I think it’s a good sign that even Mississippi’s rightwing and shamelessly authoritarian (but dorky) Governor Tate Reeves seems to think that when he proclaims April as Confederate Heritage Month in the state, he needs to do it on the “down-low.”
Apparently, he didn’t issue it until April 12. And it seems to have been publicized by the Beauvoir museum run by the far-right Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV). Aston Pittman reports:
Beauvoir is owned and operated by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a neo-Confederate organization that promotes “Lost Cause” ideology, a revisionist history that whitewashes the Confederacy’s racist past and downplays the role of slavery in the Civil War. Beauvoir annually receives $100,000 from the State of Mississippi for development and maintenance.
Starting in 2016, Donna Ladd, then the editor of the Jackson Free Press and now the executive editor of the Mississippi Free Press, first reported on then-Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant’s Confederate Heritage Month proclamations. The Mississippi Free Press has reported on Reeves’ annual proclamations as well in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.
The Confederate Heritage Month proclamations annually appear on SCV Facebook pages, but neither the governor nor any other state official publicizes the proclamations or posts them on any public-facing state websites or social-media pages. (1) [my emphasis]
The SPLC on April 1 of this year published a bullet-point debunking Lost Cause dogma (SPLC points in quotation marks) (2):
• “Claim: It’s heritage, not hate.”
No, it’s about hate. Racial hate against Black people, in particular.
• “The Civil War was about states’ rights – not slavery.”
It was about slavery.
• “The Confederate battle flag isn’t racist. Hate groups hijacked it, so now it’s called racist.”
It’s one of the best-known symbols of white racism and white nationalism. It may be fair to say that originally it was “only” a symbol of the treasonous Confederate States of America flown in battle when Confederate soldiers were killing soldiers of the US Army. As the SPLC notes, “The Confederacy, from its start, was founded on white supremacy.”
• “Symbols that offend some people shouldn’t be removed. The First Amendment says we have freedom of expression.”
US law allows people to display Confederate battle flags. Drive for an hour through rural roads in Mississippi even today and you’re likely to see an example or two. Displaying the Confederate battle flag is also legal in Germany, even though it is understood to be a substitute for a swastika flag, which is illegal to display under Germany’s anti-Nazi laws.
• “Removing Confederate symbols erases history in the name of being ‘woke.’”
Being aware, aka, “woke,” of the presence of symbols of treason against the United States and its Constitution allows people to understand the message being sent by people who use them. Or, as the SPLC puts it in the context of removing such symbols from government property: “Removal doesn’t erase history. It ends the government’s endorsement of symbols that have always represented the oppression of an entire race.”
Or, as the SPLC puts it in the context of removing such symbols from government property: “Removal doesn’t erase history. It ends the government’s endorsement of symbols that have always represented the oppression of an entire race.”
Notes:
(1) Pittman, Ashton (2024): Gov. Reeves Proclaims Confederate Heritage Month in Mississippi. Mississippi Free Press 04/15/2024. <https://www.mississippifreepress.org/41270/governor-reeves-proclaims-confederate-heritage-month-in-mississippi> (Accessed: 2024-169-04).
(2) Debunking Defenses of ‘Lost Cause’ Mythology During Confederate Heritage Month. SPLC 04/01/2024. <https://www.splcenter.org/hopewatch/2024/04/01/confederate-heritage-month-myths> (Accessed: 2024-169-04).
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