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[disnut8]

Confederate history month proposal clears Senate panel

By SONJI JACOBS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/15/07
 
A bill that would permanently establish April as Confederate History and Heritage Month in Georgia sailed through a Senate committee Thursday without any opposition.

Sen. Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga), the sponsor of Senate Bill 283, told the Senate Rules Committee that the proposal would help promote tourism in the state and preserve an important part of the state's and the nation's history.

"I'm not doing this for controversial reasons, but to commemorate a struggle that happened," said Mullis, whose North Georgia hometown was the site of a major Civil War battle in 1863.

The proposal has offended some civil rights leaders, who last week asked the Legislature and Gov. Sonny Perdue to offer a symbolic apology for the state's role in slavery.

The Rev. Francys Johnson, the NAACP's Southeast region director, said the organization is "vehemently opposed" to Mullis' bill and finds it hypocritical.

"At the same time that the proponents of this bill want to deny any responsibility for state sanctioned and sponsored slavery from 1755 to the end of the Civil War, they still feel the responsibility to honor the treasonous conduct of the Confederacy. It doesn't seem like you can have it both ways.


"You can't honor the past and not take responsibility for it."
Mullis said he has been working on the bill for several months — long before lawmakers and civil rights groups asked for the apology.

Rep. Al Williams (D-Midway) has said he plans to file a resolution on Monday that will call on the state to recognize slavery and work toward reconciliation.

The request for an apology, so far, has received a cool reception by the state's Republican leadership.
Senate Minority Leader Robert Brown (D-Macon) said Thursday that he does not want the bill to distract lawmakers from pressing matters such as funding the state's indigent defense system and PeachCare, the state's health insurance plan for the children of working-class families.

"I don't regard this as a substantive issue," Brown said.

"It doesn't make anyone do anything nor does it take anything away. It's symbolic, and it diverts us from the real issues we need to be focused on."

Senate Bill 283, if approved by the Senate and the House, would encourage Georgians each April to honor the Confederacy, its history, soldiers and the people who "contributed to the cause of Southern Independence."

"There's a great deal of significance in all of the history of Georgia that goes all the way back to the Oglethorpe colony," said Jeff Davis, 77, chairman of the Georgia Heritage Council.

"The War Between the States was a tremendous part of Georgia history. That all needs to be remembered. We're not trying to eliminate anything else. We just want a fair share."

The bill also encourages the Georgia Civil War Commission to develop a curriculum to teach Georgia's Confederate history in elementary and high schools, as well as colleges and universities.

Reginald Bohannon, 46, of College Park said that he has no problem with a curriculum that teaches state Confederate history in schools — as long as the lessons include both the good and bad parts of history.

"Yes, teach how Georgia had the second-most Civil War sites," Bohannon said. "But also teach that Georgia was on the wrong side of black people's freedom. Teach how some Georgians were Christians, yet condoned lynching, murder and Jim Crow."

The next step for the bill is for the Senate Rules Committee to decide if and when the proposal should come up for a vote by the full Senate.

[disnut8]

All I can say is, what is February designated as across the country?

[elmono311]

If they really want to celebrate the South's heritage during the Civil War, don't call it Confederacy Month. Call it Civil War Month or something like that.

[Supermercado]

Southern Heritage Month is probably too generic but that's what it always seems the people who fly the stars and bars give for the reason why they do so.

[LostArtofRolando]

Seems to me like the folks who would want to celebrate such tomfoolery ALREADY celebrate it all year round with a flag and a gunrack in the back of the truck.  All it means is one month outta the year, they get to feel all high falootin'.

[Vengeance]

Maybe they should focus on how far they've come from the atrocities of their past.

I'm sorry, but if a bunch of people wanted to celebrate Holocaust month for how great their lives were on the back of the Jewish people I think there would be reason to be pissed. This is no different.

[disnut8]

They are going to teach the good and the bad.  That's one of the points of doing this.  Right now, schools have to idea on how to teach the Civil War.  Can't be pro-North and can't be pro-South.  There's got to be a balance without coming out and saying "The South was absolutely wrong".  There's a LOT of Civil War history here in Georgia but it's not really out there for a school group to tour.  Along I75, there are signs for the Jefferson Davis capture site (that's exact what the sign says) and for Andersonville, the worst Southern military prison.  Sherman burnt Atlanta flat.  She rose again and the citizens here should be proud.  That's the kind of stuff that should be tought, that should be emphasized.  Right now, you do get those flag waving people.  The rednecks.  And why shouldn't they wave that flag?  That was a time when Georgia was NOT a part of the United States.

Down here, I don't see so much of "The war is still going on" crap.  It really is more of a Southern Pride thing.  The South was completely different before the Civil War.  Why try and hide that past?  Honestly, can someone tell me one good reason why the South's past should not be shared, celebrated when necessary, condemed when necessary?  How did the South come back from the Civil War?  How did Atlanta get rebuilt?  What were the customs before the War?
Who were the influential leaders, white and black, that were dominate after the War?

For me, a Gone With the Wind fan, I find it utterally amazing that Scarlett O'Hara's journey after Sherman burnt Atlanta back to Tara was such a nerve wracking experience.  That she took a train to Atlanta.  That the custom was if you lost a husband, you had to wear black for the rest of your life.

There is so much history that should be celebrated.  Too many people focus in on that the South was 100% wrong.  Lincoln did not want to go to war.  Why?

Sorry for the rant but I just spent the weekend with two HUGE bigots.  Capital BIGOTS.  I had to have a loud verbal arguement with members of my family that I truly love to get them to stop their comments.

And yes, I am so sick and tired of hearing Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson jump on any bandwagon they can to incite the media.  Those two do more harm to equalization than any Southern redneck.

[elmono311]

I've always seen Jesse Jackson as an idiot in the first place

[Vengeance]

But the traditions you're speaking about aren't southern. They're from all over the place during that time. A widow wore black for different amounts of time depending on age and the longest a person had to respect the period of mourning was just over a year.

Some of these traditions can be traced back into Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries. And everything you're talking about could easily be applied to a northern woman as well. It was a sign of the times, not the part of the country.

There are so many ways to properly educate about a time period without dedicating a month to it. And considering what happened to people during that time, I don't think there is a way to do it well.

[disnut8]

But the traditions you're speaking about aren't southern. They're from all over the place during that time.

Southern traditions were different from the north.  Before there was even talk of a Civil War, there was a difference.  Southern Belles and Yankee women.  If a woman from the north came South for a visit, her customs and traditions were mocked by the Southern women.  Same thing if a woman from the South went north.

You don't want a month dedicated to it?  What about Black History Month?  Why should that be a national month of celebration but this can't even be in one state?  Why?  The issue of slavery is definitely a part of Black History Month.  Hell, blacks of today want the South to apologize for slavery.  Who should apologize?  If a person was 20 years old when the Civil War ended, he/she would be 162 years old now.

The past is the past and we can't change it.  Let's learn from it.  Hiding the South as it was back in the 1860's it just wrong.

[elmono311]

Black History Month is for the achievements blacks have created despite adversity in this nation. They dug down and proved to the white man they could just be as good or better as them. That's what that month is for.

The Confederates tried to break away from the Union so they could continue the horrible conditions for the black slaves. Then they learned that the United States would fight... and fight hard... to keep the nation intact.

[disnut8]

Black History Month is for the achievements blacks have created despite adversity in this nation.

So when is Native American Month again?

[elmono311]

Well, take it up with your Congressman. Don't blame me for lack of observations.

[Supermercado]

I'll calling my Congressman!


And suing him!

[elmono311]

Let's sue them all!!! IT'S THE AMERICAN WAY!!!

[jitspoe]

I want a white history month.  And a NAAWP.

[elmono311]

And a White Entertainment Television

[LostArtofRolando]

Oh wait... every month except Black History Month is white history month.... and Every station except BET (and the WB) is white entertainment... as for the NAAWP, isn't it called the KKK?

[elmono311]

We also need Latino History Month and Latino Entertainment Television... Telemundo doesn't count. I'm talking about for the Mexicans who speak English. And, of course, NAALP.

I wonder why Black History Month is in the shortest month of the year.

[disnut8]

I'm talking about for the Mexicans who speak English.

They exist?

I wonder why Black History Month is in the shortest month of the year.

Because The Man planned it that way to keep everyone down.

[Vengeance]

Um...my family is Mexican and they speak English and yeah, I think it's fair that we want to see our culture celebrated a bit more, but I also think the way to do that is to incorporate it into AMERICAN culture.

I understand BET and Black History Month, but I'd like to see more shows like that on network TV stations like FOX and CBS and all the others. I think we're working toward that, but it's taking a long time because everyone hides behind the same tired bullshit.

We shouldn't celebrate Black History Month because we don't celebrate Native American History Month? Okay...that makes a WHOLE lot of sense. Right, let's not celebrate anything since we don't celebrate it all. That's crap.

I'm still not sure why people would want to revisit a time of ignorance. It doesn't do anything to move our country forward. Black History month reminds all of us what people had to go through to get where they are and how much more needs to be done.

Last time I checked there really isn't anything to be done for the Confederacy. It's dead and buried. Where it belongs.

[LostArtofRolando]

There IS a latino history month actually... It's mid-September to mid-October.  Kind of a weird offset, but it ties into 16 September, which is Mexican Independence Day.

[disnut8]

There IS a latino history month actually... It's mid-September to mid-October.  Kind of a weird offset, but it ties into 16 September, which is Mexican Independence Day.

That's kind of cool to know.  We have a large Hispanic population here so it'll be nice to see if there are special observances.

Vegenance - you know me.  And you know I don't mean anything personal about all this.  But the South has a heritage just like Hispanics, blacks, Native-Americans, etc.  Not all Southerns were slave owners.  And those who were, most of them treated their slaves decently.  It was the few, again, that bring that whole connotation that everyone in the South hated blacks and slaves and whipped them repeatedly and starved them and made the women spread their legs for anyone the master said.

Uncle Tom's Cabin is what really got the North riled up.  A WORK OF FICTION!!!!

Southerners are proud people.  Just like Hispanics, blacks, Native Americans, etc.  But while we see those people as poor people who have been so mistreated their entire lives, including today, Southerners are spat upon because of their past.

I'm happy I live in the South now.  But because I do, does that make me hated also because I live on soil where there might have been one slave 142 years ago?

As far as the Confederacy being dead and buried, it's not.  Not anymore than the Daughters of the American Revolution are.  Think an Englishman would hate a lady from that organization?  Of course not.  Why, we all made up and things are just peachy keen.  Both sides learned from each other.  Why can't we do that here?  The true rednecks who think the war is still going on don't exist anymore either.  THAT'S what is dead and buried.  Where it belongs.

Time to move forward.

[Vengeance]

Of course you don't mean anything personal, but I still think the observance is stupid.

I'd be just as annoyed with a Union month.

And the latino history month is very cool, but of course nobody actually makes sure the whole country knows about it.

Like I said before, there's no reason to not celebrate history, but I don't get why we have to divide so much. Can't Georgia just have a Georgia History month? I actually wouldn't have a problem with that at all.

[elmono311]

It is true we get Black History Month shoved down our throats every year. I don't mean that in a bad way, I just mean how every organization goes out of their way to make sure everyone knows what month it is.

To be honest, I really don't have a problem with people flying the Confederate flag... unless it's on a government building. The Confederacy was beaten and thus those government are in the United States. There's really no reason to be flying that flag. It's kind of like a big "F U" or something to me.