Posted on 07/09/2014 12:56:01 PM PDT by Timber Rattler
Washington and Lee University expressed regret Tuesday for the schools past ownership of slaves and promised to remove Confederate flags from the main chamber of its Lee Chapel after a group of black students protested that the historic Virginia school was unwelcoming to minorities.
President Kenneth P. Ruscios announcement was a surprising move for the small, private liberal arts college in Lexington, which has long celebrated its Southern heritage. Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee served as the universitys president after the Civil War, his crypt is beneath the chapel, and the school has gingerly addressed its ties to the Confederacy and its having profited from the possession and sale of slaves.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
IIRC, Gen. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox, not the end of Confederate resistance but its death knell.
Gettysburg had been a strategic defeat for Lee, the highwater mark of the Confederacy.
Anyway, W & L has done a shameful cave-in to a handful of malcontents. People on all sides can honor the Confederate fallen & those who led them, very few of whom owned slaves.
It the university prez had stood his ground & thumbed his nose at Al Sharpton, the malcontents would have been surrounded by thousands of patriots, had they chosen to demonstrate.
Where the sun falls through the ruined boughs of locust
Up to the president's office . . .
Hearing the voices
Whisper, Hush, it is General Lee!
. . .
It is not General Lee, young men . . .
It is Robert Lee in a dark civilian suit who walks,
An outlaw fumbling for the latch, a voice
Commanding in a dream where no flag flies.
From Lee in the Mountains, by Donald Davidson
Are you as tired of this silly nonsense as I am?
Wouldn’t it be nice if people could just grow up a little?
I agree. By all contemporary accounts Lee was an honorable man, admired even by those who fought against him.
In this case, there were only 7 or 8 agitators, goaded on by an Obama-voting law professor, and they were overtly threatening some form of violence if they did not get their way, and President Mush here folded like a cheap suitcase.
ping
I had some distant cousins in Ohio who named their son who was born in 1871 after Robert E. Lee. Although their family was originally from Virginia, they had been in Ohio for decades so I doubt there was any pro-Confederate sentiment involved, just admiration for a great American.
Of course not, but they would most likely know who Tina Turner and James Brown are :-)
They’re cowards.
This was the school which Lee put on the map.
Another shameful bow to political correctness.
Though I was just recently in Dixie, as I usually am at least twice a year. And I’ll tell you the Confederate Flag still flies Freely down there, along with the Stars and Stripes.
When that brand of real conservatism is wiped out, we’re dead.
You can bet the farm this “committee” will be making more demands soon. When you give a spoiled brat your little finger, he’ll want the whole hand.
Two of the early generation USN ballistic missile submarines (the “41 for Freedom” boats) were named after Lee and Stonewall Jackson.
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.