Confederate history month in Virginia

[viper37]

WP article

RICHMOND -- Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, reviving a controversy that had  been dormant for eight years, has declared that April will be  Confederate History Month in Virginia, a move that angered civil rights  leaders Tuesday but that political observers said would strengthen his  position with his conservative base.

The two previous Democratic governors had refused to issue the mostly  symbolic proclamation honoring the soldiers who fought for the South in  the Civil War. McDonnell (R) revived a practice started by Republican  governor George Allen in 1997. McDonnell left out anti-slavery language  that Allen's successor, James S. Gilmore III (R), had included in his  proclamation.
McDonnell said Tuesday that the move was designed to promote tourism in  the state, which next year will mark the 150th anniversary of the start  of the war. McDonnell said he did not include a reference to slavery  because "there were any number of aspects to that conflict between the  states. Obviously, it involved slavery. It involved other issues. But I  focused on the ones I thought were most significant for Virginia."   The proclamation was condemned by the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus  and the NAACP. Former governor L. Douglas Wilder called it  "mind-boggling to say the least" that McDonnell did not reference  slavery or Virginia's struggle with civil rights in his proclamation.  Though a Democrat, Wilder has been supportive of McDonnell and boosted  his election efforts when he declined to endorse the Republican's  opponent,  R. Creigh Deeds

"Confederate history is full of many things that unfortunately are not  put forth in a proclamation of this kind nor are they things that anyone  wants to celebrate," he said. "It's one thing to sound a cause of  rallying a base. But it's quite another to distort history."
The seven-paragraph declaration calls for Virginians to  "understand the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and  citizens during the period of the Civil War."
McDonnell had quietly made the proclamation Friday by placing it on his  Web site, but it did not attract attention in the state capital until  Tuesday. April also honors child abuse prevention, organ donations,  financial literacy and crime victims.
After a fall campaign spent focusing almost exclusively on jobs and the  economy, McDonnell had been seen in recent weeks as largely ceding  conservative ground to the state's activist attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli II. The proclamation could change that  view among Republicans who believe appropriate respect for the state's  Confederate past has been erased by an over-allegiance to political  correctness, observers said.
"It helps him with his base," said Mark Rozell, a political scientist at  George Mason University. "These are people who support state's rights  and oppose federal intrusion."
Said Patrick M. McSweeney, a former state GOP chairman: "I applaud  McDonnell for doing it. I think it takes a certain amount of courage."
The Virginia NAACP and the state's Legislative Black Caucus called the  proclamation an insult to a large segment of the state's population,  particularly because it never acknowledges slavery.
"Governor McDonnell's proclamation was offensive and offered a  disturbing revision of the Civil War and the brutal era that followed,"  said Del. Kenneth Cooper Alexander (D-Norfolk), chairman of the  Legislative Black Caucus. "Virginia has worked hard to move beyond the  very things for which Governor McDonnell seems nostalgic." King Salim Khalfani, executive director of the Virginia State Conference  of the NAACP, said his group will hold an emergency meeting Saturday to  discuss a series of problems it has had with McDonnell since he was  sworn into office in January.

Virginia has had a long, complicated history on racial relations -- long  before Richmond served as the capital of the Confederacy during the  Civil War. Many of its most prominent early residents, including future  presidents, owned slaves, and the state openly fought desegregation,  even closing schools instead of integrating them. But in 1989, the state  made Wilder the first African American governor in the nation since  Reconstruction.
McDonnell said Tuesday that people's thinking about civil rights and the  role of the Confederacy in Virginia history have advanced to the point  where "people can talk about and discuss and . . . begin to understand  the history a little better."
"I felt just as I've issued dozens and dozens of other commemorations,  that it was something that was worthy of doing so people can at least  study and understand that period of Virginia history and how it impacts  us today," he said.
The state's new governor campaigned relentlessly on improving the  economy and creating jobs and received the strong backing of the  business community. But the attention that Virginia will receive from  the proclamation might take away from that focus.

Rozell said the proclamation is a "distraction" from McDonnell's desire  to attract companies to Virginia. Businesses might begin to perceive  McDonnell's latest decision -- combined with Cuccinelli's decision to  sue the federal government over health-care reform legislation and his  advice to state colleges and universities that they remove  sexual-orientation language from their anti-discrimination policies --  as a pattern of behavior not conducive to relocating in the state.
Allen caused a national uproar when he signed a proclamation drafted by  the Sons of Confederate Veterans. It called the Civil War "a four-year  struggle for [Southern] independence and sovereign rights" and made no  mention of slavery.
Gilmore modified the decree in 1998 by adding a condemnation of slavery,  but it failed to satisfy either defenders of Confederate heritage or  civil rights leaders. He later changed the proclamation by dropping  references to Confederate History Month and instead designated April as  "Virginia's Month for Remembrance of the Sacrifices and Honor of All  Virginians Who Served in the Civil War."
But in 2002, Mark Warner, Gilmore's successor, broke with their actions,  calling such proclamations a "lightning rod" that did not help bridge  divisions between whites and blacks in Virginia. Four years later,  Timothy M. Kaine was asked but did not issue a proclamation.
This year's proclamation was requested by the Sons of Confederate  Veterans. A representative of the group said it has known since it  interviewed McDonnell when he was running for attorney general in 2005  that he was likely to respond differently than Warner or Kaine.
"We've known for quite some time we had a good opportunity should he  ascend the governorship," said Brandon Dorsey of the Sons of Confederate  Veterans.
Sen. Emmett W. Hanger Jr. (R-Augusta), who has spoken from the floor of  the General Assembly about honoring Virginia's Confederate past with  appropriate acknowledgments to its difficult racial past, said he  believed Warner and Kaine "avoided" the issue by failing to issue  similar documents.
"It would be totally inappropriate to do one that would just poke a  stick to stir up old wounds. But it is appropriate to recognize the  historical significance of Virginia in that era," he said. "I think it's  appropriate as long as it's not fiery."
McDonnell's proclamation comes just before the April 17, 1861,  anniversary of the day Virginia seceded from the union.

Good way to attract tourists&businesses, I suppose. Remind them how much of a backwater state you really are

[Faeelin]

Awfully white of him.

I wonder how many blacks fought for the Union?

[Habbaku]

I miss Lee-Jackson-King Day.

[DGuller]

Why do Southerners want to remember the Confederacy anyway?  Is crushing defeat really something to commemorate?

[Faeelin]

Why do Southerners want to remember the Confederacy anyway?  Is crushing defeat really something to commemorate?

I'm trying to figure out if this was just stupidity and being insensitive to Virginia's blacks, or if he was trying to rally up the base in the same way the health care lawsuit is.

[viper37]

Is crushing defeat really something to commemorate?

ask the Légion Étrangère.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Why do Southerners want to remember the Confederacy anyway?  Is crushing defeat really something to commemorate?

They like the idea of owning other people.

[Neil]

Why do Southerners want to remember the Confederacy anyway?  Is crushing defeat really something to commemorate?

It can be, if your cause is just.

[grumbler]

I miss Lee-Jackson-King Day.

It's Lee-Jackson-King weekend now.  Lee-Jackson Day is the Friday before MLK Day, and is a state holiday.

[Razgovory]

Why do Southerners want to remember the Confederacy anyway?  Is crushing defeat really something to commemorate?

Make Blacks uncomfortable.  That's why they were doing it in the 1960's.  I reckon that's the same reason today.

[Lettow77]

 1861-1865 was Virginia's finest hour. It is only fitting that they commemorated it.

This is part of a general tide of a Southern renaissance, anyhow. Obama's election is paying dividends.

[Razgovory]

1861-1865 was Virginia's finest hour. It is only fitting that they commemorated it.

This is part of a general tide of a Southern renaissance, anyhow. Obama's election is paying dividends.

Losing a war is the finest hour?  I'd hate to see what the worst one is.

[Valmy]

1861-1865 was Virginia's finest hour. It is only fitting that they commemorated it.

The fact that slavery and general incompetence and corruption had decayed what was once the richest and most populace state in the Union to a backwater by that point non-withstanding.

The days of Jefferson and Washington were long past by 1861 pal.

This is part of a general tide of a Southern renaissance, anyhow. Obama's election is paying dividends.

Gotta dust off those white sheets and get ready to burn some crosses eh?

[Valmy]

Losing a war is the finest hour?  I'd hate to see what the worst one is.

To Lettow Yorktown was probably its worst hour.  He would rather lose than win with the help of Yankees and Frenchmen.

[jimmy olsen]

1861-1865 was Virginia's finest hour. It is only fitting that they commemorated it.

This is part of a general tide of a Southern renaissance, anyhow. Obama's election is paying dividends.

Losing a war is the finest hour?  I'd hate to see what the worst one is.

While I agree with you in this specific instance, a heroic stand for a lost cause can be a nation's finest hour if the cause is just.