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Two South Carolina lawmakers want to erect a monument on the State House grounds to African-Americans who served the state as Confederate soldiers. But records show the state never accepted nor recognized armed African-American soldiers during the Civil War. “In all my years of research, I can say I have seen no documentation of black South Carolina soldiers fighting for the Confederacy,” said Walter Edgar, who for 32 years was director of the University of South Carolina’s Institute for Southern Studies and is author of “South Carolina: A History.” “In fact, when secession came, the state turned down free (blacks)...

Anthony Hervey — a 49-year-old black activist known for being a vocal proponent of the Confederate flag — died Sunday in a car crash caused by a car-full of black hecklers who chased and verbally attacked Hervey, driving his vehicle off the Mississippi highway. Hervey was driving home from a rally to preserve the Linn Park Confederate Monument in Birmingham, Alabama, the Daily Mail reports. The memorial is soon to be removed from the park pursuant to a recent vote by Birmingham political leaders. Hervey was a well-known black activist for preserving the Confederate flag who’s advocacy dates back to...

A black Mississippi man who often dressed in Confederate regalia to support the state flag has died in a one-car accident. The Highway Patrol says 49-year-old Anthony Hervey was killed Sunday when the 2005 Ford Explorer he was driving left the roadway and overturned on Mississippi Highway 6 in Lafayette County. A passenger in Harvey's car, Arlene Barnum, tells The Associated Press that Hervey swerved and crashed after another vehicle carrying four or five young black men pulled up alongside them, yelling and looking angry.

The President’s Oklahoma visit sparked controversy all over the state. Supporters of the confederate flag have their own message to send to President Obama. In Durant, Okla. Wednesday morning, trucks lined up awaiting his arrival, and now supporters are in Bricktown. Supporters want to let the President know the Confederate flag, they say, stands for heritage, not hate. The organizer of the event is someone you might not expect to see standing behind this cause. It is a red, white and blue that, for many, carries a message of hate… but that’s not the point these folks want to get...

For many Americans, the Confederate battle flag is an unmistakable symbol of slavery and oppression. But for Karen Cooper, a black woman who was born in New York but later settled in Virginia, the flag embodies something else entirely. “I actually think that it represents freedom,” the ardent tea party supporter says in a video interview that’s been making the rounds online. “It represents a people who stood up to tyranny.”

Richard “Dick” Poplar a Black Confederate rode with the 13th Virginia cavalry. He was captured during the Confederate retreat from Gettysburg. Poplar then served 5 months at Fort Delaware and 14 months in Point Lookout Prison and refused to sign the Oath of Loyalty that would have freed him in the first month of his captivity.

May I share two short stories about a Black South Carolina Confederate soldier honored recently and a Black Confederate Veteran-Legislator from Mississippi from over a century past?

One tragedy of war is that its victors write its history and often do so with bias and dishonesty. That’s true about our War of 1861, erroneously called a civil war. Civil wars, by the way, are when two or more parties attempt to take over the central government. Jefferson Davis no more wanted to take over Washington, D.C., than George Washington, in 1776, wanted to take over London. Both wars were wars of independence. Kevin Sieff, staff writer for The Washington Post, penned an article “Virginia 4th-grade textbook criticized over claims on black Confederate soldiers,” (Oct. 20, 2010). The...

A textbook distributed to Virginia fourth-graders says that thousands of African Americans fought for the South during the Civil War -- a claim rejected by most historians but often made by groups seeking to play down slavery's role as a cause of the conflict. The passage appears in "Our Virginia: Past and Present," which was distributed in the state's public elementary schools for the first time last month. The author, Joy Masoff, who is not a trained historian but has written several books, said she found the information about black Confederate soldiers primarily through Internet research, which turned up work...

I see that the Curator of African-American & Community History for the North Carolina Museum of History, Mr. Earl Ijames, is back in the news. Mr. Ijames was recently the keynote speaker at a new Confederate monument dedication in North Carolina. A news story quotes Mr. Ijames as saying: "We need to present a more balanced history," he said, adding that the black Confederate soldier has been lost to history. "They never got recognized, but we are starting to change that," Ijames said.

The life of Ike Pringle has become a sort of enigma for local historians who are trying to figure out exactly what role the slave played in the American Civil War. Born in May, 1841, Isaac, or Ike as he was better known, was owned by the Pringle family that lived and owned land around Vimville. Ike took on the name of his owners and was forever called Ike Pringle. At an early age he was given to the grandson of the family, Frank Pringle. Not that far apart in age, the two basically grew up together until the Civil...

On Sunday afternoon at Old Union Cemetery in southern White County, over 180 people gathered to pay a debt owed nearly 80 years. The group included members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Sons of Confederate Veterans, family and friends, all there to memorialize the service of Pvt. Henry Henderson, a black Confederate soldier. Henderson was born in 1849 in Davidson County, NC. He was 11 years old when he entered service with the Confederate States of America as a cook and servant to Colonel William F. Henderson, a medical doctor. Records show Henry was wounded during his service,...

UDC marks another black Confederate grave By Clayta Richards / Chronicle staffwriter On Sunday afternoon at Old Union Cemetery in southern White County, over 180 people gathered to pay a debt owed nearly 80 years. The group included members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Sons of Confederate Veterans, family and friends, all there to memorialize the service of Pvt. Henry Henderson, a black Confederate soldier. Henderson was born in 1849 in Davidson County, NC. He was 11 years old when he entered service with the Confederate States of America as a cook and servant to Colonel William F....

History Channel show on Camp Douglas, so far not bad. Whats really interesting is the references to those non-existent Black Confederates. Just a handful but an interesting and matter-of-fact admission of their existence.

The Black Confederate By: Tom Darby · Section: Diaries Contrary to popular historical education and Southern revisionists, there is much evidence that African-American's served their country not only in the Union army but also in the Confederate army and navy. This evidence is found in the diaries, journals, newspaper articles and documents written by soldiers, officers and politicians. Many institutions have set about to dismantle these findings by declaring them as `revisionist,' however the proof that these written accounts exist at all shows that slaves were present in the service of their state and country. It was the commanders in...

The month of February has begun and so has the celebration of Black History Month in the nation, schools and communities. Throughout this time, many noteworthy leaders, citizens, scientists and soldiers who fought in wars and conflicts will be recognized. However, there is one group of African Americans who will receive no recognition again this year during this month. I am speaking of black Confederates who served and fought to defend their homeland from what they believed to be an armed invasion. Advertisement The South was home to some 4 million who lived there and had roots going back more...

The first National Wildlife Refuge in this country named for an African American, is now in the Mississippi Delta, near Hollandale. It is the Holt Collier Wildlife Refuge. Collier was a freed slave, who had served in the Confederate Army, and led President Theodore Roosevelt on a legendary bear hunt, near Onward, Mississippi in 1902. When Roosevelt didn't get a bear, Collier caught one and tied it to a tree. Roosevelt would not shoot it and the press corps traveling with him named it his Teddy Bear. The name stuck. The Holt Collier National Wildlife Refuge is now 1,438 acres,...

PETERSBURG - May 23, 1886 there appeared in a predecessor to this paper an obituary or death notice honoring the life of "a colored Confederate." That man, Richard "Dick" Poplar, was buried alongside some of his comrades in Blandford Cemetery on Memorial Hill in an unmarked grave. Now, 118 years after his death, he will receive a proper headstone and a memorial service, courtesy of The Richard Poplar Memorial Committee. "There died in this city Saturday morning at the residence of Mr. James Muirhead, a Virginian who cast his fortunes with the Confederacy, and endured many months of weary imprisonment...

A Calhoun County Confederate Memorial is to be 110 feet long and etched with 2,000 names of Confederate soldiers who survived the Civil War, including a black who had been freed from slavery in 1863.Work ended a month ago on the second of three black-granite walls of the memorial at Janney Iron Furnace.County Commissioner Eli Henderson said Monday the memorial's third wall, scheduled for completion in April, may display more names of blacks like Charles Bush, who is said to have walked back to Calhoun County from battle carrying the sword, pistol and other personal items of a local white...

http://www.credenda.org/issues/9-1verbatim.php Volume 9, Issue 1: Verbatim Quotations on Black Confederates Various Saints Numerous Afro-Virginians, free blacks and slaves, were genuine Southern loyalists, not as a consequence of white pressure but due to their preferences. They are the Civil War's forgotten people, yet their existence was more widespread than American history has recorded. Their bones rest in unhonored glory in Southern soil, shrouded by falsehoods, indifference and historians' censorship. Ervin L. Jordan, Jr. There are at the present moment, many colored men in the Confederate Army doing duty not only as cooks, servants, and laborers, but as real soldiers, having muskets...