Submitted by D. A. Anthony, Apr 12, 2007 20:12

As a native Southerner with ancestors who served in the Confederate Army during the War Between The States, I believe I am better qualified to speak to the issue of why Southerners still revere the Confederate flag and our Confederate history than Al $harpton is. Al $harpton makes a good living, wearing expensive suits and fine jewelry, telling others what they are supposed to think, how they are supposed to feel, and how no matter how irresponsible they may act, it is still someone else's fault that they aren't successful. If all Americans, regardless of race, color, creed, or national origin, were to get along famously, folks like Al $harpton would be out of work, and have to survive by the sweat of their brows the way the rest of us do.

I was born in 1947, back when Florida was still a free-range state--back when our primary industries were: 1) Citrus, 2) Cattle, and 3) Tourism. I attended segregated public schools, and I remember the "Civil War Centennial" celebrations all over the South. As a Southerner who had ancestors who dropped what they were doing in 1861 to enlist in the Army of the South to defend their homes, their families, and their neighbors' homes and families, I know what my ancestors fought for, and I know the sacrifices they had to make, not only during the War, but also during the years of Reconstruction that was forced upon them afterward. I had one family of my ancestors who sent 3 sons off to defend their homes from attack in 1861 after Abraham Lincoln called upon all the States to send him 75,000 men to subjugate the "States in rebellion," only to lose 2 of the 3 in combat in 1864.

In 1961, I recall that all over the South, Southerners were flying U.S. flags as well as Confederate flags in remembrance of the Centennial. Everywhere you went, there were vendors selling blue or gray "Civil War" hats, U.S. and Confederate flags, little toy Union and Confederate soldiers, and a great many city halls and Capitol buildings flew Confederate flags along with the more prominent U.S. flags. The idea was that we were going to honor the sacrifices of all the valiant Americans who fought on both sides of the War. Although Northerners and Southerners fought for different reasons--some to preserve the Union handed down to them by their Revolutionary forefathers, while others fought for the concept of States Rights which was also enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and handed down to them by their Revolutionary forefathers--we were all Americans, and true to our mutual American spirit, we fought for what we believed in. I might point out that even today, because of our sense of American patriotism, Southerners are still over-represented percentage-wise in the American military--especially in the so-called "combat arms" branches.

In 1961, my parents bought me the book "The Red Badge of Courage" by Stephen Craine. I read it many times, and became thoroughly engrossed with learning all I could about the so-called "Civil War", which was not a "civil war" at all--it was an attempt by the South to leave what was supposed to be a voluntary union that they had helped form back in 1776 when they fought another war to seceded from Great Britain.

Over the years since 1961, I have read countless books on the War Between The States, also known by Southerners as the War For Southern Independence, which is a more accurate name than the "Civil War." I have also toured battlefields all over the South on many occasions, and have even spent 15 years as a "Civil War" reenactor, portraying both Federal and Confederate soldiers. I learned long ago that the War was not fought over slavery. The institution of slavery played a very small role in the South's reason for wanting to separate from the Federal Union. In fact, the U.S. Congress was working on adding the Corwin Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1861 which would have permitted slavery "in perpetuity" in the States where it existed at that time. If the War had been fought over slavery, the Southern States could have voted to ratify the Corwin Amendment as Amendment XIII to the Constitution, and have been guaranteed the right to keep its slaves, but, obviously, slavery was not the reason for the South's secession.

Al $harpton and other race-baiters like to insist that the Confederate flag was raised throughout the South in the 1960s as a racist show of force against the Federal government's Civil Rights Act of 1964. This is absolutely false. It is true that Gov. Wallace of Alabama and others believed that ending segregation and passing civil rights legislation was a States Rights matter that should be decided by each State legislature based upon each State's unique set of circumstances. In fact, this issue went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court before the Court issued a verdict against the States, making the issue of civil rights a Federal matter under, I believe, Amendment XIV, and therefore out of the purview of the State legislatures, but the Confederate flag was not raised throughout the South for that reason.

It has been attested to many times by old Southern politicians who served in the legislatures back in the 1960s that the display of Confederate flags was in remembrance of the sacrifices of our Confederate ancestors, and was not intended to inflame Southern passions against the Federal government nor its Civil Rights Act of 1964. The old legislators were there when the business was discussed, and at this stage of their lives have no need to lie about what they knew to have occurred. If they have nothing to win nor lose by telling the truth, and Al $harpton stands to lose if racial reconciliation were to take the place of racial confrontation, who would you suppose would be warping the truth?

Historical records, including the official records of the United States military which are available for public consumption, show that there were numerous incidents of free blacks, as well as slaves, who served in the Confederate armed forces. Based upon some estimations, as many as 50,000 or 60,000 blacks--free and slave--served in capacities such as infantrymen, cavalrymen, teamsters, cooks, hospital stewards, construction personnel, and sailors for the Confederate armed forces. Many of these blacks also received Confederate veterans' pensions and now sleep their eternal sleep beneath headstones issued by the Veterans Administration as legitimate Confederate veterans. Historical revisionists would have us believe that all blacks considered the Confederacy to be evil while the Union was good, but that just absolutely is not supported by historical fact.

As Americans, we may not always appreciate the viewpoints of others, but as Americans we are guaranteed our right to our viewpoints, and as Southerners, we should be guaranteed our right to celebrate our Southern heritage the same as we are guaranteed the right to celebrate our Irish heritage, or our German heritage, or out Scottish heritage, or our Italian heritage, or our African heritage. Southerners come in all shapes, sizes, and colors--we are not all white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant males--and, as such, we should be permitted the same right all other Americans have to celebrate whatever heritages they enjoy

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