News and Notes, August 13, 2013

It’s an eventful week in the Civil War blogosphere. Kevin Levin welcomes returning home while Tripp Lewis anticipates completing his community service.

Yup, I went there.

Click the link above to read Kevin’s thoughtful reflections about identity, interpretation, and education. It displays a candor that is all too rare in such matters and a willingness to engage in what can be a difficult discussion.

Elsewhere …

• A nice piece of detective work, as always, by Andy Hall.
• Don Shaffer on Lincoln’s proposal to retaliate against the mistreatment of black POWs.
• Emmanuel Dabney on African Americans and Civil War sesquicentennial.
• Steve Light on an overlooked unit during the Gettysburg Campaign.

Thanks for reading.

The Underbelly of Flagger Support

Last week the Virginia Flaggers worked very hard to present an image of their group and its supporters as simply devoted to honoring Confederate heritage in the aftermath of Flagger head Susan Hathaway’s revelation of the group’s intention to erect a fifty-foot flagpole by I-95 south of Richmond. The flagpole will display the Confederate navy jack.

As a part of the proposal, Hathaway and her followers responded to media inquiries with the declaration that the project was simply to honor Confederate soldiers. As one report put it: “Virginia Flaggers founder Susan Hathaway says her group doesn’t want to offend anyone. She says the flag is intended to honor the area’s Confederate heritage.”

Yet the proposal’s supporters have at times voiced different sentiments.

Tom <wilecgenius@yahoo.com> sent the following message to a group petitioning against the Flagger proposal:

you’re wrong. we have the right to fly any flag in this country anywhere. get over it and tell your black buddies to do the same. now do something productive wiht your life. you liberals make me sick. just for this, i’m going to put confederate stickers all over the place here in richmond and the surrounding towns. tell the blacks africa awaits their return. where there’s so much opportunity. remember? how much blacks have contributed to technology, clean living, advancemnet ha ha ha. When they evolve maybe..

Hmmm … where have I seen this sort of argument before?

Well, Connie Chastain declares:

Why, that’s the same Connie Chastain who posts all those slogans about being white, right? Yes.

The same Connie Chastain who declared: “Emmett Till was not falsely accused. He came on to a white woman in pre-civil rights Mississippi, and the was brutally murdered for it”?  Yup.

The same Connie Chastain who administers the Virginia Flaggers’ blog? Yes, that Connie Chastain.

After all, as Susan Hathaway says, “I leave the heavy hitting to Ms Connie!”

So much for plausible deniability. After all, we’ve previously highlighted some of the folks who support the Flaggers.

It’s a heritage of hate.