Saturday, May 1, 2004

Confederate "Heritage" Month: April 28

Edward Sebesta's entry for April 28 looks at one of the books offered for sale in 2002 by Confederate Veteran magazine, the journal of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV).

This book is called Can the South Survive? by Michael Andrew Grissom, who also wrote Southern by the Grace of God and When the South Was Southern.

Among other passages, Sebesta quotes Grissom's description of the civil rights movement of the 1950s:

Throughout the decade of the Fifties, while most of the country carelessly rocked and rolled to the delightful music of Elvis, Pat Boone, and Buddy Holly, there hung over the Southland a pall which, although it went mercifully unnoticed by the bopping, strolling teenagers, trouble greatly their wary parents. The newspapers carried endless accounts of litigation against the traditions and customs of the South, institutions and customs without which Southerners were convinced there would be no more stability and serenity than existed during the days of Reconstruction.

The NAACP and its operatives were relentless in their assaults upon segregated restaurants, swimming pools, rest rooms, theaters, public parks, railroad cars, and waiting rooms. In every corner of the South litigation was either pending or proceeding along some line of integration. With every court case, the South became more battered and bruised and dispirited, even when it won temporary reprieves.

Notice that "the South" in Grissom's description means white Southerners who supported segregation.

Heritage not hate?

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