Man walking 1,500 miles to spotlight black Confederates

Times Daily ^ | November 08. 2002 | The Associated Press

[stainlessbanner]

A black man who says he has no qualms with the Confederacy strolled through Tuskegee carrying a Confederate flag on the Alabama leg of a 1,500-mile walking trip from North Carolina to Texas.

H.K. Edgerton, former president of the Asheville, N.C., chapter of the NAACP, said Thursday he wants to raise awareness of blacks who supported the Confederacy during the "War of Northern Aggression."

"I'm reclaiming this flag for all the black folks that died fighting for it," Edgerton told the Opelika-Auburn News. "There were a lot of black men who fought bravely for the Confederacy."

Edgerton said he sees the Confederate flag as a symbol of Southern heritage shared by blacks and whites rather than one of racial division.

Edgerton said he hopes also to raise funds for the Southern Legal Resource Center, a North Carolina-based group that works to preserve Southern heritage.

Coming through Opelika, Edgerton said he was stopped by a young black woman who asked him why he was carrying the "flag of the Ku Klux Klan."

"But that's just my point," Edgerton said. "People from the North have taught black folks that they should be ashamed of this flag the same way they told white folks they should be ashamed of it."

Edgerton's "March Across Dixie" began last month in Asheville, N.C., and continues to Austin, Texas. He hopes to arrive by mid-February.

[try phecta tom]

Wow, less than one week we're in charge and the AP prints a story like this? I'm scared.

[TomServo]

Dixie Bump!!

[bjs1779]

That will make Walt sick.

[TXnMA]

Now that's what I call some serious and committed activism!

Wonder what his old pals at the NAACP think of this?

Big BTTT!

[LostTribe]

This guy deserves a FR escort, for thinking for himself.

[ao98]

I've read some comments about H.K. by member's of the NAACP. They say he has gone insane, but refuse to answer his arguments.

Here is H.K.'s Daily March Across Dixie Report

[kellynla]

One of my great-great-grandfathers fought on the Union side and one of them fought on the Confedertate side. But if you are interested here is a little history of the blacks who fought for the Confederacy here it is. Black Confederate military units, both as freemen and slaves, fought federal troops. Louisiana free blacks gave their reason for fighting in a letter written to New Orleans' Daily Delta: "The free colored population love their home, their property, their own slaves and recognize no other country than Louisiana, and are ready to shed their blood for her defense. They have no sympathy for Abolitionism; no love for the North, but they have plenty for Louisiana. They will fight for her in 1861 as they fought in 1814-15." As to bravery, one black scolded the commanding general of the state militia, saying, "Pardon me, general, but the only cowardly blood we have got in our veins is the white blood."
Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest had slaves and freemen serving in units under his command. After the war, Forrest said of the black men who served under him, "These boys stayed with me.. - and better Confederates did not live." Articles in "Black Southerners in Gray," edited by Richard Rollins, gives numerous accounts of blacks serving as fighting men or servants in every battle from Gettysburg to Vicksburg.
Professor Ed Smith, director of American Studies at American University, says Stonewall Jackson had 3,000 fully equipped black troops scattered throughout his corps at Antietam - the war's bloodiest battle. Mr. Smith calculates that between 60,000 and 93,000 blacks served the Confederacy in some capacity. They fought for the same reason they fought in previous wars and wars afterward:" to position themselves. They had to prove they were patriots in the hope the future would be better ... they hoped to be rewarded.
Many knew Lincoln had little love for enslaved blacks and didn't wage war against the South for their benefit. Lincoln made that plain, saying, "I will say, then, that I am not, nor have ever been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races ... I am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race." The very words of his 1863 Emancipation Proclamation revealed his deceit and cunning; it freed those slaves held "within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States." It didn't apply to slaves in West Virginia and areas and states not in rebellion. Like Gen. Ulysses Grant's slaves, they had to wait for the 13th Amendment, Grant explained why he didn't free his slaves earlier, saying, "Good help is so hard to come by these days."
.

[Ronaldus Magnus]

Anti-Historical Revisionism (Truth) Bump!

[End The Hypocrisy]

I wish much success to the African-American marcher for symbols of the South's desired independence from Washington D.C.'s tax-subsidized oppressive bureaucracy. Meanwhile, what's below is not surprising, but unfortunately so few people know this...


>>>Many knew Lincoln had little love for enslaved blacks and didn't wage war against the South for their benefit. Lincoln made that plain, saying, "I will say, then, that I am not, nor have ever been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races ... I am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race." The very words of his 1863 Emancipation Proclamation revealed his deceit and cunning; it freed those slaves held "within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States." It didn't apply to slaves in West Virginia and areas and states not in rebellion. Like Gen. Ulysses Grant's slaves, they had to wait for the 13th Amendment, Grant explained why he didn't free his slaves earlier, saying, "Good help is so hard to come by these days." <<<

[End The Hypocrisy]

Here's a thread created a few days ago which addresses the potential flag referendum in Georgia, and how the prospect of it cost the Democrats their first lost governorship in over a century:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/784464/posts

[End The Hypocrisy]

Let the games begin! I hope this African-American hero gets an increasing amount of media attention as his quest progresses...

[End The Hypocrisy]

The NAACP says our marcher friend is insane, huh? Here's an unflattering parallel that could be of potential use:

"China labels dissidents mentally ill; allegedly uses mental hospitals to stigmatize and thereby quiet dissidents such as the Falun Gong."

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60968-2002Aug25.html

[TheDon]

This part is blatantly false:

"The very words of his 1863 Emancipation Proclamation revealed his deceit and cunning; it freed those slaves held "within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States." It didn't apply to slaves in West Virginia and areas and states not in rebellion. Like Gen. Ulysses Grant's slaves, they had to wait for the 13th Amendment, Grant explained why he didn't free his slaves earlier, saying, "Good help is so hard to come by these days."

Anyone with a little reading of Lincoln's statements on this matter would know that the political situation during the war directed his public statements and actions on this matter.

[End The Hypocrisy]

>>>Anyone with a little reading of Lincoln's statements on this matter would know that the political situation during the war directed his public statements and actions on this matter.<<<


What stopped him from freeing slaves in nonseceding states then?

[TheDon]

Politics. He didn't want to turn marginal loyalists into enemies. It was quite a balancing act Mr. Lincoln had to manage, I doubt there were many quite so uniquely able to do so.

[Non-Sequitur]

Like Gen. Ulysses Grant's slaves, they had to wait for the 13th Amendment, Grant explained why he didn't free his slaves earlier, saying, "Good help is so hard to come by these days."

That part is complete BS. Grant freed the only slave he ever owned in 1859. His wife's family freed theirs in 1863. Lee waited until almost 1863 to free his.

They had to prove they were patriots in the hope the future would be better ... they hoped to be rewarded.

And their reward from their white southern comrades were Black Codes that returned them to semi-slavery after the war and Jim Crow laws after reconstruction. Y'all really know how to show your appreciation, don't you?

[PistolPaknMama]

A bump to the top for HK!!

[PARodrig]

Are we supposed to admire the blacks who fought for the Confederacy because they wanted the right to own their own slaves? This seems pretty ludicrous to me. This is not patriotism, and only shows that blacks are just as willing to exploit other blacks as are white people.