Tag Archives: Confederacy

The Tennessean reports: Days after Gov. Bill Lee’s staff members said they were unaware of any photos of the Tennessee governor wearing a Confederate uniform, his office confirmed he is pictured doing so in a 1980 Auburn University yearbook. Lee attended the public university in Alabama from 1977 to 1981 and was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order, a …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump praised Confederate General Robert E. Lee at a rally in Ohio Friday night during a soliloquy in which he also praised a number of Ohioans, including Union General Ulysses S. Grant. “So Robert E. Lee was a great general and Abraham Lincoln developed a phobia, he couldn’t beat Robert E. Lee,” Trump told supporters at …

The Washington Post reports: John C. Whitbeck resigned Saturday as chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, weeks after Corey Stewart won the party’s nomination to take on Sen. Tim Kaine (D) in the November election. “Other political opportunities have arisen for me that I am thinking about pursuing,” he told members of the party’s governing board at a meeting. …

Richmond’s CBS affiliate reports: In a majority six to one vote, the Richmond Public School board voted Monday night to change the name of J.E.B. Stuart Elementary to Barack Obama Elementary School. Barack Obama Elementary school was chosen from a total of seven finalists. Earlier this year the Richmond School Board voted 8-1 to rename the Northside school that honored …

The Roanoke Times reports: Virginia Republicans turned bright red Tuesday, selecting Corey Stewart as their nominee to challenge Democratic incumbent Tim Kaine for U.S. Senate as primary elections played out in congressional districts across the state. The matchup ensures Virginia will keep relitigating the 2016 presidential race in this fall’s election, with Stewart running in Donald Trump-like fashion against Kaine, …

The New York Times reports: The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which opened Thursday on a six-acre site overlooking the Alabama State Capitol, is dedicated to the victims of American white supremacy. And it demands a reckoning with one of the nation’s least recognized atrocities: the lynching of thousands of black people in a decades-long campaign of racist terror. …

The Associated Press reports: The Republican-dominated House in Tennessee voted Tuesday to punish the city of Memphis for removing Confederate monuments by taking $250,000 away from the city that would have been used for a bicentennial celebration next year. The retaliation came in the form of passage of a last-minute amendment attached to the House appropriations bill that triggered heated …

The Birmingham Herald reports: Alabama doesn’t need “folks in Washington” or “out-of-state liberals” instructing the state on what it should do with Confederate monuments, Gov. Kay Ivey said Tuesday. Ivey, during a campaign appearance in Foley, defended a new campaign ad released earlier in the day that touted the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act of 2017, which she signed into law …

The Knoxville News Sentinel reports: Dolly Parton’s Pigeon Forge dinner attraction, Dixie Stampede, has a new name. It’s now known as Dolly Parton’s Stampede, according to a news release from World Choice Investments. It also has a location in Branson, Missouri. Parton explained in the press release that the change streamlines the name of the show, will remove any confusion …

USA Today reports: The city of Memphis sold two public parks containing Confederate monuments to a nonprofit Wednesday in a massive, months-in-the-planning operation to take the statues down overnight. The City Council unanimously approved the sale of Health Science Park, home of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, and its easement on Fourth Bluff Park, home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, …

Politico reports: White House chief of staff John Kelly defended his criticism of Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) on Monday night by continuing to insist she was insensitive and self-congratulatory during a ceremony to dedicate an FBI building in Florida. “Well, I’ll go back and talk about … her comments and at the reception afterwards,” Kelly told Fox News host Laura …

The Hill reports: President Trump on Thursday again weighed into the Virginia governor’s race, arguing Republican nominee Ed Gillespie “will be a great governor” and slamming Gillespie’s Democratic opponent. Trump has previously tweeted support for Gillespie, who is running against Lt. Gov. Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam (D) in the Nov. 7 election. Northam quickly fired back, pointing to service in …

The Jackson Clarion-Ledger reports: A predominately black public school in Mississippi named after Jefferson Davis will have its Confederate tied namesake stripped next year and replaced with the title of another president whose character students, parents and teachers have said is more fitting— Barack Obama. Davis Magnet IB PTA President Janelle Jefferson announced at the Jackson Public Schools Board of …

Newsweek reports: John Oliver gave an elaborate—and sometimes stinging—explanation as to why statues of Confederate leaders should not remain standing Sunday night. The British comedian dedicated the large majority of his HBO comedy show Last Week Tonight to a comprehensive history lesson about the divisive monuments that critics say celebrate America’s dark past. “If the Confederacy was not about slavery, …

CNN reports: Pro-Confederate activists twice held events to commemorate Alabama’s 1861 secession from the United States at the headquarters of the foundation led at the time by Roy Moore, the new Republican nominee for US Senate. The events, held at the Foundation for Moral Law’s building in 2009 and 2010, promoted a history of the Civil War sympathetic to the …

The Daily Beast reports: The Virginia Republican Party on Wednesday essentially deemed the state’s lieutenant governor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam a race traitor for his call to remove Confederate monuments. Northam discovered earlier this year that his ancestors on Virginia’s Eastern Shore owned slaves. Several months later, he called for the relocation of Confederate statues to museums. Northam …

The Hill reports: Vice President Mike Pence said on Tuesday that the United States should be building more monuments around the country, not tearing them down. Pence was asked on “Fox & Friends” Tuesday morning whether he supported local municipalities around the country in their efforts to remove Confederate statues in the wake of the violence in Charlottesville, Va., and …

Former Trump campaign spokesperson and convicted shoplifter Katrina Pierson has (for the moment, at least) reclaimed her title as the nation’s most idiotic Republican after literally calling slavery “good history” during an off-the-rails segment on Fox News today. The Daily Beast reports: It all started with a debate over House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s push to remove Confederate monuments from …

NBC News reports: Thousands of counter-protesters flooded the streets of Boston on Saturday to confront right-wing “free speech” demonstrators in a display of solidarity after the deadly white nationalist rally in Virginia last weekend. The counter-protesters gathered near Boston’s Malcolm X Boulevard, chanting “Whose streets? Our streets!” and “No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA.” They also held signs that …

The Hill reports: Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) on Thursday defended President Trump’s claim that “both sides” were responsible for the violence that erupted at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend, comparing Confederate memorials to those put up to honor the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. “I think what they are standing for …