Summary of neo-Confederate beliefs
- Honor of the Confederacy and its veterans — Much of the Neo-Confederate movement is concerned with giving honor to the Confederacy itself, to the veterans of the Confederacy and Confederate veterans' cemeteries, to the various flags of the Confederacy, and to Southern cultural identity.[1]
- Economics — neo-Confederates usually advocate a free market economy which engages in significantly less taxation than currently found in the United States, and which does not revolve around fiat currencies such as the United States Dollar.[2]
- History — many neo-Confederates are openly critical of the presidency of Abraham Lincoln to varied degrees, and of the history of Reconstruction. Various authors have written critiques of Lincoln and the Union. Slavery is almost never defended, but it is usually denied as a primary cause of the American Civil War. Critics often accuse Neo-Confederates of "revisionism" and of acting as "apologists".[3]
- The Civil Rights Movement — Historian Nancy MacLean states that Neo-Confederates used the history of the Confederacy to justify their opposition to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s.[4] Historian David Blight writes that current neo-Confederates are "driven largely by the desire of current white supremacists to re-legitimize the Confederacy, while they tacitly reject the victories of the modern civil rights movement".[5]
- Black Confederates — The book The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader notes that toward the end of the Twentieth Century, in order to support the idea that the Civil War was not about slavery, Neo-Confederates began to claim that “thousands of African Americans had served in the Confederate army.” A Neo-Confederate publication,Confederate Veteran, said in 1992 that “the overwhelming majority of blacks during the War Between the States supported and defended, with armed resistance, the Cause of Southern Independence.”[6] Historian Bruce Levine says that "their ["neo-Confederates"] insistent celebration these days of 'Black Confederates' ... seeks to legitimate that claim" that the war "had never [italics in original] been fought on behalf of slavery; loyalty to the South, southern self-government, southern culture, or states rights -- rather than to slavery and white supremacy -- fueled the southern war effort."[7]
Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Confederate
The racism and extremism of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV)
The racism and extremism of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) isn’t subtle or something that needs to be decoded from texts they write. It needs no post-modern analysis to uncover. It is explicit. Yet it is largely unknown to the public. This is because the SCV has a careful and disciplined management of its relation to the media. In the Confederate Veteran (CV), the official publication of the SCV Commander-in-Chief Charles E. McMichael explains what he calls “Message Discipline.” At a public event by a local Camp of the SCV members are instructed not to talk to the media but to refer reporters to a designated media spokesman of the camp.
Read more: http://www.blackcommentator.com/526/526_confederacy_sebesta_guest_share.html
The racism and extremism of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV)
The racism and extremism of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) isn’t subtle or something that needs to be decoded from texts they write. It needs no post-modern analysis to uncover. It is explicit. Yet it is largely unknown to the public. This is because the SCV has a careful and disciplined management of its relation to the media. In the Confederate Veteran (CV), the official publication of the SCV Commander-in-Chief Charles E. McMichael explains what he calls “Message Discipline.” At a public event by a local Camp of the SCV members are instructed not to talk to the media but to refer reporters to a designated media spokesman of the camp.
Read more: http://www.blackcommentator.com/526/526_confederacy_sebesta_guest_share.html