The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) organization
is building a $50,000 memorial with large columns and 36
different flags from the Confederate States of America. The site
will be on the Interstate 10 access road.
Granvel Block of Orange, Texas is the commander of both the
statewide SVC group and the Orange camp. He said the memorial
will be for educational purposes. For instance, most people don't
know that the Confederacy
had 36 different flags. At the memorial, each flag with have a
name plate and history of the flag. He hopes the memorial will
become a tourist attraction for Orange.
He
described the memorial as a design to resemble the Jefferson
Memorial in Washington, D.C., with columns in a circle, but
without the dome. The 13 white columns will represent each of the
13 states in the Confederacy.
People
who have Confederate ancestors or relatives who were in the SCV
have bought memorial bricks and benches for the memorial. Block said
the flags and memorial will be seen from the new overpass at MLK
Drive and the lights from the overpass with shine on the memorial
to make it a sight of beauty.
Block
said the group wants to preserve history. He said some people,
white and black, do not like the Confederate battle flag because
they don't understand history. "So many things (about the Confederacy)
have been taught wrong or with a poor skew," he said. As examples,
he said the Civil War was not fought over slavery and that
slaves were owned in the north, not exclusively in the south. He
said individual state governments were sovereign and that "our
states were invaded by northern troops."
The
Sons of Confederate Veterans received a City of Orange building
permit for the project in January and paid the $260 fee. Block
said the recent rainy weather has delayed the beginning of
construction. He expects the dedication to draw a crowd from
across the country. The SCV has more than 35,000 members
internationally and about 3,000 in Texas, he said. The SCV has
local groups, known as 'camps,' in Beaumont, Woodville and Lake
Charles.
The
building site is triangular and 0.45 acre. The Orange County
Appraisal District reports that Block bought the land in May 2010
for $10,000 in the name of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The
site is appraised at $9,500 and the annual tax bill of about
$260 has been sent to the national organization in Tennessee.
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David L. Moore3rd Lt. Cmdr., Texas DivisionTexas Division Media GroupSons of Confederate Veterans(817) 694-0092 (C)ausborn4@sbcglobal.net*************************************