Tuur
Well-Known Member
- Oct 12, 2022
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Ah, no. The only clear example of that that I know of is that a private school founded as a response to segregation. If you wish to argue that it was for white supremacy, then look for institutions named after Brown vs Board of Education. Prior to that is the concept of hero and reconciliation. The latter goes as far back as Grant's troops honoring Lee's after the surrender at Appomattox. Lee, who has been reviled, asked for reconciliation rather than continued guerilla action. And guess who said the following:
"We have but one flag, one country; let us stand together. We may differ in color, but not in sentiment. Use your best judgement in selecting men for office and vote as you think right."
That was N.B. Forrest. Yes, that Forrest, at a gathering of a black organization in Memphis after the Civil War. Revile him for Fort Pillow and leadership in the KKK. Remember that before he died he supported reconciliation and sought to disband the KKK. And remember than when it first looked like Spain and the US would come to blows, Forrest tendered his services to none other than your avatar. Your avatar sent a rather nice letter declining his services due to reduced tensions. Having read a letter he sent to a man in Augusta, Georgia, who asked why their city was spared during the March to the Sea, that was unusual.
When it did come to war with Spain, the US government had no problem accepting the services of former Confederate officers. Keep in mind that this was in the same army that had fought these same men not ten years earlier. They had no qualms at accepting their service.
What then: If men who had tried to kill each other not one decade before could find reconciliation, who are we, generations removed, to say different? And if we revile these men for being Confederates, do we also revile their call for reconciliation?
To really get a sense of what was going on, you need to go from Tennessee into Georgia. Near I-75 there's a Union memorial that no one seemed to have minded because it was in the memory of someone's father or brother or husband or son, and that's the way the North viewed Southern memorials, at least then. And while I doubt you'd find a Robert the Bruce school in London, wouldn't be shocked to find one in Scotland.
I don't expect any of this to change anyone's opinion one whit, but it's something that must be said, even though it will fall on deaf ears.
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