Even before my father's father
I can still feel the eyes of those blue-bellied devils
Yeah, when I'm walking round at night
Through the concrete and metal, hey, hey, hey
I was born a rebel, down in Dixie
On a Sunday mornin'
Yeah with one foot in the grave
I was born a rebel, born a rebel
--Tom Petty, "Rebels"
Big wheels keep on turning
Carry me home to see my kin
Singing songs about the Southland
I miss Alabamy once again
And I think it's a sin, yes
--Lynyrd Skynrd, "Sweet Home Alabama"
Ah, the rebel. Gaunt, dressed in tattered gray, rifle in hand. He rallies round the tattered battle flag, and with a wild rebel yell, charges ahead in defense of home and family, ready to give his life in for a lost cause. The ultimate underdog. And who doesn't love an underdog.
As a child I was a huge Civil War buff. I know that's kind of weird, but it's true. I read every book I could find on the war. I watched The Blue and the Gray when it came on TV (little knowing that one of the stars of the mini-series, Dan Shor would one day become a good friend of mine). I knew all the generals on both sides by name, and was familiar with all the battles. I had a picture of Abraham Lincoln and a color drawing of the U.S. and Confederate battle flags that I'd made taped to my bedroom wall. I even drew my own picture book of the war highlighting all the big battles, major players, and main events of the war. Even as an adult, I'd sometimes refer back to those early history lessons as I did in this 2008 post from our class trip to Australia where I linked a game of laser tag to the leadership lessons of General Lee and General Grant. And though I knew who the good guys were--well, I wouldn't have even gone that far then. There were "good people on both sides" after all. Even though I knew which was the the right side. The side that for my sake--a black kid growing up in Central Florida--needed to win, I still found myself drawn to the underdog rebel.
It's only now that I realize how much of my understanding of that conflict was filtered through Lost Cause ideology (there are all whole books written about the Lost Cause, a lens through which many historians, especially Southern apologists viewed the conflict. This Wikipedia article is a good introduction). At the very least I understood that the South and the North interpreted the war differently (For example, the South, I learned, always referred to it as "The War Between the States." The Civil War was a Yankee term). And to a large degree I bought into the mythology of the Southern cause. I mean I understood that slavery was not a moral good. I didn't buy the BS that the South didn't really go to war over slavery. But I was drawn to the romantic notion of the noble Southern soldier in gray, valiantly fighting for a doomed cause. I accepted the idea of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson as noble men dutifully defending their home state in an admittedly less than noble cause. I didn't find the history leading up to the war as interesting, nor did I bother much with the Reconstruction period. I did find it easy to accept without too much thought the idea of the abolitionists, especially those like John Brown as "extreme", and Reconstruction as a "bad" time for the South.
There was considerable cognitive dissonance between this romanticized view of the South of Civil War history, and the feelings I had about Confederate relics in the present. Some of my very good friends growing up came from proud Southern families. They had the Confederate battle flag hanging in their homes, on their license plates. For them Confederate pride and fierce pride in being sons and daughters of the South were one and the same. And yet a stranger with that flag on their pick-up or jean jacket made me instantly nervous. I knew deep down what that flag meant for me as a black person. I knew that accompanying it was the distinct possibility of physical violence and possibly death. Granted good people I knew carried that flag, but it was also always, always used as symbol by those with deadly hate in their hearts--the Klan, and others like minded. There was no escaping it.
There is no escaping it. The Lost Cause, the myth of the noble South is a lie. It just is. The cause was an evil one, plain and simple. The war was about states rights (to preserve slavery if they chose). It was fought to preserve the Southern way of life (And what "way" of life was that exactly? It was a way of life of which slavery was an integral part, even if it was aspirational for many poorer Southerners). The decision to secede from the Union was viewed by the North (correctly) as an act of treason. It's true that most Northerners didn't fight specifically to end slavery but to put down an insurrection. But the fact remains that without slavery there would have been no war, no cause to fight for.
And the worst part of the Lost Cause lie is that it has made it difficult to have Southern pride without also having Confederate pride. And yet it's not impossible. How do I know this? Because the South, doesn't belong to just white people. There are generations of Southern African Americans who are proud of their Southern heritage, who love the food, the music, the customs, the culture of the South--not least because they had a significant hand in creating it. For them, the South is home, family, warmth (literal warmth too!). There is affection for the South, despite the strange fruit its trees have often borne. And for these Southerners there is no confusion between the South and the Confederacy. If there is a path forward for the white South it is to be found among Southerners of color. Southern identity does not need to be associated with the Confederacy any more than German identity needs to be tied to Nazism. Is the analogy too harsh? An exaggeration maybe? If so, only by a little. One regime sought to keep a group of people enslaved, the other sought to wipe a group of people from the face of earth. I suppose the argument could be made the latter is worse than the former, but not by much. It's a bit like arguing that torture is better than murder. They are both evil.
Is it possible that good men fought for an evil cause? Absolutely. Perhaps out ignorance, perhaps out of a sense of duty, but yes it was possible. (And what is a "good man" anyway? What is the Christian understanding of so-called "good men." But that's a topic for another time.) But the movers and shapers of the Confederate South can't beg off on these excuses. They knew what they were fighting for and understood what benefits they would personally lose out on if they were not successful. They cannot be excused. Not even old "Marse Lee". Perhaps, especially not him (a better model might be Gen. James Longstreet, who actually joined the Republican party after the war and supported Reconstruction. This made him an absolute pariah to the unrepentant South. Granted his motives were mainly pragmatic, and it seemed his intent was to "manage" the black vote the way it is said the Democratic party does today, but still. This American Heritage article does a deep dive into Longstreet's story. I recommend page 3 & 4 which discuss his postwar activities that made him so hated throughout the South).
So the statues and monuments need to come down. We erect statues to those we revere and honor. They don't teach history, they uphold values. And the statues of Confederate leaders uphold corrupt values. The flags need to come down. Let the Klan and the NeoNazis have their complete and rightful ownership of that symbol, so that a proud black Southerner doesn't have to look up at the flag pole and wonder, "Does this mean this city or this state shares the sentiments of the KKK? Or does it mean something else?" The defense of these relics in and of itself prioritizes the emotions and feelings of one group of Southerners over another. The legacy of preserving the wishes of white Southerners at the expense of black Southerners has gone on in myriad of ways for long enough. It's time to let this last manifestation of Southern white supremacy go.
In order for my Southern friends to fully embrace their Southern pride, the symbols and monuments to Southern shame need to be removed. Letting go of the Lost Cause is something that a son or daughter of the South can truly be proud of.
A few years ago I had a Southern girl as one of my middle school students. I always found her accent so charming and her gracious Southern manner so remarkable. Her skin was caramel brown, her lips full, her hair tightly curled. She too was a belle of the South. She too, is America.
There's a southern accent, where I come from
The young 'uns call it country
The Yankees call it dumb
I got my own way of talkin'
But everything is done, with a southern accent
Where I come from
Now that drunk tank in Atlanta's
Just a motel room to me
Think I might go work Orlando
If them orange groves don't freeze
I got my own way of workin'
But everything is run, with a southern accent
Where I come from
For just a minute there I was dreaming
For just a minute it was all so real
For just a minute she was standing there, with me
There's a dream I keep having
Where my mama comes to me
And kneels down over by the window
And says a prayer for me
I got my own way of prayin'
But everyone's begun
With a southern accent
Where I come from
I got my own way of livin'
But everything gets done
With a southern accent
Where I come from
--Tom Petty "Southern Accents"
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