Bob McDonnell Leaves Out Slavery From 'Confederate History Month' Proclamation

Bob McDonnell Leaves Out Slavery From 'Confederate History Month' Proclamation: Not 'Significant' Enough

First Posted: 04- 7-10 01:55 PM | Updated: 04- 7-10 03:05 PM

Just in case Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell's declaration of April as "Confederate History Month" wasn't controversial enough, he caused additional outcry Tuesday by explaining why he chose to leave out any reference of "slavery" in his proclamation.

From the Washington Post:

McDonnell said Tuesday that the move was designed to promote tourism in the state, which next year will mark the 150th anniversary of the start of the war. McDonnell said he did not include a reference to slavery because "there were any number of aspects to that conflict between the states. Obviously, it involved slavery. It involved other issues. But I focused on the ones I thought were most significant for Virginia."

Though the declaration of "Confederate History Month" in Virginia is not a new idea, McDonnell's recent Democratic predecessors chose not to recognize the celebration. Prior proclamations have also been more careful about the sensitive nature of the historical period.

Former Republican Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore explicitly mentioned slavery in his 1999 declaration of "Confederate History Month," and though his predecessor, Republican George Allen, neglected to recognize slavery in a similar proclamation, he apologized after coming under heavy fire from civil rights activists.

According to the Washington Post, McDonnell's proclamation has so far been condemned by the NAACP, the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus and former Virginia Gov. Former L. Douglas Wilder, the first African American to be elected Governor, among others.

UPDATE: The Richmond Times-Dispatch, which endorsed McDonnell during his run for Governor, published a harsh rebuke of the wording in McDonnell's proclamation Wednesday, Greg Sargent reports.

From the Times-Dispatch editorial:

"McDonnell speaks of shared history, yet does not cite slaves. Southern heritage includes not only those who supported the Confederacy but those who welcomed the Union armies as liberators.

McDonnell recognizes that the past must be interpreted within the context not only of its times but of ours. The inexcusable omission reduces the slaves and their descendants to invisibility once again."

 

"You could make this stuff up, but no one would believe you."

 

Group With White Supremacist Ties Influential In Getting VA Gov To Declare April Confederate History Month

The group that convinced Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell to declare April Confederate History Month, Sons of the Confederate Veterans, is tagged by the Southern Poverty Law Center as having ties to segregation and white supremacy. According to the SPLC’s dossier on the group: (h/t FireDogLake)

Although the 31,400-member SCV has always billed itself as a “non-political” and “non-racial” heritage organization devoted merely to preserving the legacy of Confederate soldiers, SCV leaders have long been tied to segregation and white supremacy.

…

In what may be the clearest sign yet of this extremist drift, an analysis by the Intelligence Report finds that a significant number of SCV officials — including at least 10 men who hold key national leadership positions — are also active or recent members of hate groups, principally two neo-Confederate groups, the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) and the League of the South.

Their May/June 2008 newsletter warned of racial riots if Obama were elected.

It is very clear to me that if Barack Obama should be elected President, he would be extremely anti-white and would demand reparations for slavery and press hard for affirmative action to the degree that it would hurt young whites who were seeking jobs or admission to College and Graduate Schools. …I believe that his rhetoric and anti-white legislative proposals would stir up racial riots. If he were running for re-election, these riots would turn into an extremely violent nature that would seriously damage race relations in America, and leave entire sections of some of our cities in ruins.

http://www.alan.com/2010/04/07/white-supremacist-confederate-history-month/

 

Looks like he ran for the center and then veered democrat.

 

Robert Francis "Bob" McDonnell (born June 15, 1954)
71st Governor of Virginia
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 16, 2010
Political party Republican

 

The Confederacy and the Civil War was about much more than slavery and unfortunately it has been sold as being almost exclusively about this detail vs the philosophical change in unrestricted centralization of govt power.

 

So slavery was just a pimple...sure it was.

No need to mention that Virginia fought against the North as part of the scum sucking Dixie loving unAmerican traitorous slime bag southern states...

Lying sack of shit Dixie slimebag...

 

Thanks for showing everybody here how well the propaganda has been sold to the masses.

Slavery was the symptom(and easily polarizing force) of the larger Constitutional issues in question during the time period.

Ironically those same issues have come back to haunt us, perhaps in part because most people believe the cover story lie that it was "all about slavery".

 

The redneck states: "The unborn child!!! The unborn child!!! Terri Schiavo!!! Slavery? Oh, just a symptom..."

 

Care to sling any more invectives while you debase your losing arguments?