VA gov calls for Confederate History Month

[Vernon Windsor]

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has re-declared April as Confederate History Month in that state. The Republican gov is bringing back a
tradition let go by the two Democrats who preceded him -- Mark Warner
and Tim Kane.

This is a touchy one in Virginia, and McDonnell seems to know it. The official proclamation includes six "Whereas" statements -- you know, where
they say "Whereas this group is so awesome" -- and four statements that
"all" Virginians stand to gain from considering the sacrifices and honor
of Confederate soldiers. That doesn't include the "all should unite"
quote from Confederate General Robert E. Lee, or the "all our citizens"
McDonnell calls on to join in the observance.

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Despite previous governors' refusals, McDonnell issues Confederate history month proclamation

Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) has quietly declared April 2010 Confederate History Month, bringing back a designation in Virginia that his two Democratic
predecessors -- Mark Warner and Tim Kaine -- refused to do.

Republican governors George Allen and Jim Gilmore issued similar proclamations. But in 2002, Warner broke with their action, calling such proclamations,
a "lightning rod" that does not help bridge divisions between whites
and blacks in Virginia.

This year's proclamation was requested by the Sons of Confederate Veterans. A representative of the group said the group has known since it interviewed McDonnell when he was running for
attorney general in 2005 that he was likely to respond differently than
Warner or Kaine.

"We've known for quite some time we had a good opportunity should he ascend the governorship," Brandon Dorsey said. "We basically decided to bide our time and wait until we had more favorable
politicians in Richmond."

Dorsey said the governor's stamp of approval would help the group publicize the month and aide tourism efforts in the state.

As I read it, this proclamation is more designed to get people to study the issue rather than simply being a tribute," he said. "We would like everyone in the state to honor the
sacrifice of the brave men who went out and died in battle. At the very
least, we'd like them to study why they went out and did it. And I think
the proclamation could be construed either way."

The language can be seen on the governor's Web site.

Richmond is the former capital of the Confederacy.

Sen. A. Donald McEachin (D-Richmond) said he was "stunned" to learn of McDonnell's decision and even more stunned that the proclamation did not include any reference to
slavery. "It's offensive,'' he said.

The proclamation is one of about two dozen McDonnell has issued since his inauguration in January. Many, but not all, are posted on the office's Web site.

-- Anita Kumar and Rosalind S. Helderman

[Vernon Windsor]

It's not hate, it's hateful history

by Clarence Page

Brag Bowling and I have a lot in common. We both care a lot about history. We just happen to come down on opposite sides of the Civil War. Sort of.

Bowling is the commander of the Virginia Division of The Sons of Confederate Veterans, an organization dedicated to the proposition that the South is getting a raw deal in a lot of history books and in the public's memory about the war.

I gave him a call after Virginia's Gov. Bob McDonnell backpedaled a bit on a proclamation he signed at the urging of Bowling's organization to designate April as Confederate History Month in Virginia.

The proclamation threw McDonnell into a hot mess, particularly with his African-American constituents, and raised questions about his viability as a rising national star because the proclamation omitted any mention of a prominent cause of that war: slavery.

Worse, when reporters asked him about the omission, he dug himself deeper. There were "any number of aspects to that conflict between the states," he said, but "I focused on the ones I thought were most significant for Virginia."

Is slavery not "significant"?

It just so happened that my wife and I recently spent a weekend in Charlottesville to see Thomas Jefferson's home at Monticello, an intellectual Disneyland for history buffs. With knowledgeable tour guides, we took a mental trip back in time to get into the lives and the heads of Jefferson and Sally Hemings, among other people Jefferson owned as property.

We also discussed horrifying examples of how, as Chief Justice Roger B. Taney declared in the Dred Scott decision, slaves "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect." Cleverness, good fortune and the mercies of one's master were a slave's only protections from assault, abuse or separation from the rest of one's family. These are not insignificant aspects of history.

After McDonnell's idea of significance failed to go down well with such prominent black supporters as BET co-founder Sheila Johnson, who had endorsed him, and former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, a Democrat who refrained from endorsing his opponent, McDonnell acknowledged his "mistake."

He added a paragraph to describe slavery as an "evil and inhumane practice," which now annoys Bowling, who calls the addition inaccurate. "Virginia did not leave the Union to defend slavery," he said. "Virginia seceded after President Abraham Lincoln called up troops to invade the lower South. Virginia was solidly pro-Union but refused this intrusion on their sovereignty. It had nothing to do with slavery."

But Virginia did join the Confederacy, I reminded Bowling. What, I asked, about Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens' declaration in his historic 1861 speech that the breakaway government's "cornerstone rests upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition?" Bowling admitted he had not read the entire speech. I strongly advised him to do so and we will talk again. He said he looked forward to it. So do I.

I'm not mad at him. Our brief yet cordial conversation offered a reason why McDonnell as a savvy Southerner should have known better than fall into this stew. He stumbled into a second Civil War, a continuing clash between the dueling memories of African-Americans and "Southern heritage" whites.

As a descendant of the Confederacy, Bowling has a lot in common with me, a descendant of Southern slavery. The Sons of Confederate Veterans are spiritual descendants of the "Lost Cause," a post-bellum movement and philosophy that sprung up after the war to justify the Confederate cause as noble, chivalrous, militarily clever and only incidentally tied to slavery.

Both of us agree that too many people oversimplify the causes of the Civil War as either all about slavery or nothing to do with slavery. The truth of history is always more complicated and too many people don't take history seriously enough.

We are bound together by a shared heritage. Each of us wants our side of history to be known and told "accurately." Neither of us wants to be told that our ancestors' suffering, struggles or hardship count for nothing.

Clarence Page is a member of the Tribune's editorial board and blogs at chicagotribune.com/pagespages

[Vernon Windsor]

The same could be said for so many issues along racial, national, or cultural lines. Israel is a prime example.