Those Pesky Disappearing Black Confederates

Every few years the invisible black confederate story recirculates among the neo-confederate types.

Every time they wind up empty.

Hope the bill passes to memorialize Robert Smalls! Small would later serve in the US Congress until 1886.

GOP lawmakers surprised to learn no black soldiers served under Confederacy in South Carolina

The justification for building a monument to black Confederate soldiers is crumbling as historians point out there’s no evidence such combatants ever existed.

State Rep. Bill Chumley (R-Woodruff) and state Rep. Mike Burns (R-Taylors) pre-filed a bill last month that would establish a commission to design an African-American Confederate veterans monument, reported The State.

The bill would also require public schools to teach the contributions of black people toward the Confederate cause, and Chumley said his proposal had already accomplished his goal even as historians undermine its intent.

“We are all learning a lot,” Chumley said. “The purpose of the bill is education.”

The State reviewed pension records from 1923 that show three blacks claimed armed service in South Carolina units under the Confederacy, with two of them confirmed as cooks or servants and none for armed service.

“In all my years of research, I can say I have seen no documentation of black South Carolina soldiers fighting for the Confederacy,” said historian Walter Edgar, the longtime director of the University of South Carolina’s Institute for Southern Studies. “In fact, when secession came, the state turned down free (blacks) who wanted to volunteer because they didn’t want armed persons of color.

Edgar, who wrote a history of the state, said any black person who served in a Confederate unit in South Carolina was either a slave or an unpaid laborer working against his will.

South Carolina forbid blacks from carrying weapons during most of the Civil War out of fear of a slave revolt, but the Confederacy did allow black soldiers in the final months of the doomed rebellion.

State Sen. Darrell Jackson (D-Columbia), a black Democrat, and state Sen. Greg Gregory (R-Columbia), a white Republican, filed a separate proposal to memorialize Robert Smalls, who hijacked a Confederate supply ship in 1862 and turned it over to the Union.

He went on to become a state legislator and five-term congressman.

If the monument is built, it would be the first on Statehouse grounds to honor an individual African-American.

 

Stuck On Stupid In the Former Home of the confederacy

About the last thing anyone wants, other than a few whack-job Republicans in Virginia – is for these assholes to show up (from out-of-state no less) with their guns and flags.

These folks give new meaning to the words pathetic and stupid.I think I echo the sentiments of most residents that you are welcome to come here and waive your placards and signs… But you ain’t welcome if your purpose is to incite violence.

I think Congress, if it wasn’t full of corrupt sold out NRA scumbags, should pass a law – that demonstrators must be unarmed.It is time to stop this madness.

Giving even so call white trash a bad name…

 

‘I hope nobody loses their lives’: Armed neo-Confederates descend on Virginia to defend statue ‘at all costs’

Richmond, Virginia is bracing for violence as neo-Confederates target the former capitol of the Confederacy less than one month after Heather Heyer was killed in what many are calling an act of domestic terrorism.

CSAII: The New Confederate States of America is planning an unpermitted “Heritage not Hate” rally to defend Richmond’s Robert E. Lee Monument following the deadly “Unite the Right” rally to defend Charlottesville’s Robert E. Lee statue.

“I hope nobody loses their lives tomorrow, on either side, I really do,” CSA II organizer and Three Percenter militia organizer Tara Brandau told WTVR. “That’s not why we are here.”

Friday morning, Brandau posted photos of her in a pickup truck, flashing a Three Percenter gang-sign while wearing a ‘POLICE’ hat and confederate fingerless gloves.

Two long rifles appear to be displayed in a rear window rack.

Brandau suggested to NBC 12 that she would be armed.

“We have not encouraged anybody to bring any weapons,” Brandau claimed. “The leaders of this will have some. The police officers know, but it’s so that our people are safe.”

Following the violence in Charlottesville, CSAII’s official statement said they would continue to defend “at all costs” confederate monuments, like the statues in Charlottesville and Richmond.

“We pride ourselves in honoring and protecting our Proud Confederate Heritage as well as our Confederate Monuments and Cemeteries to honor our past heros (sic) and not let their memory fade away as is being done by a lot of our government officials today,” the CSAII Commanding General wrote on Facebook. “CSA II® will continue to honor our heros (sic) memory by protecting our monuments to their memory at all cost and assisting our fellow members of the Heritage ~ Not Hate Movement to stop the oppressive tactics done by these above mentioned hate groups and government officials.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center explained the problem with such an approach.

SPLC noted, “the argument that the Confederate flag and other displays represent ‘heritage, not hate’ ignores the near-universal heritage of African Americans whose ancestors were enslaved by the millions in the South. It trivializes their pain, their history and their concerns about racism — whether it’s the racism of the past or that of today.”

CSA II’s “Heritage ~ Not Hate” efforts have included accusing the United States of terrorism that Confederates are fighting to this day.

 

In Flash Move Baltimore Removes confederate Statues

Take ’em down.

Baltimore Removes Confederate Statues One Day After Voting On Issue

In an overnight operation, workers removed Baltimore’s high-profile statues linked to the Confederacy, using cranes and trucks to haul away monuments that honored Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Roger B. Taney, author of the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott opinion.

“It’s done,” Mayor Catherine Pugh said Wednesday, according to The Baltimore Sun. “They needed to come down. My concern is for the safety and security of our people. We moved as quickly as we could.”

The city took action as several local groups were preparing their own plans to yank down the statues, in much the same way a Confederate statue was taken down in Durham, N.C., this week.

The organization Coalition of Friends/Tubman House, which had helped to plan a “Do It Like Durham” event for Wednesday using the tagline, “Let’s tear down white supremacy and hate,” says it canceled the event after the statues were removed.

A grassroots coalition that had promoted the event, the Baltimore Bloc, used its Twitter feed to post videos of the statues being taken down on.

The statues have been removed nearly a year after a mayoral commission recommended taking down the public commemorations to Taney at Mount Vernon Place and to Lee and Jackson, who were depicted together on horseback in a monument in the Wyman Park Dell.

That commission had recommended keeping two other artifacts: the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Mount Royal Avenue near Mosher Street and the Confederate Women’s of Maryland Monument at Bishop Square Park. But in the wake of the violence in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend, the city council voted to remove all four monuments.

Councilman Brandon Scott introduced the city’s measure, which called for “the immediate deconstruction of all Confederate Monuments in Baltimore so that they are unable to be placed on public display.”

A photo taken at the scene of the Taney monument Tuesday night shows an information placard titled “Reconciling History.” Behind it, the statue’s pedestal stands empty.

As NPR’s Colin Dwyer reports, the deadly violence in Charlottesville has given new momentum to many cities and states that are pushing to remove monuments to Confederate figures from prominent display.

Adding to the controversy, President Trump has made a series of statements about the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville that confused and angered many in the public and in the Republican Party.

Trump initially refused to assign blame for an act that resulted in a murder charge, prompting a flood of criticism. He then called out hate groups on Monday — but on Tuesday, the president reiterated his view that “there’s blame on both sides.”

Millions of Marylanders fought in the Civil War — and nearly three times as many fought for the Union than for the Confederacy. But as the mayoral commission noted, “Baltimore has three public monuments to the Confederacy and only one to the Union.”

 

Charlottesville Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy Speaks Out

Charlottesville is getting ready to become a lot less tolerant of neo-confederate and racist groups.

They want to make a point, don’t move the statue, hand out some sledgehammers and let the people of the city take it down the way folks around the world, including in Germany and Iraq have taken down the monuments and artifacts of dictators…One small piece at a time.

 

Mississippi Judge Remove State Confederate Flag From Courtroom

About time!

 

Confederate Monuments..Bad For Business

Gonna move if they don’t tear it down!

Tampa Bay Rays Want 106-Year-Old Confederate Monument Gone

During the monument’s 1911 dedication, a speaker called the black race “ignorant and inferior.”

Florida baseball team Tampa Bay Rays want their city to get rid of a monument to slavery and losing.

Currently, the 106-year-old monument sits outside the Hillsborough County courthouse. But County Commissioner Les Miller said he has recently see a “major groundswell of people who want it removed.” That now includes the Rays and Tampa Bay Mayor Bob Buckhorn.

“We understand and believe that these decisions belong in the hands of elected officials,” the team said in a statement sent to the Tampa Bay Times. “At the same time, we are supportive of its removal from the courthouse.”

The monument, “Memoria in Aeterna,” honors the soldiers of the Confederate States of America, according to the Historical Marker Database. Last month, county commissioners decided, 4-3, to keep the monument. But Miller said he plans to ask his colleagues againto remove the monument when they are set to meet July 19.

During the monument’s dedication in 1911 to a crowd of 5,000, the keynote speaker called blacks “an ignorant and inferior race,” according to the Tampa Bay Times.

“There have been people that said it’s a slap in the face to everyone,” Miller told the publication. “To put a mural showing diversity behind a monument constructed in 1911 and the person made the comments that blacks were inferior, that does not make any sense at all.”

The Rays are considering moving from their current location in St. Petersburg to Tampa, and the monument’s removal could sway their decision. Part of the team’s criteria is choosing a site with “iconic elements that positively impact the ballpark brand, the brand of the team and the image of the region.”

A monument to racism is not part of that image, the team has decided.

 

Marine Career Change – The Stupid Way

These two can kiss their Marine careers goodbye, after spending a few months of nights guarding Porta-Potties as Privates.

Marines arrested after displaying white nationalist banner at pro-Confederate rally

Two active-duty U.S. Marines were arrested after driving hours from their homes to take part in a pro-Confederate rally last week in North Carolina.

Sgt. Michael Chesny and Staff Sgt. Joseph Manning were arrested for trespassing after draping a white nationalist banner over a building in downtown Graham during a May 20 demonstration, reported the Times-News.

The pair unfurled a banner that quoted George Orwell’s “1984” — “He who controls the past controls the future” — and the letters, “YWNRU,” which stands for “you will not replace us,” a slogan linked to the white nationalist group Identity Evropa.

The group has gained followers in recent years by blanketing college campuses with white nationalist literature, although it’s not clear whether either Marine is directly involved with Identity Evropa or similar groups.

The Marines told arresting officers they had gone to the rally to record video of protesters from the Industrial Workers of the World to prove the social group wasn’t peaceful.

Chesny serves as an explosive ordnance disposal technician based at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, and Manning serves in the Marine Corps Engineer School at Camp Lejeune.

The servicemen were each charged with first-degree trespassing, a misdemeanor offense, and released on $1,000 bond the same day as their arrest.

The incident is under investigation by military personnel.

The U.S. Marine Corps updated its policies in 2009 to prohibit active advocacy for “supremacist doctrine, ideology or causes” that deprive others of civil rights.

Both Marines are decorated combat veterans who served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

White Supremacists Turn Out in Charlottesville, Va to Protest confederate Statue Takedown

Let the whimpering go on. The usual white nationalist and KKK suspects turned up yesterday in Virginia, including white nationalist and Momma’s Boy Richard Spencer to parade holding torches…

I guess they couldn’t afford a cross with wood prices being what they are.

Dozens of Torch-Wielding White Supremacists Protest Removal of Confederate Statue

Klavern in the Park…

Several dozen protesters gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday to express support for a Robert E. Lee statue that is set to be removed. The group made its point by lighting torchers and chanting Nazi rhetoric as well as “Russia is our friend.” Richard Spencer, the self-proclaimed white nationalist, was at the protest and also led an earlier rally against the removal of the statue that has become a centerpiece of Corey Stewart’s campaign in his bid to be elected Virginia governor this year. “What brings us together is that we are white, we are a people, we will not be replaced,” Spencer said at the first rally.

Some protesters at the afternoon Jackson Park rally spoke to the press and denied they were white supremacists. “We are simply just white people that love our heritage, our culture, our European identity,” one protester said.

Later that night, dozens gathered in Lee Park and surrounded a statue of the Confederate general that the City Council has voted to remove and replace with a new memorial dedicated to slaves. The protesters chanted, “You will not replace us” and “Blood and soil.” Yes, they were chanting a phrase that was popularized in Nazi Germany.

The protest didn’t last long as the white supremacists extinguished their torches when police surrounded the park. But they had made their point. “This event involving torches at night in Lee Park was either profoundly ignorant or was designed to instill fear in our minority populations in a way that hearkens back to the days of the KKK,” Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer said in a statement.

There was no sign that Stewart, who is taking part in the June 13 GOP primary, was in any way involved in the protest, which was condemned by several of the other candidates for governor. A group that is suing to keep the statue in place denied any involvement in the protest Saturday night. “We remain committed to preserving the Robert E. Lee Monument in its park through the legal process in the courts because of its historic and artistic value,” the group said in a Facebook post. “We soundly and completely reject racism, white supremacy, and any other identity based groups that preach division and hate no matter which side of the issue they happen to support.”

 

Jeff Davis Goes Down (Again) In New Orleans

Taking out the trash, and putting it where it belongs…On the trash-heap of history.

Workers Take Jefferson Davis Statue Off Its Pedestal In New Orleans

More apropos would have been the rope around its neck

Workers in New Orleans dismantled the city’s Jefferson Davis monument early Thursday, removing a prominent statue of the Confederate leader that had stood for more than 100 years.

“This historic moment is an opportunity to join together as one city and redefine our future,” Mayor Mitch Landrieu said as he announced that crews had begun removing the statue, the second of four planned removals of four Confederacy-related monuments.

As workers slung a strap around the statue’s waist and lifted it off its pedestal, “at least 100 people cheered from across the street, outnumbering the few dozen protesters, some waving Confederate flags,” member station WWNO’s Laine Kaplan-Levenson reports.

“We would have preferred it to be in the daytime,” monument opponent Malcolm Suber told Kaplan-Levenson, “so everybody could see it in the light of day. But we’ll take this.”

 

Battling Bigots on the WWW – The Myth of “Irish Slaves”

Prior to 1700, there were about 10,000 Irish brought to America as indentured servants. Many of these folks wound up doing farm labor. The period of “servitude” could be from 7 to 15 years based on the cost of their transport to the New World, and what labor skills they had. The white supremacist line is that these people were slaves…They were not. They were not for several reasons –

1. They were indentured for a specific period – not life. Once their indenture was over, they had to be released.
2. They never lost legal rights. Ergo, and indentured servant had the right to challenge their indenture in court. Furthermore, if assaulted or killed by the plantation owner – the owner was subject to criminal laws, up to and including murder in the courts of the colonies. Salves conversely, were property, and there was no legal consequence of killing a slave.
3. About 1670 many of the slave states began passing laws which established slavery solely as a condition of black people. These laws included perpetuity clauses which made the children of slaves…slaves. Status of children, whether free or slave was based on the status of the mother. Ergo, if the mother was free, the children were free. Which was the beginning of the various miscegenation laws prohibiting whites and blacks marriage. Plantation owners specificall wanted to stop black men from having children with indentured Irish women because the children of such would not be slaves.

Virginia, 1662″Whereas some doubts have arisen whether children got by any Englishmen upon a Negro shall be slave or Free, Be it therefore enacted and declared by this present Grand assembly, that all children born in this country shall be held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother.

“Virginia, 1667″Act III. Whereas some doubts have arisen whether children that are slaves by birth… should by virtue of their baptism be made free, it is enacted that baptism does not alter the condition to the person as to his bondage or freedom; masters freed from this doubt may more carefully propagate Christianity by permitting slaves to be admitted to that sacrament.

“Virginia, 1682″Act I. It is enacted that all servants… which shall be imported into this country either by sea or by land, whether Negroes, Moors, mulattoes or Indians who and whose parentage and native countries are not Christian at the time of their first purchase by some Christian… and all Indians, which shall be sold by our neighboring Indians, or any other trafficking with us for slaves, are hereby adjudged, deemed and taken to be slaves to all intents and purposes any law, usage, or custom to the contrary notwithstanding.

“Virginia, 1705″All servants imported and brought into the Country… who were not Christians in their native Country… shall be accounted and be slaves. All Negro, mulatto and Indian slaves within this dominion… shall be held to be real estate.

“^[2]South Carolina, 1712″Be it therefore enacted, by his Excellency, William, Lord Craven, Palatine…. and the rest of the members of the General Assembly, now met at Charles Town, for the South-west part of this Province, and by the authority of the same, That all negros, mulattoes, mestizo’s or Indians, which at any time heretofore have been sold, or now are held or taken to be, or hereafter shall be bought and sold for slaves, are hereby declared slaves; and they, and their children, are hereby made and declared slaves….”

‘Irish slaves’: Historian destroys racist myth conservatives love to share on Facebook

White supremacists have been promoting the myth that the first slaves brought to the Americas were Irish, not African — but a historian says there’s simply no evidence to back their racist claims.

Liam Hogan, a research librarian at the Limerick City Library, set about debunking the myth after spotting a widely shared Global Research article in 2013 and realized its potential for misinformation, reported Hatewatch.

“It was quite clear to me then that many would never engage with the history of the transatlantic slave trade when they had this false equivalence to fall back on,” Hogan told the website. “I think that’s what convinced me that I needed to put the record straight.”

The myth essentially equates indentured or penal servitude with racialized perpetual hereditary chattel slavery, Hogan said.

Racists claim the Irish slave trade began in 1612 and was not abolished until 1839, and they insist “white slavery” has been covered up by “politically correct” historians.

“The various memes make many claims including (but not limited to) the following: that ‘Irish slaves’ were treated far worse than black slaves, that there were more ‘Irish slaves’ than black slaves, that ‘Irish slaves’ were worth less than black slaves, that enslaved Irish women were forced to breed with enslaved African men and that the Irish were slaves for much longer than black slaves,” Hogan said.

“This is then invariably followed up by overtly racist statements,” he added. “For example, ‘Yet, when is the last time you heard an Irishman bitching and moaning about how the world owes them a living?’”

Hogan hasn’t isolated the myth’s first appearance on social media, but it’s been a common trope on the white supremacist website Stormfront since at least 2003 and has been trotted out as an argument against reparations for slavery and to attack the Black Lives Matter movement.

He pointed to a 2014 post on Alex Jones’ Infowars website that attacked both Black Lives Matter and reparations by promoting several falsehoods about “Irish slavery.”

“It appropriates the massacre of around 132 African victims of the genocidal transatlantic slave trade in order to diminish it,” Hogan said, referring to the Zong massacre in 1781. “If you look at the Infowars version of the meme you’ll see it has even appended an extra zero, making the number of victims amount to 1,302, while adding that ‘these slaves weren’t from Africa, these forgotten souls were from Ireland.’ This shameless appropriation is then used by Infowars to mock calls for reparatory justice for slavery.”

The myth has become nearly ubiquitous in social media discussions on slavery and race — and it was even promoted by a blogger on the liberal Daily Kos website.

“There was almost no situation where the meme was not used to derail discussions about the legacy of slavery or ongoing anti-black racism,” Hogan said. “Starting with Ferguson and with almost every subsequent police killing of an unarmed black person from late 2014 through 2015, the meme was used to mock and denigrate the Black Lives Matter movement. It is in a sense the ‘historical’ version of the disingenuous All Lives Matter response to demands for justice and truth telling.”

Hogan has collected hundreds of examples of the fallacious argument, which he has shared on Twitter and Tumblr, and he said some of those memes have been shared hundreds of thousands of times on Facebook.

The myth is especially popular among Confederate apologists, and Hogan cites several examples of its deployment during the debate over Confederate flag displays in the wake of the fatal shootings of nine black churchgoers by a white supremacist.

“This year I’ve tracked the meme being shared by the Texas League of the South, History of the True South, Love My Confederate Ancestors and the Sons of Confederate Veterans,” Hogan said. “They seem to believe that this meme somehow negates the fact that the Confederacy fought a war to perpetually enslave millions of African-Americans and their descendants.”

The myth is often supported with citations to the books “To Hell or Barbados,” by Sean O’Callaghan, and “White Cargo,” by Don Jordan and Michael A. Walsh — both of which are historically questionable, according to Hogan, but he said most articles about “Irish slaves” don’t even quote from those sources.

Instead, Hogan said most of those articles rely heavily on an unreferenced blog post and the self-published work of Holocaust denier Michael A. Hoffman II.

Hogan said his concerns are shared by at least 81 academics and historians, and he hopes to set the record straight in his own book.

“I would like to reclaim the history of Irish servitude in the 17th century Anglo-Caribbean and present it in context for a general audience,” he said. “The Cromwellian policy of forced transportation to the colonies in the 1650s (which included an estimated 10,000 Irish people) understandably scars our collective memory and it deserves both respect and close attention from anyone interested in the history of the unfree labor systems in the Atlantic world.”

He said the myth’s appeal reveals an essential element of racist thought — and the way those beliefs are exploited to justify discriminatory laws.

“The racism then flows as these various groups of Neo-Nazis posit why whites can overcome a ‘worse’ situation than blacks and ‘do not whine about it,’” Hogan said. “So the ‘get over it’ racism that so often accompanies the meme is not about history at all. It goes much deeper than that.”

“Their belief is that non-whites can’t move on due to racial inferiority or social pathology,” he continued. “So through false equivalence and erasure, they attempt to remove history as a determinant so that they can claim the current socioeconomic position and mass incarceration of black people in the U.S. is due to racial inferiority.”

 

More Chumph Confederate Racists Go to Jail

About a year ago in Douglasville, Ga a bunch of Trumpazoid confederate flag waiving scum decided they were going to tell the world that “the flag” wasn’t about racism, it was about “pride”.

Nothing says “pride” more than crashing a child’s birthday party, calling her racist names, and pulling a gun on her.

Racist Assault At A Child’s Birthday Party Yields Long Prison Terms In Georgia

A Georgia judge has sentenced Kayla Norton, 25, and Jose “Joe” Torres, 26, to spend a combined 19 years in prison for their role in a group’s racist rampage at an 8-year-old’s birthday party — an assault that included shouting racial slurs, making armed threats and waving Confederate battle flags.

“I’m so sorry that happened to you,” Norton told the family that endured the assault, weeping in the courtroom at Monday’s sentencing. “I am so sorry.”

After telling the court that she accepted responsibility for her actions, Norton turned to the area of the courtroom where families who attended the birthday party were seated.

“But I want you all to know that that is not me,” Norton told them. “That is not me.”

Norton and Torres, who are not married, have three children together. Prosecutors say they were part of a gang of white supremacists who targeted African-Americans with racist taunts and threatened to murder minorities.

In court Monday, both Norton and Torres sat hunched over and crying after Superior Court Judge William “Beau” McClain handed down his sentence: 13 years in prison and seven years’ probation for Torres, and six years in prison with nine years’ probation for Norton. Both of them are also banished from Douglas County, McClain said.

The sentencing comes weeks after a jury found Torres and Norton guilty of making terroristic threats and violating the Georgia Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act. The jury also convicted Torres of aggravated assault. Although Georgia doesn’t have a law specifying a hate crime, that’s the term both McClain and District Attorney Brian Fortner used to describe the group’s behavior.

The assault occurred in July 2015, one month after a racist gunman killed nine worshippers at a historically black church in Charleston, S.C. Prosecutors say Norton, Torres and other members of a group that called itself “Respect the Flag” went on an alcohol-fueled racist spree in Douglas and Paulding counties, west of Atlanta.

With Confederate battle flags affixed to the beds of their pickup trucks, the group gathered for a ride that was purportedly meant to celebrate the flag’s heritage.

“However, Paulding County 911 began immediately receiving calls that members associated with this group were threatening African American citizens at various locations in Paulding County and hurling numerous racial slurs in the process as well,” according to the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office.

After threatening black motorists, the group headed to Douglasville, where they happened upon an outdoor birthday party that included a cookout and bouncy castle.

“Victims and witnesses from the party, who were predominantly African-American, testified to observing the group of trucks whose passengers were hurling a litany of racial slurs at them as they passed by,” prosecutors said.

Several members of the group — some of whom are now serving prison terms of their own — got out of their trucks and approached the partygoers, threatening to kill them all. According to their fellow defendants and witnesses, it was Norton who retrieved Torres’ shotgun — a tactical 12-gauge with a pistol grip — and loaded it before giving it to him.

Cellphone footage from the party shows police attempting to form a barrier in front of the families as the trucks drove off.

During his trial, Torres told the court he was carrying the shotgun for this own defense. But he then acknowledged lying to police about the gun — and to selling the weapon before he was arrested.

Months after the attack, the “Respect the Flag” group was indicted as a street gang by a Douglas County grand jury.

“They recognized that it was not about flying a flag but it was about pointing a shotgun at other people and threatening to kill them because of the color of their skin,” Fortner said Monday.

Testifying for the victims at Monday’s sentencing, Hyesha Bryant, who attended the party, said she forgave the couple.

“I never thought this would be something I’d have to endure in 2017,” Bryant said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “As adults and parents, we have to instill in our children the values of right and wrong. That moment you had to choose to leave, you stayed.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9vrswjIQXo

 

“Pig” Painting to Be Removed From Capitol

In yet another stunning hypocrisy, the student painting which led to hate acts by Republican Congressmen has been ordered to be removed from the Art Display.

As if the Statues of Former Confederate President and Vice President Jefferson Davis and Alexander Hamilton Stephens, and Confederate General Robert E. Lee – as well as the architect of the Civil War John Calhoun….aren’t divisive.

Painting at Center of Censorship Debate to Be Removed From Capitol

A controversial painting depicting policemen as pigs will be removed from the U.S. Capitol after the Architect of the Capitol concluded on Friday that it violates standards set by the House Office Buildings Commission. The racially charged student painting, which focuses on the riots that erupted in Ferguson after Michael Brown was fatally shot in 2014, has already triggered a battle between lawmakers. Rep. Lacy Clay, who decided to hang the painting in the U.S. Capitol, had faced off against GOP lawmakers who said the painting was too disrespectful to law enforcement to have on display. Late Friday, Rep. David Reichert’s complaint against the painting appeared to bring the whole saga to a close. Reichert’s office said the Architect of the Capitol has ordered the painting to be removed because it violates a rule that bans artwork depicting “contemporary political controversies.” The painting is now due to be removed Tuesday, according to POLITICO. Reichert praised the decision to take down the artwork that he described as a “slap in the face” to law enforcement. Clay, who has argued that it would be nothing short of censorship to remove the paining, has not yet commented on the news.

Confederate Traitors in the Capitol –

Jefferson Davis – President of the Confederacy

Robert E, Lee General of a Confederate Army which slaughtered escaping slaves

Alexander Hamilton Stephens – VP of the Confederacy

John C Calhoun, slaver, author of confederacy and Civil War, murderer

 

 

“Black confederate” Fool Meets Real confederate KKK

This clown has been running around for the past 20 years or so flying his confederate flag, dressed up in a confederate uniform. He is a favorite with racist groups throughout the South to parade up on the stage to cover their pharmacists we need to take up a collection to have Psychologists do research into “Uncle Tom Syndrome”, and possible cures.

The Lawn Ornament in question…

Bystanders break up bizarre scuffle between angry KKK members and black pro-Confederate activist

A black pro-Confederate demonstrator was met by angry Ku Klux Klan members at a Florida park in a Dave Chappelle sketch come to life.

H.K. Edgerton, the former president of the NAACP chapter in Asheville, North Carolina, travels the South wearing a Confederate army uniform to promote his belief that the seditious government was not racist.

The 68-year-old Edgerton baffled his former colleagues by campaigning in favor of pro-Confederate groups and promoting their symbols — which many Americans perceive as antagonistic emblems of the slavery and racism.

He stood beside a Confederate monument in Asheville last year holding the “Stars and Bars” battle flag after vandals painted “Black Lives Matter” on the pedestal a week after a white supremacist who posed with the flag gunned down nine black worshipers at a South Carolina church.

He’s also made lengthy — and solo — marches across the South over the past 16 years to promote his belief that Confederate heritage was not necessarily racist, and he’s currently walking across Florida for the same purpose.

Edgerton, wearing a gray historical uniform, was paying his respects Monday morning at the Hemming Park Confederate Monument in Jacksonville when several members of an area KKK chapter confronted him, reported WTLV-TV.

The racist group argued with Edgerton until witnesses came to his defense and defused the situation.

The Southern Legal Resource Center, where Edgerton is a board member, said they weren’t sure why KKK members protested the black pro-Confederate activist’s demonstration.

Pro-Confederate groups rallied behind Edgerton, who has been accused by critics of “neo-Confederate revisionism,” demonstrating some of the complexities about race and southern heritage that the comedian Chappelle toyed with in his old Comedy Central series.

“Mr. H.K. and the other true Southerners in Florida can handle these ignoramuses,” said Facebook user Robin Foster Osorio-Pedraza. “I’m glad they’re all looking out for each other. We don’t like it when white supremists (sic) use our Confederate battle flag. It belongs to us, the descendants of those who served under it in the War of North Agression (sic).”

The administrator of one pro-Confederate social media page lashed out at the “freaks in the sheets” who protested Edgerton’s appearance.

“To those idiots in the dunce caps…. Y’all got your asses handed to you at Stone Mountain, beat down in Anaheim, and made a fool of on CNN by a black comedian. And now this. Y’all are more like the Keystone Kops than an organization of fear. Let it go and crawl back into your momma’s basement,” posted the administrator of the “We Support the Confederate Flag” page.

Edgerton argued against slavery reparations in a 2006 episode of Penn and Teller’s “Bullshit,” and he threatened a lawsuit in 2009 against a newly elected Asheville City Council member because he was an atheist.

 

 

The New Civil War Rages in NOLA Over confederate Symbols

The defenders of the flag confederate have responded to the New Orleans City Council plan to move some of the confederate memorials in the city into a historical area or park in the usual manner. Death threats, assaults, burning, and vandalism. Indeed the same sort of actions which led they and their flag to be reviled by peaceful, law abiding, moral people in the first place.

Seems to me there is a fairly simple solution to the problem. Instead of carefully dissembling and moving said monuments…Destroy them. A crane and a wrecking ball, or large excavator can pretty much render said memorials to gravel and metal scrap in a matter of minutes. With the added city benefit of being less than 1/6th the cost of hiring a crew to move the objects.

Removal of Confederate symbols turns ugly in New Orleans

Backlash against a plan to remove prominent Confederate monuments in New Orleans has been tinged by death threats, intimidation and even what may have been the torching of a contractor’s Lamborghini.

For now, at least, things have gotten so nasty the city hasn’t found a contractor willing to bear the risk of tearing down the monuments. The city doesn’t have its own equipment to move them and is now in talks to find a company, even discussing doing the work at night to avoid further tumult.

Initially, it appeared the monuments would be removed quickly after the majority black City Council on Dec. 17 voted 6-1 to approve the mayor’s plan to take them down. The monuments, including towering figures of Gens. Robert E. Lee and P.G.T. Beauregard, have long been viewed by many here as symbols of racism and white supremacy.

The backlash is not surprising to Bill Quigley, a Loyola University law professor and longtime civil rights activist in New Orleans who’s worked on behalf of a group demanding the monuments come down.

The South has seen such resistance before, during fights over school integration and efforts in the early 1990s to racially integrate Carnival parades in New Orleans.

“Fighting in the courts, fighting in the legislature, anonymous intimidation,” Quigley said. “These are from the same deck of cards that are used to stop all social change.”

For all its reputation as a party city of fun and frolic, New Orleans is no stranger to social change and the tensions that come with it. It was the site of an early attempt to challenge racial segregation laws in the Plessy vs. Ferguson case and home to then-6-year-old Ruby Bridges whose battle to integrate her elementary school was immortalized in a Norman Rockwell painting.

New Orleans is a majority African-American city although the number of black residents has fallen since 2005’s Hurricane Katrina drove many people from the city. Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who proposed the monuments’ removal, rode to victory twice with overwhelming support from the city’s black residents.

Nationally, the debate over Confederate symbols has become heated since nine parishioners were killed at a black church in South Carolina in June.South Carolina removed the Confederate flag from its statehouse grounds in the weeks after, and several Southern cities have since considered removing monuments.

“There is no doubt that there is a huge amount of rage over the attack on Confederate symbols,” said Mark Potok with the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based group that tracks extremist activity.

His group counted about 360 pro-Confederate battle flag rallies across the nation in the six months after the church shootings. Such rallies were rare before then, he said.

In New Orleans, things have turned particularly ugly.

In early January, as it beat back legal challenges seeking to stop the removal, the city hired a contractor to remove the monuments.

But H&O Investments LLC. of Baton Rouge soon pulled out of the job, citing death threats, “unkindly name-calling,” outrage on social media and the threat of other businesses canceling contracts.

One day, several protesters came while H&O workers took measurements. Some of the protesters wore materials “with affiliation to white supremacy groups,” said Roy Maughan Jr., a lawyer for the contractor.

That same day, Maughan said, “a specific articulated threat” was phoned into city authorities warning workers at the monuments to leave for their safety. On Jan. 12, H&O sent the city a letter saying it was dropping out.

Then, on Jan. 19, a Lamborghini belonging to the owner of H&O Investments was set on fire. The sports car was parked outside his office near Baton Rouge, Maughan said.

A national rental crane company the city had hoped to hire also refused to be involved.

The FBI and local fire investigators declined to comment. No arrests have been made.

 

 

Alabama Town Appoints Neo-confederate as Chief of Police

Lot more wrong in Alabama than just cops planting evidence and false arrests in Dothan…

‘This is a nightmare’: Black residents fume as Alabama city backs ‘Confederate commander’ police chief

Residents of an Alabama city are up in arms because their city leaders openly support the police chief, who has admitted to being a member of a neo-Confederate group, WTVM reports.

Dothan police Chief Steven Parrish is a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and residents voiced outrage that he continues in his capacity at a Tuesday city government meeting. Some on Tuesday complained they were not allowed to speak when Mayor Mike Schmitz cut short public comment, allowing one representative for and against the chief to speak.

“This would never happen to the Jewish community,” resident Paul Carroll told the City Commission. “You would never see someone who’s a neo-Nazi being made chief of police, but somehow we as the black community are supposed to accept that we have a neo-Confederate?”

According to WTVY, protesters have been calling for Parrish to resign or for him to be fired, with some saying they do not feel safe in the city as long as he is police chief.

“We are supposed to accept that we are supposed to put our trust and our faith in someone who has those connections?” resident Paul Carroll said, according to theDothan Eagle.. “I don’t (feel safe). Sometimes when you have had a life of white privilege it is very difficult for you to understand what it is like to be a minority.”

In a blog post written by Parrish, he identifies himself as a commander of the Henry County chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. In the post, he talks about efforts to preserve the grave of a Confederate captain who died fighting for the South from a logging company.

Blogger Jon Carroll accused the chief of being part of a ring of narcotics detectives that planted drugs and weapons on African-American men for years before becoming chief. Carroll sites the Alabama Justice Project and says the documents were leaked by anonymous Dothan police officers from the Internal Affairs division, and that many of the men prosecuted by the complicit district attorney are still behind bars.

However Radley Balko wrote in the Washington Post in December that doubts have been raised about the sourcing and credibility of Carroll’s allegations.

Parrish was selected by the City Commission in April to serve as police chief. He has worked for the department since 1984.

Residents have made complaints to the FBI and Department of Justice, according to the Eagle.

“This is a nightmare,” resident Ruth Nelson told WTVY. “And when we look at the real underlying problems that are causing this..they need to be addressed and they need to be addressed with equality and with truth.”

In December, African-American resident Kevin Saffold warned in that if city leaders wouldn’t address the matter, they run the risk of civil unrest.

“If you don’t want this to be another Ferguson, if you don’t want civil unrest, if you don’t want people taking matters in their own hands and not being cooperative, then you should do something about that,” Saffold had said, according to the Eagle. “I believe in the court system and I believe in justice … I don’t see no reason why the board should not at least demote him to some other field.”