Confederate “Heritage” Month 2024, April 17: Mississippi’s 2024 version, courtesy of Republican Gov. Tate Reeves

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.”

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).

Confederate "Heritage" Month 2022, April 24: Felony disenfranchisement in Mississippi

Mississippi’s Gov. Tate Reeves, who formally proclaimed April as Confederate Heritage Month in Mississippi, is a committed Republican “culture warrior” on issues like abortion and the anti-“critical race theory” hype. But he hasn’t forgotten the old-fashioned kind of methods used for decades to deprive Black citizens of their right to vote in Mississippi and other states.

One of those was felony disenfranchisement. After the Civil War, many African-Americans were arrested, often on trumped-up charges, then sentenced to prison, where they were hired out to former slave-owners as work gangs. “Involutary servitude” was allowed by the 13th Amendment as punishment for crimes. Then after they served their prison sentences, they were then denied the right to vote because they were convicted felons. This is a practice that still disporportionately affects Black voters.

A Mississippi Democratic friend of mine uses the nickname "Tater Tot" for Reeves, a reference to a popular Southern side dish. Tate is the child of a wealthy family who affects a strong rural Mississippi accent in his public statements.

As Bobby Harrison reports (Gov. Tate Reeves vetoes bill easing Jim Crow-era voting restrictions Missisippi Today 04/23/2022) He vetoed a bill that was passed by the Republican-dominated legislature that would have simply made it easier for felons who had served their sentences to have their right to vote restored. He rejected even that, citing the relevance of the alleged practices of ancient Greece and Rome to 21st century criminal law:

“Felony disenfranchisement is an animating principle of the social contract at the heart of every great republic dating back to the founding of ancient Greece and Rome," the Republican Reeves wrote in his veto message, which was filed with the Legislature on Friday.

“In America, such laws date back to the colonies and the eventual founding of our Republic," Reeves continued. "Since statehood, in one form or another, Mississippi law has recognized felony disenfranchisement.”

It's worth recalliung that slavery and the full disenfrancisement of women were also part of Mississippi’s law when it became a state in 1817. Here's a more reality-based version from Democracy Docket (What Can We Learn From the History of Felony Disenfranchisement? 11/21/2021) on the ancient roots of the practice, and the American versions of it:

Also, when Republicans start referring to ancient Greco-Roman history, it's usually an indication that they are blowing smoke.

The idea of “civil death” — losing certain civic and public rights as a punishment for a crime — can be traced back to ancient Greece and Rome and were later transformed into the English laws that were brought to the British colonies. Although some state constitutions established a version of criminal disenfranchisement in the early 1800s, most of the modern felony disenfranchisement laws that we know today originated after the Civil War. [my emphasis]

Harrison also reports:

Mississippi is one of a handful of states — less than 10 — that places a lifetime ban on voting for those convicted of certain felonies unless through the action of the Legislature or the governor. Most states restore the right to vote at some point after a person has completed his or her sentence.

NOTE: A version of this post appeared on the Facebook page of the Progressive Caucus of Democrats Abroad on 05/02/2022.

See also:

• Mississippi Governor Vetoes Bill Easing Strict Felony Disenfranchisement Law Democracy Docket 04/27/2022
• Courtney Ann Jackson, Lawmakers and advocates question Governor’s latest veto involving expungements and voting rights WTOK-TV (Meridian MS) 04/27/2022

Confederate Heritage Month 2021, April 12: Gov. Tater Tot declares Confederate Heritage Month in Mississippi

I guess it's a good sign that if the Mississippi governor wants to declare Confederate Heritage Month in his state, he feels the need to do it in the bureaucratic equivalent of spray-painting it on a wall in the middle of the night.

Donna Ladd reports (‘Darn’ Tootin’ It Is!’: Gov. Tate Reeves Again Declares Confederate Heritage Month, SCV Says Mississippi Free Press 04/12/2021):

Despite asking Gov. Tate Reeves’ office since late March if he planned to again declare April as Confederate Heritage Month with no response, this publication just found what appears to be this year’s proclamation. The new document, which Reeves apparently signed on April 7, 2021, appears on the Sons of Confederate Veterans’ Camp 265 Rankin Rough & Ready’s Facebook page. Reeves is from Rankin County.

The proclamation does not yet appear on the secretary of state’s official proclamations page at press time. The most recent one on the page is dated March 29, 2021.

This writer found last year’s proclamation on a Sons of Confederate Veterans Facebook page rather than through official government channels as well, breaking the news at the Jackson Free Press. In 2016, that publication had broken the news that Gov. Phil Bryant had quietly proclaimed Confederate Heritage Month, a long-time tradition by Mississippi governors, Democratic and Republican, that had flown under the media radar for years.

Ladd also describes some of the recent propaganda coming from the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SVC), one of the groups that glorifies slavery and white supremacy and violent treason in defense of them. Ladd notes that they run the private Beauvoir site, which was the coastal home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. It is currently "a museum that has long sold revisionist books about the Confederacy, as well as received state funds ...."