Posted on 04/13/2002 10:36:17 PM PDT by JohnnyReb1983
RALEIGH, N.C. (2001-01-25) Vicky Poston is a Reb with a cause.
When Alcoa Inc. banned Confederate symbols from workers' cars at its North Carolina plant last year, Ms. Poston did something rare for a propriety-conscious Southerner: She took to the streets in protest.
As big rigs honked in support and a protester waved the battle flag from a Ford Mustang convertible, Poston and 150 activists pushed the big aluminum firm to scale back its ban on Confederate license plates, bumper stickers, and other regalia.
After years of enduring similar prohibitions on things Confederate, emboldened Southerners are increasingly donning their Dixie duds and unfurling traditional state flags in defense of embattled Southern heroes and symbols.
From the palm-fronded streets of Charleston, S.C., to the historic storefronts of Selma, Ala., the movement reflects a reawakening of traditional Southern pride and a strong sense of regionalism.
Indeed, the growing backlash against efforts to take down the flag - including the recent legislative battles in South Carolina, Georgia, and Mississippi - may signal a deeper shift in Southern culture. The rise of a new political class of Confederate sympathizers indicates that many are ready to reawaken Confederate ideals such as states' rights and sovereignty.
To be sure, Southern partisanship evokes images of Jim Crow and slavery to much of the country. And ominous motives may well lie behind some of the activists. Yet experts say many of those embracing the new movement are driven more by regional pride, resistance to the Federal government, and a desire to reconnect with a lost heritage. They'd like to recast the South as the last bastion of civility, independence, and constitutional ideals.
Critics, though, see darker tones in the surge in Southern pride - and a collision with the values of the New South.
"These guys are very much building the intellectual capital which they hope to make the foundation for a ... reborn Confederacy," says Mark Potok, editor of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report in Montgomery, Ala. And the size scares him. "You have 9,000 and 15,000-person membership rolls, huge groups littered with PhDs, doctors, and lawyers, which are vastly more politically dangerous than any Klan or neo-Nazi group could ever be."
Southern partisans are certainly rallying the troops:
*Last Saturday, more than 2,000 people showed up in Atlanta to celebrate the birthday of Confederate General Robert E. Lee - most years, the celebration draws about 300 people.
*Southerners are increasingly putting up new Confederate monuments along the South's tobacco roads. A statue of a controversial Civil War general went up near a black neighborhood in Selma, Ala., late last year.
*This weekend, League of the South will open its North Carolina State University chapter in Raleigh - one in a string of recent gambits to bring Southern youths back to Confederate ideals. The director says the league's South Carolina chapter saw a 300 percent increase in membership last year.
*After a five-year planning period, the Southern Party was formed last year in Asheville, N.C. It advocates regional independence and the end of the South's role as "the nation's whipping boy."
In perhaps the greatest show of Confederate unity yet, thousands of battle flags went up on memorials and front lawns across South Carolina the day they removed the flag from the statehouse last June. "It was like Christmas in Cuba," says Mike Tuggle, the leader of a Southern independence group in Charlotte, N.C.
Some say the pro-Southern activities are in part a reaction to anti-Southern efforts. "People are having to stand up for what they believe in," says Chris Sullivan, editor of the conservative Southern Partisan magazine in Columbia, S.C.
Despite an explosion in their numbers, these new Confederate sympathizers, like their forefathers, are still outnumbered.
Southern partisans are losing the big battles. A travel boycott by the 500,000-strong NAACP finally pushed the South Carolina legislature to move the Southern cross state flag from the top of the State House to a nearby soldier's memorial. On Wednesday, facing a similar boycott threat, Georgia's House of Representatives voted to redesign the state flag to minimize the Southern cross.
And in what promises to be a bellwether gauge of the feelings of the New South, Mississippi residents will go to the polls for an April referendum to decide what to do about the Confederate insignia on their state flag.
While many Southerners claim the St. Andrew's cross is a proud symbol of a heritage and principles their forefathers fought to save, others call it an "ugly memory." They recall the 1950s, when many state capitols unfurled it as a show of Southern defiance against federal desegregation measures.
And the idea that the country has decided to erase all things Southern is unfounded, says Potok. "The war occurred, and there's no point in pretending it didn't. Besides, removing all signs of the Civil War is a little akin to the Soviets airbrushing assassinated leaders out of photographs."
In the end, the reawakening of Confederate ideals is about much more than tugging on an old flag. Deeper historical, religious, and political forces are at work, says Walter Williams, chairman of the economics department at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. "A lot of this might be the resurrection of some ... issues that led up to the War Between the States in 1861," he says. "Specifically, the heavyhandedness of the federal government. And that's why you're seeing a lot of renewed interest in the 10th Amendment and states' rights."
At least in the South, the old Confederate ideas have found fresh root in the red Dixie clay. "I think it comes down to the simple fact that [people] are alienated in modern life," says Mr. Tuggle. "There are a lot of changes going on.... The Confederate heritage gives you something very important to hold onto."
In the group I ran around with in high school, one of them was black. For a joke, one of my friends gave him a Confederate flag for his birthday. He put is back in my friends teeth by hanging it on his bedroom wall. Today, he is a ND graduate and making big bucks.
NORTH - 1
SOUTH - 0
...................IT'S HALFTIME
Your screen handle should read
Unbelievably Brainwashed
Interesting!
This is not one of the subjects that I follow closely but I recall that back in the late 60s and early 70s the debate about slavery being the primary cause of the civil war sorta came out of the blue. Southerners in general have never accepted that premise, nor should they. I simply is not true.
Although slavery was a issue of the day and time, it was never listed as the reason the south rebelled against the north. The anti slavery groups of the time were mostly located in the eastern cities like New York and Mass. and were not involved in the discourse. It was after the war started that slavery was spoken of as a reason for the North to suceed in it's effort to bring the south to it's knees. One of many reasons needed to justify the loss of life.
Slavery ceased but indentured servitude continued. The term is just a word used to deliniate a subtle difference(yankee word). Ownership of the individual was based on time(a span of years) and the ability of the individual to buy out his or her contract. This was the preffered method in the North and East and the victims were largely white.
After that came the company operated collectives that provided living space and food for work. Since the worker always found himself in debt to the company, he could not leave. If he tried he was beaten or even shot.(same ole story) These folks were largely white as well.
Human rights were not available to anyone but the aristocracy during the early days. No poor were allowed education. (could not afford it) White or black. These are the conditions that allowed slavery and it was imported from the Europeans. Humanity has grown up alot since then. Although, forced labor and indentured servitude along with slavery still exist in third world countries. My grandparents escaped from the Balkans after WWI. The army was grabbing people off the street and making them serve the government. My grandfather would have none of that and came here with his young wife.
Sorry for the long rant. I needed to get this off my mind. I owe nothing to any person or group because of past injustice. No body does. The history of the human race is frought with man's injustice to man. It is what we do in the future and not the past that is important. We use history so as not to repeat the past. We cannot ever mess with the facts of history.
Regards,
/jasper
Do you think it ever occurred to the detractors that if they hadn't demanded, on false pretenses and so very publicly, to have Confederate symbols banned, that the hue and cry wouldn't have been so loud?
I have friends who went out and purchased a Confederate flag to hang on the day when one of the "leaders" NAACP told the community that people couldn't fly it on their property. They weren't southern either, just annoyed that one group would ban symbols of history they didn’t like while all the time, promoting their version of history and their symbols.
Lol, you should have seen the faces on the NAACP, it was truly priceless.
We've never lost our pride, nor our desire to be left alone to our own way of life, culture and civility.
We are predominately Christians with a tremendous desire to live free, in a society that reflects our values. Not the values we are told to adopt by globalists, one worlders, or any other political whore.
What has caused Southerners to rally is the attacks against our values. We don't believe in globalism, New World Order agendas, or open borders.
We believe in liberty, and the Rule of Law, something you don't hear many politicians dicussing now.
We believe in the power of prayer and the power of gunpowder: Patrick Henry was correct-Most Southerners would agree: Give me liberty or give me death.
Over the next few decades, we our backs are going to be against the wall. The only way we and our culture will remain in existence is by a healthy dose of political and cultural activism laden with a strong dash of aggressive assertiveness.
This woman is a heroine of the highest order.
Well, ain't that the truth! We are the last place for civility, independence, and constitutionality.
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Anytime you think you're big enough. Anytime...
Southern Pride is the only American Pride left. The rest of you are proud of your political party or your income bracket.
You won't call me a traitor face to face and walk away from it looking the same as before, boy. I'll guarantee you that.
If I hear that phrase one more time touted by someone who by their very posting shows they only know the word 'Constitution' and haven't bothered reading it, I'm going to lose it. First off, I'm a North Carolinian, not an American. That's starting to bug me. I mean really bug me. If you want to be exact about it, Canadians, Mexicans, Nicaraguans, Panamanians, Chileans, all those little nations in Central America, and all the ones I didn't name in South America are 'Americans'. The name itself implies living on one of the American continents, hence 'of America'. Second, I am live in a nation of United StateS, and NOT a prepositional article. But we can't go about saying we live in the United States and we are a citizen of one of those states because that would just really kill the federal government and implied powers the northern tyrant assumed he had.
So back to your question about 'American' pride? I don't know and I really don't care. I am proud to be a North Carolinian and a citizen of a member state of the United States. I am proud of the military and the job they do overseas and pray for them on a regular basis. But I am not proud of 'Buy American', 'Save American Jobs through Tariffs' , or 'Made in America by American Workers who are overpaid through union subsidies set up by big government so they can get a kickback'. If you think that makes me less patriotic than you, so be it. I'm not a sheep to be led around by the nose by Washington DC and don't cheer everytime some leader gets on and explains to me how my taxes, which are unconstitutional anyway, are going to be passed by a group of men, elected unconstitutionally to further destroy the rights and powers of the separate and equal states
ping!! ping!!! ping!!! ping!!! Where do I sign up and what do I need to do? May God bless Dixie!!
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