On Education: The SCV's Nathan Bedford Forest Ad

After reading the letter from Valeria Protopapas on the defamation of the Southern people through attempting to tie them to hate groups, don't forget the current SCV initiative to educate folks towards the truth about figures like Nathan Bedford Forest – whose grave and memorials have been defaced, erroneous statements have been perpetuated, and revisionist historians have attempted to remove from parks and public buildings.

Attached to this e-mail is a jpeg of the latest Forest advertisement, which can be used on blogs, newspapers, or printed out and distributed at local bulletin boards. 

As Michael Givens, Commander in Chief for the SCV recently noted in regards to this effort, "In recent years, the Cause of the Confederacy, indeed the cause of American Liberty, has been under attack at an ever-increasing intensity.  The bully-club of choice is mainly "slavery" with the proposed notion that the invaders from the North left their homes and families, risking mortal danger, on a benevolent mission to end the burdensome institution (that was financed and perpetuated to a large degree by their own kith and kin). One only needs to study a little history to realize that that nursery-rhyme was far from reality, but facts will never be found in the arsenal of the liar."

He continues, "The Cause of the South was simply independence and self-determination. The Cause was quelled (not lost). These United States were formed as a result of a victorious war of independence and self-determination. Our Confederate ancestors were merely continuing the legacy and heritage of that American brand of liberty. But, the liberty ideal did not fit the narrative of invasion and usurpation as was perpetrated by Mr. Lincoln and his hosts in the name of "saving the union." A new and more globally palatable excuse was needed—the abolition of slavery. Slavery is indeed the very antithesis of liberty, and what better way to one-up the Southern Cause than to claim the mantle of liberty as their own—hence all the confusion to this day."

"Now let's get this straight right from the beginning: the SCV carries no water for any hate group including the KKK," Givens notes. "We are not comfortable even having our name on the same page as theirs. This is why we cannot allow the continued slander of one of our most valiant heroes. I refer you to Dr. Michael Bradley's essay in the July-August issue of the Confederate Veteran concerning the true story of General Forrest. The lies cannot be allowed to continue unchallenged!"

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The appearance of the KKK

From: vaproto@optonline.net
To: jcooperhawk@yahoo.com

Dear Sir:

None of this surprises me. Remember, the present "klan" is made up almost exclusively of government operatives from various agencies. The klan has been used as a straw man for years by those who wish to destroy Southern heritage. And given that despite every effort of the NAACP and the SPLC (not to mention Eric Holder's blatantly racist DoJ!) the cause of the South is waxing rather than waning, it is not at all surprising that the "klan" is being raised up once again as a "boogeyman" against the people and culture of the South. Alas, as most Americans are ignorant in the extreme on all matters historical and most matters of the moment, it is probable that you will indeed be "blamed" for this situation when exactly the opposite is true.

Few people know anything about the three manifestations of the klan, the last being strongest in the Mid-West rather than the South and whose members carried the American flag and not any symbol of the former Confederacy. So you can be sure that any appearance of folks in white robes will be presented by the media and seen by the ignorant as proof of the rise of "the klan"  which, in turn, will be seen as proof that every Southerner who loves his or her family and heritage is a klansman in disguise. Naturally the consequence of this "false flag" operation will be an attempt to redouble the present campaign of cultural genocide against the South!

What can Southerners (and their allies) do? Sadly, not much. All efforts to denounce and deny as well as educate must fail because such will be ignored and discredited by the media and the academic and heritage establishments and ignored by the general (and ignorant) public. Certainly such denials and rejections must be made, but it would be foolish to believe that they will be of much use. The best thing, therefore, is to continue to fight for your heritage and the hell with the klan or the government or the media or "public opinion." But the last thing you must do is give up and give in. That's what your enemies want and you must realize how very worried they are when they are willing to play the klan card one more time.

Valerie Protopapas (Lady Val)

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Education Amid the Desolation of War

From: bernhard1848@att.net

Holding the schoolroom to be an important part of the national strength during the war crisis, Southern educational leaders urged citizens to maintain good schools "as an illustration to the world of the civilization of the people of the Confederate States."  It was also stressed that the times demanded the labor of teachers corresponding to the "unexampled heroism and devotion of our soldiers . . . "

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
"Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty"
http://www.ncwbts150.com/
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
 

Education Amid the Desolation of War

"Among its many home-front problems the Confederacy faced the question of its children's formal education.  If this posed difficulties in normal times, it proved doubly so as the new nation fought for its existence on the battle line.  Of special concern to educators and other interested citizens were persistent problems of maintaining support for public schools during the exigencies of war, and providing young Confederates with textbooks free from the taint of "foreign" views.

[Midway] in the war, a national organization, the Educational Association of the Confederate States of America, was formed.  That its influence of Southern education was necessarily slight does not detract from the seriousness and inspiration of its intent.  The actions resulted in the organization of this association had their genesis in the activities of North Carolinians who were laboring on the problems of school support and textbooks within their own State.

Soon after North Carolina seceded from the Union, State Superintendent of Schools Calvin H. Wiley called a convention of teachers in Raleigh to discuss the situation. Those in attendance agreed on the desirability of forbidding the importation of foreign textbooks and urged the production of locally-written books . . . [At] the 1862 meeting of that association,  Wiley announced that the South would soon be independent "of all other countries" for its school books.

At this meeting, members . . . adopted a resolution calling for "a general convention of teachers throughout the Confederate States . . . to take into consideration the best means for supplying the necessary textbooks for use in our Schools and Colleges, and to unite their efforts for the advancement of the cause of education in the Confederacy . . ."

The convention was called for April 28, 1863, at Columbia, South Carolina.  Publicity and preparations were extensive . . . Newspapers [urged] a large attendance from the South. Groups of teachers and citizens in several cities chose delegates to represent them at the Columbia convention . . . [and] the North Carolina Literary Board named as its delegates [Wiley] and Richard Sterling, a board member and principal of Greensborough's Edgeworth Female Seminary. 

Sixty-nine person registered at the convention . . . South Carolina [sent] thirty six delegates . . .  Sixteen attended from North Carolina, ten from Georgia, three each from Virginia and Alabama, and one from Louisiana.

Enhancing the prestige of the convention was a letter from President Jefferson Davis.  While regretting the inability to be present, Davis expressed his "fullest sympathy" with the purpose of the convention and extolled the importance of school books in developing character and intelligence in children.  He expressed his joy in knowing "that the task of preserving these educational springs in purity has been devolved upon men so qualified to secure the desired results."

Several other letters, including one from North Carolina's Governor Zebulon B. Vance, were read to the delegates.  Vance's letter underscored President Davis's concern for "purity" in textbooks and he declared it a "pleasure to see that the desolation of war does not prevent the good the good men of the country from looking after this great and important matter. This is certainly the time to inaugurate the system of supplying our schools with our own books and impressing the minds of our children with the effusions of Southern genius."

His closing must have served as an added charge to the convention: "May God bless and prosper your efforts in a cause so patriotic and so greatly to be commended by every true Southern heart."

(The Educational Association of the CSA, O.L. Davis, Jr., Civil War History, Volume 10, Number 1, March 1964, State University of Iowa, pp. 67-71)