Half the bumper stickers at any gun show refer in some positive way to the Confederacy.
Posted on 07/09/2002 7:38:15 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
RICHMOND - Jeff Ellett has had his new, Confederate license plate on his red-and-gray pickup for about three weeks now, and it's attracted plenty of attention.
Positive attention, that is.
``I've had people at work, or on the street, or in shopping centers ask about it,'' Ellett said. ``Now it has caused some of these people to say, 'Let me see if I have any Confederate ancestors, so I can get the plates.'''
Applications for membership in the Virginia chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans have more than tripled since the group won the right to display the rebel flag on specialty state license plates this spring, organization says. Only members of the group, who are descendants of Confederate veterans, are eligible to display the plates.
``They are proud of their heritage and they want to display the flag,'' said Michael D. Kendrick, a recruiter for the group's Virginia chapter, who has received 40 to 50 application requests a week since the plates began appearing.
The group has about 3,200 members in Virginia. A spokeswoman with the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles said the agency had issued 550 such plates as of
July 2.
Frank Earnest, quartermaster of the SCV's Virginia Division, said the new plates also are an added incentive for potential applicants who must dig through old records to produce proof of their ancestry.
``The ones who have to do more research get motivated by the fact that they can get the plates,'' Earnest said.
The group's state commander, Brag Bowling, said the flurry of applications also is typical of every time the Sons of Confederate Veterans is involved in a public squabble over what they consider to be their rights.
``Because people don't like to hear that their heritage is less meaningful than anyone else's,'' Bowling said. ``It makes people mad, and that helps our organization grow.''
Virginia's decision this spring not to fight the courts ended its three-year legal battle to stop the Sons of Confederate Veterans from displaying its logo on license plates.
The SCV sued Virginia in 1999 after the General Assembly approved a plate for the organization but refused to allow the group's logo, which features a Confederate flag. Some legislators argued that the flag represents bigotry.
But U.S. District Judge Jackson L. Kiser ruled in favor of the group in January 2001, on the grounds that Virginia's refusal to issue the tag because of its Confederate flag logo amounted to discrimination against the SCV, and violated the group's right to free speech.
The state maintained that the license plates constitute public speech and the state had the right to regulate which groups and designs are allowed on plates that represent Virginia.
But a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Kiser's ruling this spring. A few days later, state officials announced their decision not to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
``You cannot suppress a powerful symbol,'' Bowling said.
Owen Yates was one of the first to put in for the plates, even before the issue was settled in the courts. He is so careful with them that he has enclosed them in a locking plastic holder to keep them safe.
``I'm proud of my ancestors; they fought for the state,'' said Yates, an SCV member who works as a consultant at the DuPont plant south of Richmond. ``It was a different time. People had lots of loyalty for the states.''
He added: ``But then, I'm from the old school. I want to go back to the '50s, when I didn't know we had a racial problem.''
No, I'm not into hip-hop--I just heard it once or twice and I just took to it.
Now if we could just get 'em down here in South Carolina and really make the NAACP go nuts!
}:-)4
Sadly, most folks get their education from Hollywood movies and the alphabet networks which are both anti-southern, anti-confederate.
I can't lay claim to being a Virginian - I'm a Florida Cracker! My fam is mostly from TN & NC.
Half the bumper stickers at any gun show refer in some positive way to the Confederacy.
We live in KY, go to Cherry Grove (the North end of Myrtle Beach) in May and October. I picked up one of the SC Flag & Confederate Battle Flag plates, have it on the front of my Suburban. From other drivers locally I get many requests for info on where I got that plate. Not the first hostile response so far. Interesting.
SC has many supporters in KY.
My people have tombstones in the Southern states dating back to the 18th century and graves in the Southern highlands dating back several millenia before the arrival of my European ancestors. I'm rooted here. You behave as if you have no relatives or history of your own and need to disparage the families of others to make yourself appear as much as an inch tall.
If you ever grow up, you'll be embarassed at what you've posted to people here.
I also have a Bonnie Blue plate. Amazing what people think it is, everything from an Admiral's license plate to a scuba diving plate! And this in the south! Sort of points up the gaps in history lessons.
It's the same with the very small picture of Gen. Robert E. Lee on a bumper sticker that says "the country needs a hero." Most people have to ask who he is. Sad. But it's affords an opportunity for some impromptu heritage lessons.
By that logic, since the Union won the war, peacenik protesters who burn the American flag would now be summarily hanged as Union General Ben Butler summarily hanged New Orleans citizen William Mumford for destroying an American flag.
Confederates weren't saints but neither was the Union.
:>)
Sure it does. You don't want to face the evil side of the Confederates.
Disrutpion [sic] of a thread by posting off-subject jibes doesn't amount to "truth".
I know -- to you the "truth" is only what you want to hear.
You behave as if you have no relatives or history of your own and need to disparage the families of others to make yourself appear as much as an inch tall.
Nonsense, twod. My ancestors fought for liberty for all people during the Great Rebellion and I owe it to them not to let you Confederate glorifiers get away with sweeping the truth about the deeply flawed people you glorify under the carpet.
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