The race-pimps elevate anything "hate crime" local, to a national news story. WTH shouldn't this be elevated to a regional/national story. Waiting...
Thank you. I agree. You roll around in the mud with pigs, you both get dirty and the pigs like it.
Waiting for what? I am responding as fast as I can. Control your dramatic impulses.
That is simply the same argument you used before. "'Cause THEY do it!". Not good enough for me. I asked for a cogent argument. That is all you have?
What about my question about having concern for these people. Do you think they want to be drawn into the culture wars?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.