For thirty-one years the North Carolina Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans has sponsored annually Confederate Flag Day, an event commemorating our state’s rich history and Southern heritage, held in the House of Representatives chamber of the historic 1840 Tar Heel State Capitol. First proclaimed by former Governor James G. Martin in 1988, the day has served as an occasion to host a number of major guest speakers: including former Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court Beverly Lake Jr., distinguished historians Clyde Wilson and Lee Congdon, and internationally-known authors such as Don Livingston and Paul Gottfried. For all those years, the event has been peaceful and gone off without problems. Indeed, the Sons of Confederate Veterans has been a major contributor to the programs of the State Capitol, providing funding for restoration and preservation projects, and supplying volunteers for Capitol activities. This year was different. This year the commemoration, on March 2, was beset and harassed by dozens of—perhaps around seventy or eighty—screaming and frenzied demonstrators, a mob that surrounded the Capitol, shouting the vilest profanities at women and children as they made their way to and from the event, and threatening physical violence towards all attendees. Online the organizing umbrella group responsible for the demonstration was titled #SmashingRacism, a loose coalition of members of several far Left and Marxist elements centered in central North Carolina, including Antifa NC, Democratic Socialists of North Carolina, Hillsborough Progressives Taking Action, and other such groups. Given what has happened in recent months in the Tar Heel State, such a reaction might have been expected, but not on the scale witnessed on March 2. In recent months violent mobs have destroyed the monument to Confederate veterans in Durham, followed by the toppling of the “Silent Sam” monument on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a monument erected a century ago to honor university students who went off to war in the 1860s. The threats to Flag Day were such that nearly 200 members of law enforcement—State Capitol Police, Raleigh City Police, and, finally, State Highway Patrol—were summoned to maintain order and to prevent the hysterical protestors from attacking attendees. Indeed, at the end of the event, police were compelled to form protective corridors to permit attendees to safely reach their automobiles. On each side of the corridors were unhinged screaming demonstrators, many holding placards denouncing “racism” and “white oppression”—some declaring “F – the Confederacy.” Prevented by the police from physically engaging the exiting attendees, the mob shouted in unison: “Cops and Klan, go hand and hand!” It cannot have endeared them to the members of law enforcement attempting to maintain order—who were viewed as protecting the “white supremacists” as they tried to leave the event! You would think that local news media would have covered the event thoroughly, that 200 members of law enforcement present, most of the streets in central Raleigh closed down to traffic, and the necessity to physically protect event participants would have been a major story on WRAL-TV’s 11 o’clock news—but it wasn’t: barely a brief twenty seconds of coverage. That was it. Could it have been that the constant, very audible shouts of “Cops and Klan, go hand and hand,” and the obvious violence directed at the peaceful attendees did not make for good, politically correct television, that it did not serve the correct political slant? There was one short interview with a black man…he seemed not to have been actually a part of the demonstration. The reporter for WRAL-TV had to chase him down for his comment. And therein lies the rest of the story: the mob was almost entirely white, mostly millennials and college-aged white students, uniformly from upper middle class families. Indeed, tuition at nearby Duke University now costs nearly $74,000 a year, and at UNC at Chapel Hill the figure is equally jaw-dropping. How many average middle class parents can afford that? No doubt many of the students receive handsome grants and scholarships; and the non-students also have few worries about finances—pass-through funding reaches them via a variety of progressivist foundations, including from the myriad of George Soros-related organizations. As I exited with other attendees I looked into the faces of the mob: what I observed was a very real madness, an unleashed fury, eyes filled with uncontrolled hatred—if they had not been restrained, no doubt they would have physically attacked us. To read their Web sites and their tweets these revolutionaries are consumed by “the fight against white supremacy” and against “historic racism.” Their entire existence is wrapped up in that struggle, a struggle which has become increasingly violent and which has discarded any concept of belief in “freedom of speech” or “free expression of ideas”—if you dissent from their advancing narrative, if you seek to express a different point of view, you are obviously a “racist” and a “white supremacist,” and have no right to express your views. Indeed, in reality you have no right to exist, as a grad student at Chapel Hill, the son of a upper middle class white family I know, told me a couple of years ago. After finding out that I had voted for Donald Trump in 2016, he—let us call him Mark—informed me that his generation would soon dominate this country, and that “your generation will die out in a few years, and then we can completely change things!” His parents don’t share his university-learned opinions but seem helpless or incapable of responding. What is so apparent about Mark and hundreds of thousands like him is that his hatred for “white privilege” and “historic racism” is directed at his own history and inheritance, and in a very palpable and real way expresses his own personal self-loathing. His reaction—like the reaction of the frothing mob on March 2—is an effort to virtue signal, to in a way expiate for the sins of his ancestors of whom he is the latest miserable representative. He bears the weight of millennia of “whiteness” and all the accumulated wrongs and sins associated with it, and if his parents or other white people will not grovel and apologize and make reparations for that, then he must do it for all of them—and he must remind them in stentorian voice of the centuries of evil and oppression, by expiating his own self-hatred as a very comfortable white grad student, attending one of America’s most prestigious universities…a recipient of that very same “white privilege.” Mark’s penance, then, like that of the seventy or so Leftists who assembled outside the 1840 North Carolina State Capitol, is to accuse and assault—if possible—the rest of us who do not see what he sees, who do not understand what he understands, who do not support the burden he supports, and attempt to shut us down and extinguish any dissent from his raging ideology, the burning fire that consumes him. And in so doing, he tries to expiate his own imagined heavy burden, inflicted on him in large part by such prestigious institutions as Duke and UNC which serve as incubation facilities for frenetic post-Marxist Leftist revolutionaries. And by a culture that now facilitates and encourages that posture, or, at best, coddles it like the man who thinks he can tame an angry rattlesnake. Those angry faces—those glaring and fierce eyes—I saw on March 2 betrayed ruptured souls, corrupted and demonized, existing in a kind of counter-reality with their own set of always-advancing rules, but dedicated in a fearsome and unambiguous way to the destruction—salvation through destruction—of Western Christian civilization, of mankind as we have known it. In the end, like all incendiaries they will burn out, but their unhinged and violent praxis may well end in something far, far worse for us all. This piece previously appeared on My Corner on March 6, 2019.
37 Comments
Anthony Powell
3/9/2019 07:22:14 am
Ole Miss students voted this week to remove the Confederate statue from campus. This is the school whose football fans used to wave the Confederate battle flag at its football games. The mascot was 'Colonel Reb', dressed in Confederate gray. The band also played a rousing rendition of Dixie. All three traditions are gone. It's just a matter of time before General Stephen D. Lee's statue is removed from the campus of Mississippi State University. Of course they will also have to rename 'Lee Hall', quite likely the oldest building on campus. It probably won't matter that General Lee was the school's first president. He committed the sin of defending the South against Lincoln's vicious invasion.
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3/13/2019 05:55:01 pm
That night you were on the inside looking out. Me and a few of my brothers from 803 were set up in the parking lot to watch out for the vehicles. The taunts were really starting to get to me. Fight or flight I really think we all wanted the former. Never seen so much hatred and evil in one place by so many. When we were able to leave as we completed our objective. There was the fear of getting knocked off the road. I am so thankful we all made it home once again safe and sound. They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Ready to do it again.
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Bobby Sapp
3/9/2019 03:30:25 pm
Boyd Cathey
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Timothy Miles
3/9/2019 05:36:19 pm
For almost two centuries now we've pretty much gotten along. You have it right. They don't know us. They don't know our history. They're just privileged enough to hate us for it. That priveledge came from those and today's soldiers sacrifice. They will see the day when they no longer have any priveledges.
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Jack
3/9/2019 06:10:16 pm
Can what happened in 1860 happen again? I t might. Are we prepared to sacrifice for our families and heritage once again? It appears the young leftists are ready to take us on. Deo Vindice
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3/10/2019 04:52:48 am
'White Privilege' is the code word phrase for the Progressive's historical attack on the Conservative roots of the South and the Political context of theRed Counties across the country. More than 80% of those counties in the last Presedential election voted for conservative values of self reliance, and entrepreneurial capitalism.
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Renee Sullivan
3/10/2019 09:29:43 am
Bobby Evan's- what a very well-written commentary. I'm just sad there wasn't enough room for you to finish. Thank you for the factual information included. Today's millilenial, particularly those on the far left in the groups that were involved in the protests, do not seem to understand the beauty of research and how facts can quickly negate the raw opinion of which they base their "racism," "white supremacy," and lack of respect for their own heritage on these days. I just wish those "hate" groups were able to read AND COMPREHEND these comments. As others have pointed out here, I wonder how many UNC students would be able to continue their educations WITHOUT financial assistance? Education is NOT cheap but SHAME on educators, especially people like Karen Cox, who write books containing lies that perpetuate hate, dissention, racism, and "white supremacy" just to earn a buck instead of teaching a generation of students truthful history. Sounds like you need to apply to teach history at UNC!!
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Brutus
4/1/2019 06:44:12 am
They understand, at least the organizers do. But the bulk of the population do not understand enough history to recognize the lies for what they are.
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3/10/2019 08:15:23 am
After reading "Reckonin'" TWICE, I couldn't help but marvel at just how accurately the "rage mobs" were described. Of special interest were the comments on how these millennials, by their hatred of OUR history, are also in hatred of their OWN history. One thing for sure, they are truly a frightening bunch, and to look into their hate-filled, wild-eyed expressions, willing and even, yes, EAGER, to physically assault and cause injury and maybe even death to those of us who are quite proud and very comfortable with our own heritage, well, it's certainly food for thought. And the sad thing is that although the Confederate Soldier monument in Durham was destroyed, and Silent Sam gone, I don't see one cotton-pickin' bit of change. I challenge any one of those deranged millenials to tell me to my face and explain to me exactly what changes were brought about by their wanton, illegal, and UNPUNISHED acts of violence have produced? From where I sit, all I see is that they've gotten themselves bragging rights. As one of them told me, myself, a few months ago, and I quote, "The good thing about you and people like you is that in a few years you will be ashes." Maybe so, but until such time, I'll live my life until I die with dignity and pride in my Southern and Confederate Heritage, something that they will never be able to have themselves, nor take away from me. Deo Vindice!
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Gloria faley
3/10/2019 01:13:10 pm
I am sick and tired of people whose relatives fought in a war that supported treason and slavery crying about injustice. Please. You are supporting the worst part of our history. Bury the confederate flag and celebrate our country’s diversity.
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Mary Stevens
3/10/2019 04:41:10 pm
Gloria. You have been mislead and misinformed. The war was about economics not slavery. Read Lincoln’s inaugural address. Read The Corwin Amendment. Congress passed it to lure the South back into the Union. But the war started before it was ratified by all states. Read Lincoln’s first emancipation proclamation that the north tried to lure the South back with no mention of slavery. I have more but read “Slavery was not the Cause of the war “ by Gene Kizer, jr. Read the many racist remarks by Lincoln. Read the atrocities committed by Sherman. Don’t forget the slave traders brought slaves here. The states of New York, Connecticutt, Rhode Island, Delaware and Massachusetts made a fortune off the slave trade business. At the end of 1700s there were more slaves n New York than in Georgia. African tribal leaders sold their captives into slavery.
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Ronn James
3/11/2019 05:15:11 pm
Gloria, treason? When the states join they weren't told that they could never leave. And the South left peacefully. It was Lincoln who wanted to fortify the troops at Fort Sumpter. As far as diversity, you sound totally indoctrinated by the new mantra. Next time you cook a meal scoop something out of the kitty litter box and drop in in your stew and then tell me how diversity tastes.
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Bernie Cyrus
3/12/2019 02:05:03 pm
Albee Taylor Bledsoe is best known for DESTROYING the case for trying Jefferson Davis for treason.In his Book "Is Davis a traitor,or did the right of secession exist prior to 1861"As he points out, now that the basis of the union has been CONVERTED from COMPACT to CONQUEST. things have changed since the war,the question is was there a legal right BEFORE MIGHT MAKES RIGHT replaced LAW!He proved by extensive research that the right HAD.Davis's lawyers used his work to prepare Davis's defense.The attorney's for the government checking the same sources came to the SAME CONCLUSION as Bledsoe,Therefore the case against Davis and potentially against other Confederate leaders was Nol Precessed,LEGALLY admitting that there were no valid grounds for a charge of treason.THIS WAS NOT SOME "ACT OF MERCY" OR RECONCILLIATION as some have claimed,The vicious vendetta pursued by the radicals during "Reconstruction" proves THAT.THE government realized that it simply had no basis in law,and that REVENGE would have to be taken in other ways.This should dispose of the claim that Davis,Lee and others were "traitors"!
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Tony
3/23/2019 09:34:57 am
Gloria, Thanks for the thought termintating cliche and equivocatin fallacy.
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Mary Stevens
3/10/2019 04:05:28 pm
These r not protestors. They r bullies, troublemakers, antagonists threaten and provoke. This is why Winston Salem wants to remove a downtown monument. The bullies threaten s follow up protest in Bradenton, Fl. The obelisk broke in 3 places when the sheriff hurried
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Johnathan Brown
3/11/2019 04:09:29 am
Perhaps it is time for you to recognize that much like the values embodied by Confederate monuments, the values embodied by the SCV are no longer the values of society at large.
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John Shirley
3/11/2019 08:10:17 am
To Ms Brown, unmitigated bull. The country you desire does, in fact, exist, but you will have to fly a bit south to live there. You are privileged to live in a country that has fought wars to avoid you ideology. Please ease your psychological pain and leave!
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Roberr M. Peters
3/12/2019 11:56:43 am
Mr. Brown, I would add the following as a response to your comments. It is quite obvious based on your rhetoric and on your statements what you are a true-believing Marxist. Like your predecessors - the sans culottes, the CHECKA, the SS, the Red Guard - you would be willing to shoot any of us in the back of the head and let us tumble dead into a ditch. Your quite obvious contempt suggest that you have that capacity. Ideologues like you can do a great deal of damage and experience "Schadenfreude" as they do it; however, ideologues themselves, ideologues like you, are themselves merely useful idiots; for the real Marionettenmeister are simply driven by the will to power (der Wille zur Macht). To put it in your Marxist vernacular, you think yourself to be the subject of history; but you are merely the pawn of malevolent men who have as much contempt for you as you have for us.
Tony
3/23/2019 04:12:16 pm
Mr. Shirley,
Robert M. Peters
3/11/2019 09:13:38 am
Mr. Brown, your post is boiler-plate Marxist rhetoric of the cut and paste variety, naught thereof original; nevertheless, despite your rhetoric being boiler-plate, your contempt, which is an innate part of radical Marxism, is obvious. There is no such thing as "a time being over." Your threat is nothing new; we have been living with it since the Garden.
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Ronn James
3/11/2019 05:18:40 pm
Well Jonathon you're a sad little bit of soy. So taking pride in my heritage is wrong, but you wanting to destroy history is good?
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Anthony Powell
3/12/2019 07:01:52 am
From 1861-1865, Southerners were defending their homes and property against a vicious invasion initiated by the liar, tyrant, and warmonger Abraham Lincoln. If a politician ever deserved a bullet to the back of the head, it was he. His U.S. Army burned, killed, raped, and pillaged its way through the South. That's what Rebels fought against. Bury the Confederate flag? Not in this lifetime...
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Bernie Cyrus
3/12/2019 02:15:02 pm
There are many other valid reasons for Confederate monuments, which received broad support in the day of their placing.
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Anthony Powell
3/12/2019 06:26:07 pm
The Confederate flag flies at my house, not the flag of the invading, occupying and murdering U.S. military, which has done practically nothing since 1861 EXCEPT invade, occupy, and murder. Ron and Don Kennedy put it exceptionally well in their book 'Yankee Empire - Aggressive Abroad and Despotic at Home.' All the pompous put-downs of the South and the Confederacy won't change the truth that the South peacefully seceded, then was attacked by the tyrant Lincoln's U.S. Army.
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Anthony Powell
3/14/2019 03:15:55 pm
Mr Brown, do you condone the physical threats made to those who attended the Confederate Flag Day ceremony? Also, do you condone the burning, looting and raping many Union troops took part in from 1861-65, including the burning of my great-great-grandmother's farm in Lafayette County, Mississippi during this war? She was a widow, by the way.
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Tony
3/23/2019 09:49:09 am
Pure, unadaulterated, political correctness. You did a good job at regurtigating it. Congratulations. Just remember, political correctness = factual incorrectness.
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John Shirley
3/23/2019 02:01:38 pm
Tony, Too stupid a comment for a response!
John Shirley
3/23/2019 04:17:51 pm
Tony, thanks for the note. I had to wonder! I believe you and I are on the same page.
Joe A. Scotchie
3/11/2019 08:04:03 am
Let's the see as it is. I worked with Roger Brockton in Alabama on the flag issue years ago. His strategy was to retreat to white, rural areas for supports, Folks, that's where the future is. We've lost the cities. We've lost the campuses. Let's retreat to the white countryside and build new monuments there. It can happen.
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Joe A. Scotchie
3/11/2019 08:18:14 am
Me again. Meant to say "Let's see the world as it is." And to reiterate, take an earned retreat to the countryside and start over. The Museum of the Confederacy in Tennessee is the prime example.
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Joshua Laskin
3/11/2019 01:09:41 pm
It is strange, the prioritization of monuments removal. I mean, even if it's conceded that "White supremicism" has long been an element of American civiliztion, and, to some degree, is still in play; why is removal of these old monuments that almost everyone walks past without notice or thought; why, of all the approaches that could be taken, to redress the harms attributed to American White supremacism; why is tearing down old monuments, the highest order of business? Certainly, new monuments should be erected, to honor those whose service we most value today; even knowing that a future generation may come to reject our values. But, it's just impolite, not to say rude, to destroy old monuments. Should the Israelis tear down the Egyptian pyramids, because they were mythically built by Hebrew slaves? For that matter, the so-called Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, a retaining-wall built by slaves of the Romans; must that come down, too, since it reminds us of a slave-built civilization? It seems to me, that the value of the Confederate monuments, for Americans without Confederate heritage, is that they remind us, not to assume that what we value today, will be considered honorable forever; and so, we should proceed humbly, as we rise, yet again (as we ever must) in defense of kith and country.
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Andrew Morehead
3/11/2019 04:41:47 pm
Very well put, Joshua, from someone who seems to have an impartial view to the misconstrued "hatred" arguement surrounding the monuments to war heros. Matthew 7:1-3; for the millennials, what is cool now will not be seen as cool by future generations.
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John
3/11/2019 09:37:02 pm
How did these Socialist Commie groups end up in the center of a Southern state?
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John Shirley
3/12/2019 07:40:14 am
They drove SOUTH on I-95!
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Michael Martin
3/13/2019 08:00:57 am
It's almost not even worth debating the keyboard warriors that attack Southern heritage through the web or through mobs. They constantly refer to "straw man" and "perfect solution" fallacies to explain away their own denial.
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K. Homer
3/16/2019 11:46:31 pm
Jonathan Brown, oh my aren't you something. So you wish to replace White Supremacy? With what? Brown Supremacy? What in God's Good Green Earth make you believe this will somehow be better?
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Dan
4/7/2019 09:32:18 pm
Dear Jonathan, long before us or our monuments are gone, we will take multitudes of you and your kind down with us. Just like we did the last time. :) Take that to the bank.
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AuthorBoyd D. Cathey holds a doctorate in European history from the Catholic University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain, where he was a Richard Weaver Fellow, and an MA in intellectual history from the University of Virginia (as a Jefferson Fellow). He was assistant to conservative author and philosopher the late Russell Kirk. In more recent years he served as State Registrar of the North Carolina Division of Archives and History. He has published in French, Spanish, and English, on historical subjects as well as classical music and opera. He is active in the Sons of Confederate Veterans and various historical, archival, and genealogical organizations. Archives
May 2024
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