I applaud Nelson Winbush and his stance against ignorance (on both sides of the color divide). The CBF was not a symbol of racism until it was adopted by several predominantly Northern racist organizations in the very early 60s. True students of history will understand and note that there have always been more seeds of racism North of the Mason-Dixon line than there ever were South of it.
Another interesting thing is that the vast majority of true racists will not recognize the Stars and Bars as the Confederate Ensign.
Hogwash. I will be the last person to say that things for blacks above the Mason-Dixon line were all pie and ice cream by any stretch of the imagination. But looking back at the laws and restrictions placed on free blacks prior to the rebellion and for 100 year afterwords then a true student of history will conclude that as bad as things were for blacks up North, and I will repeat that they were pretty grim, they were as bad if not worse in every Southern state.
You will never convince some that true history is a little different than what you read. I remember my great grandfather telling stories about growing up in Mississippi and how it differed from what I was taught and seen on tv.
There is a good book out there Politically Incorrect Guide to the South by Clint Johnson.
Here are some points he covers:
* The first of the 13 colonies to formally legalize slavery? (Hint: it’s not in the South)
* How Georgia banned slaves - and lawyers - in its founding charter
* Why the South is more important to the American Founding than the North
* Throw away those history textbooks: How the South,not the North,started -and won — the American Revolution
* How Southerners led the way in drafting the Declaration of Independence,the U.S. Constitution,and the Bill of Rights
* Why Northerners - not Southerners - wanted slaves to be counted as property instead of people in the Constitution
* Peculiar fact about the wealthy slaveholder whose court cases helped legalize slavery in Virginia: he was black
* How Virginia militiamen created the American Midwest
* Why Northern states threatened secession long before the Confederacy - and why they considered it Constitutional
* How the expansion of the U.S. across the continent from 1830-1850 - which gave us the term “Manifest Destiny” - was largely a Southern achievement
* Lewis & Clark? Southerners,of course
* The first two Jewish members of the U.S. Senate? Yep,you guessed it
* How Southerners outnumbered Northerners almost four to one among the heroes of the Alamo
* Why slavery,which spread across all thirteen colonies,was far crueler in the North than the South
* How the Northern colonies grew rich on slave trading - and revived slavery in the South just before it collapsed
* New York City’s largest industry in 1860? The outfitting of slave ships
* The site of a mass grave for slaves who were literally worked to death? Hint: it’s not in the South
* Why economics - not slavery - was the driving force behind the War Between the States
* How Lincoln twice refused — or actually revoked — orders for emancipating slaves
* How Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation left more than 800,000 slaves in bondage in states aligned with or occupied by the Union
* Black heroes of the Confederacy - and other great Southern blacks you won’t hear about during Black History Month
* How the more civilized Southern way of war contributed to its defeat - in contrast to the North’s brutal “total war” against civilians and property
* How the Northern victory dealt a death blow to states’rights - leading eventually to today’s all-powerful federal government
* Why “Reconstruction” is the most misnamed period in American history
* Why segregation,which didn’t exist in the antebellum South,was a legacy of Northern-imposed “Reconstruction”
* How virtually all of America’s highest-ranking World War II generals had Confederate roots
* How Southerners won World War II in the Pacific theater
* How the South was making movies when Hollywood was nowhere
* Why race relations in today’s South are much better than in the North - or anywhere else in America
* What Yankee reporters don’t understand about the South
* Why faith and family come first in the South
* Why the South is naturally conservative (and the North is naturally liberal)
* Why limited government and low tax rates are a Southern tradition
* Why Northerners - white and black — keep moving South
* Statistics show Southerners are happier than people in other regions - Clint Johnson shows you why
* It’s a fact: Southern women dominate beauty pageants,and Southern men dominate in sports
* Why blacks have been moving back to the South in droves
* How American jazz,blues,and rock ‘n’ roll (when it was still music) all came from the South
* Why blacks hold more - and more powerful - political offices in the South than in the North
* Why Southern industry is booming,while the North’s is going bust
* The second war against the South — the campaign to erase memory and history - and how it serves liberal interests
* Why Southerners are overrepresented in the military - and no,it’s not poverty
* The best American literature? Southern,of course - and our high school and college reading lists confirm it
* 10 Things Southerners Don’t Understand About the North (#1: Why isn’t Ted Kennedy in prison?)