Sons of Confederate Veterans - The Couriertennessee-scv.org/camp1293/sept15.pdf · 2015-09-19 ·...
Transcript of Sons of Confederate Veterans - The Couriertennessee-scv.org/camp1293/sept15.pdf · 2015-09-19 ·...
The CourierNewsletter Newsletter Newsletter Newsletter of of of of the the the the Sam Sam Sam Sam Davis Davis Davis Davis Camp Camp Camp Camp No. No. No. No. 1293 1293 1293 1293 SCVSCVSCVSCV*Sons *Sons *Sons *Sons of of of of Confederate Confederate Confederate Confederate Veterans* Veterans* Veterans* Veterans* BrentwoodBrentwoodBrentwoodBrentwood, , , , TnTnTnTn * * * * September, September, September, September, 2015*2015*2015*2015*
A Danger to History...Hall, named after former South
Carolina Governor Benjamin
Tillman.
While saying he can’t get
into the minds of professors
and students who oppose
Southern relics, Queen said he
can’t but help believe they see a
comparison between Nazi
Germany and the Old South.
“People who embrace the
culture of Nazi Germany today
appear to do so expressly for
the hate, while the vast
majority of devotees of the Old
Southern culture express their
affection for that era minus the
terrible evils of slavery and
racism. For some reason, I
think some folks can’t (or won’t)
make that distinction,” he said.
The recent push to remove
Southern and Confederate
symbols has risen out of the
Black Lives Matter movement,
which extended to college
campuses from Ferguson and
New York last fall. Calls for
removal intensified after a
racially motivated Charleston,
S.C., church shooting that
killed nine brought national
debate over the Confederate
flag.
The Confederate flag was
removed in July from the state
capital “after the state
legislature passed a bill
ordering it, buoyed by
arguments that a flag that
some see as a symbol of
support for of racism and white
supremacy couldn’t remain on
the Capitol grounds after the
Charleston massacre,” CNN
reports.
Queen said he believes
“there’s a certain antipathy that
A Georgia native who
recently penned a book that
pays homage to Southern
history and culture said that
current efforts to eradicate
from campuses any and all
relics of the Old South or the
Confederacy are misguided and
“present a danger to the
preservation and study of
history.”
Chris Queen, a freelance
writer, University of Georgia
alum, and author of “Football,
Faith, and Flannery O’Connor:
A Love Letter to the South,”
recently spoke to The College
Fix regarding the flurry of
demands by college students
and faculty to remove from
campuses reminders of the Old
South – such as statues and
flags.
“I believe that completely
getting rid of these symbols
does present a danger to the
preservation and study of
history. Any genuine under-
standing of the South — good
and bad — must include an
understanding of the culture of
the era of slavery,” Queen said
via email.
Today, a main critique
against Southern symbols on
college campuses reasons they
are reminders of slavery and
oppression and are better
suited for museums. Queen
does not buy that argument.
“My gut reaction is to say
that those rationales are based
on hypersensitivity and thin
skin. That may actually be true
for some of these advocates,
but I think that many of these
people see the love of Southern
culture in the wrong light,” he
said.
The push to remove these
symbols are attempts to erase or
forget about the darker sides of
American history. Yet for Queen,
an accurate understanding of the
South must include and realize
the South’s history of slavery
instead of removing it or pretend-
ing it never existed.
“There’s a lot about the
antebellum South that we as a
country need to acknowledge and
heal from, even a century and a
half later. But stripping the
aspects of the culture that are
beautiful and meaningful doesn’t
foster healing,” he said.
In the past several months,
nearly a half dozen symbols and
namesakes of the Old South and
Confederacy have been targeted
by students and university faculty
for removal, with some being
removed. Last month the
University of Texas relocated a
statue of Confederate President
Jefferson Davis after the student
government called for its removal.
In Kentucky, 72 historians
representing 16 Kentucky colleges
and universities have called for
the state to remove a statue of
Davis from its capitol rotunda. For
some historians and professors,
the statue “offers a visceral and
potent mis-education.”
In addition to statues, college
students and faculty have
targeted buildings named after
historical figures of the Old South
as well, alleging they are ties to
racism and slavery. The Confeder-
ate flag and any historical figure
who ever supported slavery are
also targeted by such campaigns.
At Yale, students have
petitioned to rename Calhoun
Hall, named after the seventh U.S.
vice president, John C. Calhoun.
At Clemson, the faculty senate
has pushed to rename Tillman ... continued next page...
September 26th (Saturday) ~~
Work Day at the Oglesby Commu-
nity Center (our home base). Paint
up and fix up, in lieu of our regular
meeting. The Center is adjacent to
the Woodson Chapel Church of
Christ on Edmondson Pike, 1/2
block South of the intersection of
Edmondson Pike and Old Hickory
Blvd.
October 22nd ~~ Sam Davis Camp
meets at 6:00 p.m., Oglesby
Community Center.
November 11th ~~ Nashville
Veteran's Day Parade, 11:00 a.m.,
16th & Broad
November 29th ~~ Annual Battle
of Franklin / Winstead Hill
Memorial March
December 3rd ~~ Sam Davis Camp
November/December meeting.
Elections will be held!
December 12th ~~ South Carolina
Secession Party at Battery Andrews
December 13th ~~ Battle of
Nashville Remembrance, 2 -4 p.m.
Forthcoming 2015 Programs
October -- Gary Carlyle, Com-
mander, Alabama Division SCV
has been brewing for many years”
at colleges and university when it
comes to the South.
He tells the story of taking a
Civil War history class while a
student at the University of Georgia
in the early 1990s and how one
“Yankee” student bucked the
professor every chance she could
because of the professor’s “affinity
for the culture of the South.”
“Even back then, I could see
the seeds of what we’re witnessing
today,” Queen said.
But even more innocuous
Southern symbols have become
targets.
At Dartmouth, a longtime
“Kentucky Derby” party was called
racist and accused of recreating
Antebellum South because of its
preppy attire and exclusivity as a
Greek life event.
Writing in the Washington Post
recently, a research associate in
American Studies at the University
of Maryland declared it’s time to
“remove the Southern belle from
her inglorious perch,” adding:
“Young white women serve as signs
of nostalgia for a bygone, segre-
gated South and all its attendant
privileges.”
The widely used and beloved
“Ole Miss” nickname has long been
a target of rancor due to its historic
ties to slavery.
Queen said he believes the
hesitancy of college communities to
embrace the South stems from an
inability to separate Southern
heritage and culture from the “the
ugliness of slavery.”
“People outside the South —
and a few people within the South
— don’t understand that the vast
majority of people who love and
value the ‘Old Southern’ culture are
able to separate the gallantry and
pageantry of that culture from the
ugliness of slavery,” Queen said.
Southern culture, as Queen
describes in his book, includes
“astounding cultural traditions,
from music to visual arts to a
beautiful literary tradition that
spans the entire history of America”
and is much more than just
slavery. ~ article by Nathan
Rubbelke for "The College Fix"
... continued from page 1...
Billed as a "throwback race,"
Darlington fulfilled that expectation
-- in every way.
Cars adorned with classic paint
schemes of yesteryear -- including
those associated with Hall of
Famers Richard Petty, David
Pearson and Bobby Allison -- were
everywhere. Drivers spoke wistfully
about the importance of the event,
as fans reveled in the sport
honoring its rich past instead of
running away from it as NASCAR is
so often accused of doing.
In nearly every way the
atmosphere was exactly what
Darlington Raceway and NASCAR
officials sought when they restored
the Southern 500 back to the
traditional Labor Day weekend date
it held from 1950 to 2003.
And the "throwback" theme
extended beyond what was
happening on the track. Through-
out Darlington's infield and the
camping grounds surrounding the
track located in a sleepy town of
almost 6,300, there persisted the
inescapable sight of a red flag with
blue bars and white stars.
The Confederate flag and
NASCAR have long been inter-
twined, the roots of each extending
to the Deep South with some
regarding both as Southern
institutions. For decades the stars
and bars were omnipresent at
NASCAR races. Darlington's used to
label its spring event the "Rebel
400," featured the flag prominently
on programs and other advertise-
ments and played "Dixie" during
pre-race ceremonies.
Over the years, though, the
sanctioning body has distanced
itself greatly from the Confederate
flag. This summer, following the
shooting deaths of nine African-
Americans at the hands of a white
supremacist inside a Charleston,
S.C. church -- two hours south of
Darlington -- NASCAR CEO and
chairman Brian France called it an
"offensive symbol" and said, "we will
go as far as we can to eliminate the
presence of that flag."
NASCAR attempted to
eradicate the flag from the
speedway's grounds through
a program where fans would
turn in a Confederate flag
and receive an American one
in return. Except despite
NASCAR's effort, the flag
was quite conspicuous
throughout the Darlington
weekend. From flags to t-
shirts, hats to can coolers,
tattoos to pants it was
impossible not to turn your
head and see the symbol
being displayed in some
fashion.
At one flag exchange
point there were no takers
as of Sunday morning and a
box of American flags sat
untouched. Two security
guards were clueless such a
swap existed, while another
dismissed the idea.
"No one in this crowd is
going to give up their
Confederate flag for an America
one," the guard said. "They already
own an American flag. Plus, they
think by handing over the
Confederate flag would be a form of
surrendering in their mind."
Because either NBC didn't want
to show a national television
audience an event where the
controversial flag was being
displayed so freely, or event
organizers wanted to give spotters a
clearer view of the speedway
(attendees say both reasons were
cited by security, though neither
could be confirmed as a Darlington
spokesman declined comment),
security personnel instructed
patrons to take down their flags
whenever cars were on the track.
"It's kinda ironic that they want
to have a retro, throwback
Southern 500 with all these cars
painted like they were in the 1970s,
but in the 70s the Confederate flag
was all over this place," said
Emerson Etheridge, who had nine
such flags flying off long poles
attached to the top of his motor-
home. "What's next? Where does it
stop? Pretty soon you won't be
allowed to fly a British flag or a
rainbow colored flag.
"What's wrong with our history
and way of life?"
Describing himself as a "long,
longtime" fan who's been coming to
Darlington for 45 years, Etheridge
recently has felt excluded. This is a
common sentiment among fans
who grew up watching Petty,
Pearson and Allison and not just
their replica cars.
Starting in the 1990s, NASCAR
expanded its presence nationally
with races added in Southern
California, Dallas, New England
and elsewhere, a broadening that
came at the expense of tracks
located in the Southeast. That shift,
accompanied with perceived over-
commercialism, seemingly un-
relatable drivers and bevy of major
changes that transformed stock
racing from what it was in the
1970s and ‘80s, cost NASCAR a
once very devout segment of
supporters.
But as its popularity has
rescinded since the mid-2000s,
NASCAR realized it needed to win
back that formerly fervent base of
fans that had felt marginalized. To
help regain its appeal, NASCAR
encouraged drivers to voice
opinions, emboldened the kind of
rough driving that once earned
penalties, and moved the Southern
500 back to its rightful place on the
Sprint Cup calendar.
"There ain't no good ol'
boys, just young punks with
money," said Billy Hatcher, a
native South Carolinian
who's been coming to
Darlington since the 1970s.
"NASCAR's almost IndyCar
now. No one hits each other.
There's no contact. Ever
since Dale [Earnhardt] Sr.
died there's no badass
mother f***ers anymore. And
I hate the Chase."
Hatcher was holding
court in his campground
across the street from the
track. So disillusioned with
what NASCAR evolved into,
he preferred to remain
outside the speedway where
he could flip between the
race and college football on
the flat-screen he brought
with him.
"It isn't just about the
race, there's college football
and a party out here," said
Hatcher, shirtless with a Bud Light
in one hand and a cigar in the
other. "I don't feel wanted in there."
That's the juxtaposition
NASCAR finds itself faced with. On
one hand it seeks to cater to the
older devotee who feels disenfran-
chised; however that same fan base
largely carries a belief that they
should be allowed to conduct
themselves without reform. That
includes proudly displaying the
Confederate flag, even if others may
find it offensive.
"You ain't taking it away,"
Hatcher said. "It's Southern pride
and got nothing to do with racism.
Older black people aren't offended
by the flag, it's all the young black
people that are not working and
raising Cain. If anyone has a right
to be pissed, it's the Indians
because we took their damn land." -
- from SportsNation
Published by The Sam Davis Camp #1293, Sons
of Confederate Veterans, P. O. Box 3448,
Brentwood, Tenn. 37024
Commander ~ Nelson Boren
1st Lt. Commander ~
2d Lt. Commander ~
Adjutant ~ Allen Sullivant 971-7454
Treasurer ~ James Turner 335-6944
Chaplain ~ Tony Rocchietti 399-1606
Newsletter Editor ~ Allen Sullivant 971-7454
Web Address ~ http://www.samdaviscamp.org
"It has been my very great good fortune to have the
right to claim my blood is half southern and half
northern, and I would deny the right of any man here
to feel a greater pride in the deeds of every southerner
than I feel. Of all the children, the brothers and sisters
of my mother who were born and brought up in that
house on the hill there, my two uncles afterward
entered the Confederate service and served with the
Confederate Navy."
"Men and women, don't you think I have the
ancestral right to claim a proud kinship with those who
showed their devotion to duty as they saw the duty,
whether they wore the grey or whether they wore the
blue? All Americans who are worthy the name feel an
equal pride in the valor of those who fought on one side
or the other, provided only that each did with all his
strength and soul and mind his duty as it was given to
him to see his duty." Theodore Roosevelt, 1905
On the right in this Spanish-American War photo is
Theodore Roosevelt (quoted above). Next to him in the
lighter colored uniform is Col. Leonard Wood. The
shorter officer in front of the rest is the former
Confederate cavalry general and now U. S. Army Maj.
Gen. of Volunteers, "Fighting Joe" Wheeler. During
action at the Battle of Las Guasimas, the first major
engagement of the war, the Spanish line broke and they
began to retreat. Upon seeing this development,
Wheeler supposedly called out "Let's go, boys! We've got
the damn Yankees on the run again!"