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ORLANDO, Fla. -- A federal judge has issued an order that will make way for a Confederate heritage specialty license plate from the state of Florida's Department of Motor Vehicles. Confederate license plate Sons Of Confederate Veterans The proposed Confederate flag. In a lawsuit filed nearly one year ago after two years of Florida legislative inaction to approve the plate, a federal Middle District judge upheld the First Amendment right to have a plate issued by the DMV. "We followed all the procedures, paid the fees required by the state, and did absolutely everything that was required by law, and...

The Morehead chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans have been denied a request to march in the Ironton Lawrence County Memorial Day Parade. The 5th Kentucky Infantry Camp #2122 received a letter from Arthur J. Pierson, parade grand marshal, rejecting the group’s request to participate in the parade, without giving any reasons why. “Your parade request for SCV, 5th Kentucky Infantry camp #2122 Morehead, KY, has been considered and NOT APPROVED,” the letter stated. The 5th Kentucky wanted to march with a color guard that would feature two Confederate flags – the Kentucky Confederate flag and the Confederate battle...

Frustration and disappointment that have arisen out of the town of Jonesborough’s decision to not allow bricks honoring Confederate soldiers to be placed in the Veterans Memorial Park have spread beyond the town limits. The Southern Legal Resource Center, a nonprofit organization based in Black Mountain, N.C., that advocates in matters involving Southern history, heritage and culture, has contacted Jonesborough officials cautioning them about excluding the Confederate soldiers and urging them to reconsider the town’s current policy. The town decided nearly a decade ago, when the park was originally built, that the park would honor soldiers who served in the...

An advisory board that addressed racial issues in Homestead and Florida City has been dissolved, leading some residents to question whether the move was an attempt to stop their fight against the Confederate Flag. Led by Homestead Mayor Lynda Bell, all seven members of the Homestead City Council voted on April 20 to shut down the Homestead/Florida City Human Relations Board (HRB).

TAMPA - A park memorializing Confederate veterans will officially open April 25 with cannon fire, live music and re-enactors impersonating famous Southern generals. The park, near the junction of Interstates 4 and 75, gained notoriety last summer when the Sons of Confederate Veterans raised a 30-by-50-foot Confederate flag there. In October, the group replaced the first flag with a larger one. The veterans group said they raised the flag to draw attention to the 1.9-acre memorial park at its base. David McCallister, a lawyer and officer with the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said the park was built to relate the...

Confederate Heroes’ Day commemorates those who died fighting for the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. An official state holiday in Texas, Confederate Heroes’ Day has fallen annually on January 19th — the birthday of Robert E. Lee — since its approval on January 30, 1931. The Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy sponsor the annual celebration of the holiday, which includes parades, reenactments in honor of past Confederate heroes, and other events. http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ref/abouttx/holidays.html

I see that the Curator of African-American & Community History for the North Carolina Museum of History, Mr. Earl Ijames, is back in the news. Mr. Ijames was recently the keynote speaker at a new Confederate monument dedication in North Carolina. A news story quotes Mr. Ijames as saying: "We need to present a more balanced history," he said, adding that the black Confederate soldier has been lost to history. "They never got recognized, but we are starting to change that," Ijames said.

<p>Every January, descendants of Confederate soldiers gather in Wyman Park to...lay wreaths at the monument to Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, legendary generals of the Confederate States of America. And afterward, for 20 years now, everyone has gone across the street to the Johns Hopkins University for coffee and refreshments...Hopkins has informed the Maryland divisions of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of Confederate Veterans that it will not rent space to them.</p>

Valdosta State professor pens ‘Bitterly Divided: The South’s Inner Civil War’ Generations of students have been taught that the South lost the Civil War because of the North’s superior industry and population. A new book suggests another reason: Southerners were largely responsible for defeating the Confederacy. In “Bitterly Divided: The South’s Inner Civil War” (New Press, $27.95), historian David Williams of Valdosta State University lays out some tradition-upsetting arguments that might make the granite brow of Jefferson Davis crack on Stone Mountain. “With this book,” wrote Publishers Weekly, “the history of the Civil War will never be the same again.”...

...The decision comes with no guarantee of where or whether the statue might be displayed or how it is interpreted.

TEMPLE TERRACE — Bart Siegel, an outspoken advocate for the display of the giant Confederate flag near the intersection of Interstate 4 and I-75, was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot in his Temple Terrace home Thursday. Siegel, 50, was a Republican accountant who penned long letters to newspapers and verbally sparred with columnists. In 2000, he announced his desire to "stir things up" by running against then-Hillsborough Clerk of the Circuit Court Richard Ake, a Democrat unopposed since 1986. Siegel lost, but kept stirring things up. In the face of a protest, Siegel professed his love for the...

Chip Witte doesn't consider himself a Rebel. He doesn't hang Dixie battle flags in his living room, nor does he wear one on the back of his leather jacket. Yet when the Tampa motorcycle mechanic saw the world's largest Confederate battle flag unfurl above the intersection of I-10 and I-4 in June, he felt a jolt of solidarity with the lost cause and lost rights that he says the battle flag represents. "I think it's great that they're allowed to fly it," says Mr. Witte. Despite years of boycotts, schoolyard bans, and banishment from capitol domes, the Southern battle colors...

MONROE – At first glance, it’s an unlikely combination. A black family seated under a tent facing a line of Civil War re-enactors, proudly holding Confederate flags and gripping their weapons. But what lies between these two groups is what brought them together: An unmarked grave about to get its due, belonging to a slave who fought for the Confederacy. Weary Clyburn was best friends with his master’s son, Frank. When Frank left the plantation to fight in the Civil War, Clyburn followed him. He fought alongside Frank and even saved his life on two occasions. On July 18, the...

The Sons of Confederate Veterans say they will permanently install a giant Confederate flag near the junction of Interstates 4 and 75 to counter what they consider increasing slights to Southern heritage. But the group, founded 112 years ago to protect all that is noble about the South, is itself racked by angry divisions. Since the 1990s, clusters of Sons members have aligned themselves with "heritage groups" like the League of the South and the Council of Conservative Citizens, both considered hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The law center says the Sons may have been taken over...

TAMPA, Fla. -- A giant Confederate battle flag -- believed to be the world's largest -- may soon be flying near a Tampa highway intersection. A Confederate heritage group called the Sons of Confederate Veterans plans to fly the flag that measures 30 feet tall and 50 feet wide. The group said it expects to have its flag in place by 2009. "I'm surprised that they would allow something like this to go on in Hillsborough County," county NAACP President Curtis Stokes told the St. Petersburg Times. The group has building permits but still needs $30,000 to complete the project,...

TAMPA — Next year, a giant Confederate flag may tower above the tree line near the junction of Interstate 75 and Interstate 4. The Sons of Confederate Veterans wants drivers in the Tampa area to see the massive flag — 30 feet high and 50 feet long — atop a 139-foot pole, the highest the Federal Aviation Authority would allow. It would be lit at night. With the pole already in the ground and building permits in hand, the group is on its way to having what it calls the "world's largest" Confederate flag in place by mid 2009. The...

(Representative) Brown says it would give motorists a way to show pride in their heritage, but that flag represents a heritage of treason, bigotry, hostility, division and an overall ugly time in American history. No way should his plate proposal become No. 110.

Some things that are blatantly offensive, such as a Nazi swastika, incite a visceral reaction. The Confederate flag is one of them, too. It's a symbol of a time when our nation was split into two warring factions. The Confederates, the folks who advocated slavery, lost.

The controversial stars and bars of the Confederate Flag could soon find their way to Florida license plates. State Rep. Don Brown, R-DeFuniak Springs, has worked with the Sons of Confederate Veterans to sponsor a bill that would allow the group to create a non-profit license plate that bears the Dixie flag. The tag would cost roughly $25 from the Department of Motor Vehicles. SCV Executive Director Ben Sewell said his organization has been successful in the past at getting the license plates in numerous states and feels they’ve met the requirements in the state of Florida to acquire the...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A Panhandle legislator wants Florida to issue license tags honoring "Confederate Heritage" -- complete with images of Dixie flags and buttons from Rebel uniforms. "It's a part of our history, whether we like it or not," Rep. Don Brown, R-DeFuniak Springs, said in an interview with Local 6 News partner Florida Today. "I appreciate the heritage and the good things that people feel about our past." Motorists could pay $25 for the tag, with proceeds going to education programs run by Sons of Confederate Veterans, graveyard location and maintenance, museum exhibits and other cultural activities. The current...

Ringgold City Council is facing potential legal action based on its 2005 decision to remove the Confederate Battle Flag from the Ringgold Depot Civil War Memorial. The Southern Legal Resource Center notified the city Feb. 11 by letter from SLRC chief trial counsel Kirk D. Lyons that it will face legal action unless it replaces the battle flag within 10 days. According to Roger McCredie, Southern Legal Resource Center executive director, the letter puts the city on notice that its clients, the Georgia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and its local Joseph McConnell Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp...

Nelson Winbush is intent on defending the flag of his grandfather. It's just surprising which flag that is. ___ KISSIMMEE -- Nelson Winbush rotates a miniature flag holder he keeps on his mantel, imagining how the banners would appear in a Civil War battle. The Stars and Bars, he explains, looked too much like the Union flag to prevent friendly fire. The Confederacy responded by fashioning the distinctive Southern Cross -- better known as the rebel flag. Winbush, 78, is a retired assistant principal with a master's degree, a thoughtful man whose world view developed from listening to his grandfather's...

The Sons of Confederate Veterans are demanding that Sen. George Allen apologize for apologizing. Allen has tried to mend fences with minorities over his use of the word "macaca," a racially-charged word, in part by saying he has regretted his infatuation with the Confederate flag. That touched off an angry response Thursday from two leaders of the 4,000-member Confederate group, who said Allen has turned his back on them. "We feel he's using our flag to wipe the muck from his shoes that he's now stepped in," said Frank Earnest of Virginia Beach, state division commander of the group.

On Sunday afternoon at Old Union Cemetery in southern White County, over 180 people gathered to pay a debt owed nearly 80 years. The group included members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Sons of Confederate Veterans, family and friends, all there to memorialize the service of Pvt. Henry Henderson, a black Confederate soldier. Henderson was born in 1849 in Davidson County, NC. He was 11 years old when he entered service with the Confederate States of America as a cook and servant to Colonel William F. Henderson, a medical doctor. Records show Henry was wounded during his service,...

UDC marks another black Confederate grave By Clayta Richards / Chronicle staffwriter On Sunday afternoon at Old Union Cemetery in southern White County, over 180 people gathered to pay a debt owed nearly 80 years. The group included members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Sons of Confederate Veterans, family and friends, all there to memorialize the service of Pvt. Henry Henderson, a black Confederate soldier. Henderson was born in 1849 in Davidson County, NC. He was 11 years old when he entered service with the Confederate States of America as a cook and servant to Colonel William F....

The group Sons of Confederate Veterans met at Orlando's Lake Eola Park to show off their proposed personalized tag late Friday morning. They said it's simply a matter of time before the plate becomes one of the many you can purchase as a specialty license plate. The group said the plate honors Florida's heritage by showing all five flags of the confederate army, including their battle flag. But it's a heritage some say simply represents hate. Standing below the memorial for confederate soldiers, a small but vocal group made their point Friday. They want Floridians to learn that the Civil...

The battle between heritage and hate is erupting again. A state appeals court now says a Confederate heritage group can sue the state over removal of controversial memorial plaques in the Texas Supreme Court. As long as the plaques that barely mention the Confederacy hang in the Texas Supreme Court, Terry Ayers says the state is slighting his and others' ancestors who fought in the Civil War. "I want to take my grandchildren down to the supreme court and show them, 'Look, your great, great grandfather, this building was dedicated to him.' Of course it's personal," Ayers said. The Texas...

A Confederate heritage group says its free-speech rights were violated when a landowner removed a billboard promoting Southern history near the famed Darlington Raceway. The Sons of Confederate Veterans plans to demonstrate at the State House next month and buy radio advertisements to complain about losing its billboard on U.S. 52, about two miles from the racetrack. “This is the most chilling thing I’ve seen against freedom of speech,” spokesman Don Gordon said. The Sons of Confederate Veterans bought the billboard this spring in response to remarks by a NASCAR executive about the rebel flag. The billboard featured a Confederate...

SUMMERVILLE (AP) (--) The Dorchester County Library Board is on the front lines of a fight to put a book refuting current history written about the Civil War on its shelves. "The South Was Right!," written by Sons of Confederate Veterans members and brothers James Ronald Kennedy and Walter Donald Kennedy of Louisiana, states the Confederacy had the right to be a free nation and most of what is taught in this country is false and misleading. A crowd of about 50 people, mostly members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans in St. George and Moncks Corner, pleaded for the ...

One of the most divisive symbols of the country's racist past — the Confederate flag — flew over Lake Worth City Hall on Wednesday without raising a peep of protest. Mayor Marc Drautz, who cleared the way for the symbol of the South to be hoisted, suggested that would-be protestors may not have recognized the red-and-white-striped flag for what it was. And, he acknowledged, that's just the way he wanted it. When the mayor, for a second year, gave Palm Beach County members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans the go-ahead to raise a flag to mark Confederate Memorial Day,...

Man Wins Case After Firing Over Confederate Flag Worker Refused To Remove Confederate License Plate POSTED: 7:50 am EDT April 21, 2006 TAMPA, Fla. -- A man who was fired by the city of Tampa for refusing to remove his Confederate flag license plate has settled a lawsuit against the city. Larry Carpenter will receive $4,500. But Carpenter, an employee in good standing for six years, won't get his job back as a traffic maintenance specialist. The paper reported that Carpenter's case began in January 2002, when his boss told him to remove the tag because someone had complained. Carpenter...

TALLAHASSEE -- It's time for Florida to authorize a specialty license plate displaying the Confederate battle flag to honor the heritage of participants in the Civil War, a Sons of Confederate Veterans organization said Friday. The proposed plate would feature the rebel flag centered between black numerals with "Florida" in red above and "Confederate Heritage" in red along the bottom. "It is not racist to promote a common heritage," said H.K. Edgerton, former NAACP president in Asheville, N.C., who led the group in a rousing version of "Dixie" before introducing the proposal. "There will be those uninformed individuals who will...

Many southern states and their political subdivisions, including Texas and Grimes County, recognize April as Confederate History and Heritage Month. The war had many causes, including slavery and tariffs. In March 1861, the U.S. Senate passed the Morrill Tariff, which immediately raised the average tariff rate from about 15 percent to 37.5 percent, but with a greatly expanded list of covered items. Soon thereafter, a second tariff increased the average rate to 47.06 percent. President Lincoln hinted very strongly in his first inaugural address a military invasion was possible if the tripled tariff was not collected. At that time the...

The removal of the Confederate flag from Amherst County's official seal has upset Southern heritage groups, who contend residents weren't told of the change. County officials acknowledge the image was quietly removed in August 2004 to avoid an uproar.

University of Georgia archaeologists have been puzzling over finding an apparent manmade object buried in a historic Civil War cemetery. Ground-penetrating radar on parts of Myrtle Hill Cemetery, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, found a reflection that did not look like a grave during a scan of two Civil War grave sites earlier this month. "There definitely is something manmade there, something big and metal," said Sheldon Skaggs, a member of the archaeologist team. "Now we have to determine what it is." Rumors have existed since the 1960s over what happened to two large cannons after the...

Leesburg Pulls All Civic Signs; Confederate Flag At Center Of Controversy Molly Novotny Jan 12, 2006 -- A Confederate battle flag is not the symbol town staff wanted greeting visitors and residents entering Leesburg. So to ensure the symbol would not adorn the town’s entrance points, town staff removed all civic organization signs from those gateways. Removing all of the signs, to exclude the Sons of Confederate Veterans’ sign legally, has caused frustration among the civic groups, many which have been advertising their clubs’ meetings for a generation. “I belong to several of the organizations that post their signs there,”...

The idea to honor only Confederate soldiers is a bad idea...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The mayor of Memphis on Wednesday rejected calls to rename three parks that honor the Confederacy, saying the city should focus on being part of the New South and stop worrying about remnants of the Old South. Mayor Willie Herenton, who like 60 percent of Memphis residents is black, said public fighting over the parks would only hurt the city's image, which is still tarnished by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. "We do not need another event that portrays Memphis nationally as a city still racially polarized and fighting the Civil War all...

Lawyer Kirk D. Lyons got married 15 years ago in a traditional Scottish ceremony, wearing a kilt as he walked down the aisle to the strains of bagpipes. Like most traditional weddings, the ceremony was held at the bride's church and paid for by her family. But this church, the Church of Jesus Christ Christian, was located in the Aryan Nations compound in Idaho, where the father of the bride was second-in-command of the white supremacist group to Richard Butler, who officiated. A former leader of the Texas Ku Klux Klan stood as best man. Those nuptials, along with Lyons'...

Editorial 07/26: That elusive common ground July 26, 2005 Extreme points of view tend to get most of the ink, but those who seek the middle ground should not be discouraged. Such is the case in the dispute over the recommendation by the Center City Commission and Shelby County Commissioner Walter Bailey to rename Memphis parks whose names suggest continued allegiance to the Confederacy... [snip] Memphis attorney Karl Schledwitz, perhaps best known for leading the campaign to bring pandas to the Memphis Zoo, is the architect of this very different sort of move. Schledwitz said he had the necessary parties...

Statue OK to move to Southaven Mayor willing to let Jefferson Davis stand Southaven Mayor Greg Davis said Thursday he would be willing to display the Jefferson Davis statue, which is in Downtown Memphis, near City Hall at the end of Northwest Drive. Horn Lake Mayor Nat Baker also said he would take the statues of Davis and of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest "in a heartbeat, even if we'd have to find some privately owned land to put them on." The statues have been a controversial topic in Memphis, with Shelby County Commissioner Walter Bailey leading a charge to...

NASHVILLE - The Sons of Confederate Veterans plans to donate at least $10,000 to be used in efforts to fight a proposal to change the names of three "Confederate" parks in downtown Memphis. Nearly 1,000 SCV members approved the "emergency donation" at the group's annual convention, which concluded Saturday in Nashville, according to a statement released by the SCV. The $10,000 represents the "first installment of cash" and will be used for "any and all purposes including litigation," the statement says. "This outrageous affront to our Southern heritage will be met with every financial and legal means available to the...

Five years ago today, two Citadel cadets lowered the Confederate flag from atop the State House dome. Moments later, a similar banner was hoisted atop a pole on the State House grounds. It was a legislative compromise that satisfied few but relieved many — and continues to do so five years later. Today, there are few discussions about the flag in official circles. Bills dealing with the issue have disappeared from the legislative agenda. But, five years ago, the flag tore at the Palmetto State’s soul, causing South Carolinians to look for middle ground. “There was an opening, ... a...

Today H.K. Edgerton, a black man from Asheville, N.C., will walk into Maryville with a Confederate flag and a hope for ``dialogue.'' He'll stop at the Blount County Courthouse, at about 1 p.m., to get his message out, one that he hopes will bring blacks and whites together, rather than divide people. He walked this week from Johnson City and has experienced both affection and anger from people he's met on the road. ``This is not about a longevity trip, not like it was when I walked to Texas. This is more about coming to Maryville to try to change...

Confederate Flag Associated Press A Birmingham Civil Rights activist and radio talk show host says he plans to file a lawsuit to force the Sons of Confederate Veterans to remove a giant Confederate flag from the side of Interstate 65 near Verbena. The flag is flying above the tree line from a pole on land owned by the Sons of Confederate Veterans on the side of the highway. The flag was dedicated a week ago and the commander of the Alabama division of the organization, Leonard Wilson, has said the giant banner will become a permanent fixture. But activist Frank...

MARYVILLE, Tenn. A civil rights activist is carrying a Confederate battle flag from Johnson City to Maryville because he says southern pride is being silenced with a pending school decision. H.K. Edgerton -- who is black -- says no more Rebel flags will be allowed at high school football games there if the school board proposal passes. The school board is expected to vote to limit flags and noise makers later this month. Maryville schools director Mike Dalton says the board feels like the group should deal with anything that's offensive to some. But Edgerton says banning the flag is...

VERBENA (AP) — A huge Confederate battle flag flying over Interstate 65 north of Montgomery will become a permanent fixture, according to officials with the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The organization bought land on the side of the interstate near Verbena and put up the flag, which has been flying for several months above the tree lines from the top of a large pole, easily visible from the heavily traveled interstate. Leonard Wilson, commander of the Alabama division of Sons of Confederate Veterans, said the flag will be dedicated in a ceremony at 5 p.m. on June 26. The flag...

05/28/2005 Southern Yankees Embrace Civil War History By KRISTEN WYATT, Associated Press Writer 21 minutes ago ATLANTA - Eric Peterson is a rarity among Civil War buffs — he's a Yankee. Peterson lives just eight miles from the route his great-great grandfather took during the war through what is now suburban Atlanta, but his ancestor was a Union soldier from Wisconsin, not a gray-coated rebel. He formed a new Sons of Union Veterans camp in Georgia, and said his group is growing because of northerners moving South and taking a new interest. "It's far more immediate than it was in...

It's almost comical. The latest is "Dixie Days." We're sending our school children to "Dixie Days"! Not to a Civil War event, mind you. But to a Civil War event titled . . . "Dixie Days"! About 400 students from Hanover and Chesterfield counties were to attend yesterday's opening of "Dixie Days" at Pole Green Park in Hanover.

Thank goodness Confederate History Month is over! Maybe Civil Rights organizations, black politicians and journalists will stop whining for awhile. They must pay the Sons of Confederate Veterans on the side. Fat, middle-aged suburbanites waving Confederate flags create excuses for hysterical screaming. Ironically, the volume and shrillness of attacking Confederate heritage is inversely proportional to the actual racism and threat to personal safety. But, it’s profitable if you’re a race pimp. When your skin color is your day job, you need something to cry ‘wolf’ about. The professionally-black Blacks, whose jobs are based on ‘African-American’ in their titles, are working...