I know, I'm a day behind on this one. Today's quote at Edward Sebesta's Web site is about the Sons of Confederate Veterans, probably the best-known of the so-called "heritage" groups today. It's a quote from the book Ghosts of the Confederacy: Defeat, the Lost Cause, and the Emergence of the New South (1987) by Gaines M. Foster (pp. 108, pbck. ed.):
At the 1890 UCV [United Confederate Veterans] reunion a group of sons asked permission to establish an organization under the auspices of the UCV. Nothing came of the idea, but six years later an independent United Sons of Confederate Veterans did form. Horrified that people might confuse the abbreviation on their badge, USCV, with United States Colored Volunteers, in 1908 the Sons dropped United from their name.
This is about an event long after the Civil War, of course. But it's a reminder of the racial touchiness that has always been a part of the Confederate "heritage" schtick.
It's a good reminder too that the Lost Cause mythology that the "heritage" groups promote is not about trying to understand and appreciate the history of what actually happened around the Civil War. The Lost Cause is an image of the Southern past constructed mainly for political reasons. It's meant to obscure history and spread racial resentment and hatred in the present.
One shouldn't assume that the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) today is just a group of stodgy old conservatives, eccentric but mostly harmless. Hardcore far-right activists, real Holocaust-denier loony-right types, are close to a full takeover of the group, though some state chapters are resisting it.
There's even a Save the SCV group. But even if they oust the loonies, they would be left with reactionaries promoting a dishonest view of American history and promoting racial prejudice. The latter group are the moderates in the world of the SCV.
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