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Location: New Albany, Indiana (Greater Louisville)
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I just visited Stone Mountain Park near Atlanta. It was very striking to be walking the trail to the summit and seeing a Confederate flag at an official display with other flags given that maybe 10% of the people at the park were White and over 50% were Black. The area around the park is mostly Black upper middle class. It's a visible reminder of some groups desperately holding on to power.
Even today, these people aren't exactly subtle. That's one good thing - it's always easy to flesh them out.
The KKK isn't very subtle about their disdain for Dr. King. It isn't very subtle about their love for Confederates, and for certain reasons. However, there are people who are more subtle about it. Growing up in Georgia, I went to high school with many students who wore Dixie Outfitter t-shirts. The "it's about southern heritage" line got old fast, especially when I knew better. Eventually stopped trying. To this day I have a hatred for the Confederate flag. You can imagine how I feel about Nathan Bedford Forrest.
But don’t THEN tell us to stop talking about slavery.
Thank You and Amen!! How can anyone tell Black Americans to forget about slavery when there are individuals who go forth and long to celebrate the likes of Confederates such as Gen. Robert Edward Lee and Nathan Bedford Forrest?
I just visited Stone Mountain Park near Atlanta. It was very striking to be walking the trail to the summit and seeing a Confederate flag at an official display with other flags given that maybe 10% of the people at the park were White and over 50% were Black. The area around the park is mostly Black upper middle class. It's a visible reminder of some groups desperately holding on to power.
I know Stone Mountain. It's a majority-Black suburb. Last year Stacey Abrams was running for Governor. She wanted the bas-relief of the Confederate generals on Stone Mountain blasted off. Let's put it this way. She had no problem getting a strong majority of Black support, but alot of Whites voted against her. Brian Kemp ended up winning, in spite of (or because of) his corrupt ways with the electorate.
The spirit of the Confederacy lives on in the US military. Look at all the US Army bases named after Confederate officers:
Fort A.P. Hill, VA; Fort Benning, GA; Fort Bragg, NC; Fort Gordon, GA; Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Lee, VA; Fort (now Camp) Pickett, VA; Fort Polk, LA; Fort Rucker, AL
The Navy guided missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville is named for a Confederate victory
Two ballistic missile submarines were named USS Robert E. Lee and USS Stonewall Jackson (from a class of ships named for "Great Americans").
I believe there are portraits of Lee and Jackson hanging at West Point.
Tennessee was a Confederate state. However, it was the last state to join the Confederacy. It was the first to return to the Union. And Tennessee is an interesting state. Eastern TN is basically Appalachia. It didn't have much interest in being part of the Confederacy. It wasn't big on slavery. Central TN, with Nashville being there, had some slavery, but the biggest slaveholding areas of TN were the western part of the state. Memphis was basically a cotton and slavetrading market. Sadly fitting that the first large Confederate monuments started in western Tennessee.
Right - totally geography based. King Cotton starts at Memphis (mostly the other side of the river and south of there)....I remember picking peppers in Jackson - which is closer to Memphis then to Nashville.
It's a basic truism that most all field ag work in the South was done by slaves or the like. Mountain people were simply not going to work that way (still applies even today!) . Almost 300,000 slaves were there at the time of the Civil War and almost zero free.
Putting it another way, there would not be a big black population in TN if not for forced labor. This differs from the North where free persons went to for the industrial jobs.
Doesn't take much logic to be clear on the position of the State of TN in history. In fact, many from TN ended up settling Texas and making that place into a Slave State. In fact, no state ever grew their slave population as quickly as Texas between statehood (1845) and Emancipation - 10X increase in 20 years!
"Many settlers moved from Tennessee to areas further west, most notably to Arkansas and Texas."
Right - totally geography based. King Cotton starts at Memphis (mostly the other side of the river and south of there)....I remember picking peppers in Jackson - which is closer to Memphis then to Nashville.
It's a basic truism that most all field ag work in the South was done by slaves or the like. Mountain people were simply not going to work that way (still applies even today!) . Almost 300,000 slaves were there at the time of the Civil War and almost zero free.
Putting it another way, there would not be a big black population in TN if not for forced labor. This differs from the North where free persons went to for the industrial jobs.
Doesn't take much logic to be clear on the position of the State of TN in history. In fact, many from TN ended up settling Texas and making that place into a Slave State. In fact, no state ever grew their slave population as quickly as Texas between statehood (1845) and Emancipation - 10X increase in 20 years!
"Many settlers moved from Tennessee to areas further west, most notably to Arkansas and Texas."
Let's go further. Appalachia in general was not a hotbed for slavery. The soil and the climate wasn't conducive to growing plantation crops. This is why West Virginia became its own state. I've always felt like Tennessee had an "edginess" to it. It is most certainly a southern state. At the same time, I always felt like there was a "edge" to it, a particular kind of "rough and ready" demeanor. This is particularly so in eastern TN.
And then look at the rest of the South. The South has more African-Americans than any other region, even after decades of African-Americans leaving the region. King Cotton had alot to do with it.
Texas is a whole other case altogether. Texas sits where King Cotton meets Mexico, the Great Plains, and the Old West meet. Texas grew cotton, but it would go on to raise cattle, grapefruit, and wheat. Texas certain had a fast growing slave population. And it was in Texas where Juneteenth got its start. The part of Texas with the largest Black population is the far east of Texas. In Texas, Blacks make up 11 to 12 percent of Texas' population and number in the millions. Beyonce is from Texas. So is George Foreman, Phylicia Rashad (Claire from The Cosby Show), Ernie Banks, Frank Robinson, Huddy Ledbetter, Eykah Badu, Don Baylor, Alvin Ailey, Barbara Jordan. And Texas had its share of Black cowboys. In spite of this, I notice this is part of Texas culture and history that some people don't mention very much.
I live near Forrest's birthplace (Chapel Hill, TN) and have never heard or seen ANYTHING regarding admiration for Forrest other than that god awful statue on I-65 south of Nashville. I was today years old when I found out about the governor's proclamation obligations. What's the point?
I am also against removing statues of confederates. It's history and the statues are there to remind us of what happened and how we arrived where we are today.
I know Stone Mountain. It's a majority-Black suburb. Last year Stacey Abrams was running for Governor. She wanted the bas-relief of the Confederate generals on Stone Mountain blasted off. Let's put it this way. She had no problem getting a strong majority of Black support, but alot of Whites voted against her. Brian Kemp ended up winning, in spite of (or because of) his corrupt ways with the electorate.
I think he won because of his corrupt ways with the electoral process
And he will likely ensure that Trump gets all the help Kemp can give
And as long as the TN legislature allows Nathan Bedford Forrest day to be a public celebration then the govenor will have to sign the proclamation
He is only following the law—
Could he fight it—maybe
But he doesn’t really want to so he is hiding behind the “legal” requirement...
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