If the mention of how deeply Slavery is interwoven into the Confederacy is a buzzkill for members of the Republican Confederate Party as they celebrate Confederate History Month, just imagine what might happen if you bring up the Night Riders (AKA the KKK).
Talk about being a party pooper. And yet the Klan must be mentioned if any celebration of Confederate History Month is to be fully complete. I’m just trying to help out.
It is very hard to avoid the direct link between the Ku Klux Klan and the Confederacy. Lee surrendered on April 9th. And a month later on May 9 one of his most radical Generals, Nathan Beford Forrest ‘surrendered’. He didn’t leave the field of battle for long. He went home to Tennessee and on December 24 in Pulaski Tennessee a group of Confederate Veterans met and formed the Ku Klux Klan. Whether or not Forester was at or involved with that meeting is lost to history, but by 1867 he was widely acknowledged as the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. By 1868 he was bragging to newspapers that the KKK had 40,000 members in Tennessee and 550,000 across the South (I imagine that most were former Confederate getting back together with their units for a little camaraderie and domestic terrorism on the side).
The first wave of the KKK was during Reconstruction. In defeat the Confederate Party was without political power and so they quickly turned to terrorism. While Robert E Lee did not take to the woods to extend the conflict, his Generals like Forrest did and many of his troops followed this call to violence and terror as tools to score political victories that they could not win at the ballot box. And the tactic worked. By the 1890s the Night Riders had done their part, Jim Crow laws were firmly in place and the Confederate Party had a strong power base in the Democratic Party. No longer needed, the KKK began to fade away.
And then in the wake of World War I the Confederate Party felt threatened again. Not only were African-Americans organizing and fighting for their rights, some just back from the war were willing to fight back in the streets. And then their was the rise of Unions and these ethnic religious groups from Europe–especially those Romans and those Jews. In 1915 the Klan began their second act in America with a mass market media campaign through the propaganda film, Birth of a Nation (also known as The Clansman). It was a big hit and within a decade the ranks of the KKK swelled to 6 million.
Along the way race riots popped up all over America. These were your traditional American Race riots where mobs of angry whites hunted down and killed people of color. There were so many riots in 1919 that it was called “Red Summer”. In 1921 riots in Tulsa ethnically cleansed the black population from the town killing between 300 and 3,000–depending upon which reports one chooses to believe. And in 1923 the town of Rosewood, Florida was wiped off the map by white rioters. In addition to these riots the first and second iterations of the KKK led to an endless number of lynchings, beatings, rapes and other manifestations of terror.
This second awakening of the Klan is well documented. This pamphlet tries to put a loving face on the Klan and push back on the idea that it is all about hate. Here is a sample:
When jangling voices are hushed and the clamor of intolerant opposition is stilled, so that the Klan can have an uninterrupted hearing. Its true message will be heard and its true mission will be understood by those persons who –really desire to be informed. When rightly comprehended by those to whom it may rightfully make appeal, the Klan will win merited appreciation as a beneficent factor in the life of America. It will gain this approving appeasement because of its positive contribution to all that is right, and Just, and good, in all phases of American life. An evil association teaching a doctrine of hate, and addressing itself to the task of generating bigotry and strife has no place in America and should not be permitted to exist. If this were the message and mission of the Klan. it should be destroyed. And every true Klansman, who is a real Christian patriot, would aid in its destruction. But the mission of the Klan is harmony, and the message of the Klan is love.
Who knew that the Klan was all about “love” and “harmony”. Sounds like a regular Teaparty to me. And then there is this Klan Manual from 1925. With just a few revisions it could be a TeaParty manifesto:
OBJECTS AND PURPOSES ( ARTICLE II, THE CONSTITUTION )
I. Mobilization
This is its primary purpose: “To unite white male persons, native-born, Gentile citizens of the United States of America, who owe no allegiance of any nature or degree to any foreign government, nation, institution, sect, ruler, person, or people; whose morals are good; whose reputations and vocations are respectable; whose habits are exemplary; who are of sound minds and eighteen years or more of age, under a common oath into a brotherhood of strict regulations.”II. Cultural
The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is a movement devoting itself to the needed task of developing a genuine spirit of American patriotism. Klansmen are to be examples of pure patriotism. They are to organize the patriotic sentiment of native-born white, Protestant Americans for the defense of distinctively American institutions. Klansmen are dedicated to the principle that America shall be made American through the promulgation of American doctrines, the dissemination of American ideals, the creation of wholesome American sentiment, the preservation of American institutions.III. Fraternal
The movement is designed to create a real brotherhood among men who are akin in race, belief, spirit, character, interest, and purpose. The teachings of the order indicate very clearly the attitude and conduct that make for real expression of brotherhood, or, “the practice of Klannishness.”IV. Beneficent
“To relieve the injured and the oppressed; to succor the suffering and unfortunate, especially widows and orphans.”The supreme pattern for all true Klansmen is their Criterion of Character, Jesus Christ, “who went about doing good.” The movement accepts the full Christian program of unselfish helpfulness, and will seek to carry it on in the manner commanded by the one Master of Men, Christ Jesus.
V. Protective
I. The Home. “To shield the sanctity of the home.” The American home is fundamental to all that is best in life, in society, in church, and in the nation. It is the most sacred of human institutions. Its sanctity is to be preserved, its interests are to be safeguarded, and its well-being is to be promoted. Every influence that seeks to disrupt the home must itself be destroyed. The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan would protect the home by promoting whatever would make for its stability, its betterment, its safety, and its inviolability.2. Womanhood. The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan declares that it is committed to “the sacred duty of protecting womanhood”; and announces that one of its purposes is “to shield . . . the chastity of womanhood.” The degradation of women is a violation of the sacredness of human personality, a sin against the race, a crime against society, a menace to our country, and a prostitution of all that is best, and noblest, and highest in life. No race, or society, or country, can rise higher than its womanhood.
3. The Helpless. “To protect the weak, the innocent, and the defenseless from the indignities, wrongs, and outrages of the lawless, the violent, and the brutal.” Children, the disabled, and other helpless ones are to know the protective, sheltering arms of the Klan.
4. American Interests. “To protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America, and all laws passed in conformity thereto, and to protect the states and the people thereof from all invasion of their right from any source whatsoever.”
Vl. Racial
“To maintain forever white supremacy.” “To maintain forever the God- given supremacy of the white race.” Every Klansman has unqualifiedly affirmed that he will “faithfully strive for the eternal maintenance of white supremacy.”
Of course the modern Republican Confederate Party will shy away from that last point, but many of the folks at the TeaParties do not. And yet, the Night Riders and their use of violence to win victories when the ballot box fails has been an ongoing part of the Confederacy Party for over 150 years. Their embrace of violence and domestic terrorism rises whenever they feel threatened.
In the wake of the Great Depression the Klan lost influence. They had their third great awakening in the 1970s and 1980s when the post Civil Rights era gave them agita. In the mid-eighties I lived in Georgia and it was common on any given weekend to see a Klan Rally on the road between Atlanta and Athens–I passed these dozens of of times. By the end of the eighties the Confederate Party had found a new political host in the Republican Party and the need to use the violence of the Klan to promote their agenda faded.
Now, a black man is President and their political power is fading. Already the number of hate groups is rising and the threats of violence are escalating. I will not be surprised if the Republican Confederate Party is planning the fourth awakening of the Klan as part of their 2011 celebration of Confederate History Month.
I know bringing up the close ties between the Confederacy and the Klan is a buzzkill for some, but as Haley Barbour might say, it is a nit that needed to be diddled.
Cheers
dengre
General Egali Tarian Stuck
Tea Party Fuel
Yutsano
I’d love to see the Klan run a whites-only soup kitchen. I have zero doubt that would go over well. I just want to say I definitely appreciate that you’re on this particular hunt dengre. I’m thinking you are collecting enough material to write a rather scathing book on this entire mishegas. Or get you a special in the New Yorker, I bet they’d be willing to consider your thoughs, especially since you’re meticiously reseraching all this. I’d buy it for sure!
Dennis G.
@General Egali Tarian Stuck:
Better to burn out than to fade away, hey, hey…
But if they are burning when can we dump their sorry carcasses on the ash heap of history?
Tom
So where does David Hasselhoff figure into this?
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@Dennis G.:
You can run only so far with just opposition/ At some point ideas are needed to run a political movement and double so when election day approaches. They are fresh out those, or at least ones that have not recently failed the country.
Yutsano
@General Egali Tarian Stuck:
Oh, didn’t you hear? Newt signed the new Contract for America today. It’s chock full of new conservative ideas to
stop the darkie usurperbring the US into a new glorious age of Reaganism! Talk about your hoots just waiting to happen!SectarianSofa
And I thought I would just be depressed today about the Tax Day stupidity.
Well, apropos of downers, the cocktail segment on maddow was (I thought) very good tonight.
See
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/36585023#36585023
and/or
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/04/15/4164327-bitters-basics-champagne-cocktail-and-the-manhattan
IndyLib
Dennis, thanks so much for putting so much time and thought into this series. I knew quite a bit of what you’ve written about, but certainly not all of it, and you’ve done an inspired job of tying it all together with what we’re seeing today.
I grew up in the West and had never heard the Civil War referred to the “War of Northern Agression” until I was in college and had a roommate from Texas. I was stunned and shocked, it had never dawned on me that many in the South were living an alternate reality from the rest of us. The first time my roommate referred to me as a Yankee, I looked at her like she’d lost her damned mind and she had no clue why I took exception to the term (we in the West grew up with our own odd mythological ticks). She saw everyone outside of Texas and the deep South as outside of her tribe – as “others”. She was a perfectly nice, if totally ditzy, girl – she didn’t resent or dislike the “others”, but she had damned well been raised to think she was somehow better than us “others”.
I’d love to get in touch with her now and know what her beliefs and political leanings are now, as an adult.
Chris
Hm. Makes me wonder where the name of the TV show, “Knight Rider,” came from…
GregB
You haven’t gotten the memo.
The Klan is a Democrat group started by Democrats in the South!
Also, racism doesn’t exist anymore. Except in the Democratic Party which is full of racists and reverse Black racists who are not smart enough to get out of the Democratic Party plantation and vote GOP the Party of Lincoln.
This moment of GOPaganda brought to you by Frank Luntz’ Puke Funnel.
Angry Space Cadet
In a weird way the South is to the rest of the United States as Scotland is to England(and no I just don’t mean the use of the cross of Saint Andrews). Just as Southern identity is wrapped around a romantisisation of the failed confederate cause, so Scottish nationalism is filled with romantic sentiments concerning the highlanders who were crushed by the British. Yet, for all the resentment of English imperialism, the Scots were very much their partners in the wars and conquests of the British Empire. So where am I going with this comparison?
Well, in case you haven’t noticed, there has not been much of a British Empire for about fifty years, nor has there been a major war in Europe in a long long time, not to mention the relative porousness of national borders now thanks to the EU. Coincident with these trends has been a marked increase in Scottish, Welsh, and English national sentiments which in the case of Scotland has resulted in the devolution of some governmental powers to the Scottish parliament. Basically, without an empire and real enemies, the constituent nationalities of the United Kingdom are starting to pull away a bit from the center. I’m not predicting a full velvet divorce in the UK anytime soon, but it is an interesting thing note, considering how heavily divided the U.S. is in terms of political sentiments.
Basically, I have to ask if there is enough of a common national culture for a post imperial United States to hold together, or do we need to be constantly peeing our pants over Iranians and North Koreans to maintain national unity?
hjmler
I may be unique among your readers and commenters because I actually knew and talked to a man who fought in the Civil War, my grandfather’s uncle. He was over 100 but I still vividly recall his fury at grandpa’s dinner table when he spoke about “southern traitors” and he didn’t just say it, he spat it out, and swore, loudly… and no one dared tell him to tone it down… he was so furious there was a murderous edge to it… so when the idea of celebrating Confederate History comes round, these assholes who propose this need to be forcefully reminded that to celebrate the Confederacy is to celebrate treason.
max hats
No, it wouldn’t. You are completely off the reservation and making this whole blog look shitty.
max hats
dup post
Yutsano
@max hats: You’re right. It’s very difficult to imagine the Teabaggers offering to care for the disabled and the less fortunate and to respect all laws passed by Congress. But hey why let facts get in the way of a good rant? I’m predicting a drive-by here but I’m in the mood to tear someone apart.
asiangrrlMN
Hello, all from North Carolina. Man, it’s sobering to read about the KKK and how similar they are to the teabaggers. Dennis G, you and TNC are really going balls to the walls with this one!
@Yutsano: Hi hon! Why you in such a bad mood? And, it’s actually difficult to imagine the teabaggers writing something as coherent as this manifesto, sad to say.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: You have to look a thread below! BoB almost hit on me! I feel vindicated now. How was your flight hon?
Am I just dreaming or would a collaboration be dengre and TNC just rock the fucking house on this issue?
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: I was thinking the same thing. I think it would be amazing. My flight was just fine. Packed, but smooth-sailing. I will check out the thread below and tell B.o.B. to keep his grubby paws off you.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: I’m not in a bad mood per se, just really really tired. I don’t think I’ve fully recovered from Arizona and I have way too much crap to do on my days off that I don’t think I’ll get much rest there either. Oh well, if I take a sick day on Sunday they’ll just have to live with it.
randiego
“Off the reservation”? Interesting choice of words.
IndyLib
@asiangrrlMN:
Hope you enjoy your trip. FYI Tbogg has a 5 min. Wembley video up.
Yutsano
@IndyLib: Uh-oh, puppeh cuteness! I don’t think I can resist that!
EDIT: Dear allah that boy has some big floppy ears! I hope he grows into them!
Billy K
I hate Illinois Nazis.
Andy K
@Angry Space Cadet:
Sounds a bit like Kevin Phillips’ The Cousins’ Wars. The South are ancestors of the Scots (Scots-Irish, if you prefer), the North of the English.
IndyLib
@Yutsano:
I love the pouncing, I was waiting for him to try to hop while standing on those ears.
Tbogg’s basset blogging is perfect for vicarious basset admiration – they are so cute, but I had a roommate with a basset and they are a lot of work for all that cuteness.
Yutsano
@IndyLib:
I have zero doubt this has occurred in the past and has either just not been caught on film yet or hasn’t been shared yet. Either way that would be hilarious! I love the “MY TOY! MINE!!” he keeps giving.
Alton is making mango fruit pies. ME. WANT.
asiangrrlMN
@IndyLib: Am, thanks. I just saw it. Soooo cute!
@Yutsano: Ah, I get it. Still, I saw B.o.B. making a pass at you, and that could put anyone off his feed.
chrismealy
In the hands of TNC and the Juice crew Confederate history month is actually pretty interesting. Keep it up!
Splitting Image
@Dennis G.:
2012. Day after the election.
After that, Texas’ demographics should shift it into a Southwestern alliance with California, New Mexico and Arizona rather than the Southeastern alliance with the Deep South. Without the big boy to provide the votes, the Confederacy can’t be the kingmakers anymore.
This is their last kick at the can, and I think a lot of them know it.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: BoB greatly overestimates his effect on me. In fact my honest opinion of him is something along the lines of this:
“I want you to know that I will forget you after this moment, and never think of you again. But you, I am quite certain, will think about me every single day for the rest of your life.”
J. Michael Neal
@Angry Space Cadet:
This isn’t really accurate. The end of the British Empire in all but name (they still have a few microscopic imperial possessions, such as Gibraltar (don’t want the Spanish to control the straights or anything) and the Falkland Islands) may have given rise to some Scottish nationalism; I’m not familiar with how much there was prior to the Second World War. It wasn’t that much, though. The real impetus for devolution has been the rise of the EU. Membership in a government above that of London has made it safe to be a small nation in Europe. Notice that there has been an increased tendency to regionalism in other European countries as well, including Belgium, Spain and Italy.
Andy K
@Andy K:
Jebus. Inheritors, not ancestors.
hamletta
I’m always quick to defend the fine people of today’s Pulaski, Tenn., who wish the KKK would just go the fuck away.
But damn if I didn’t have one of those bastards in my own backyard until recently.
There’s this house on one of the semi-main drags in East Nashville that used to put up a huge cross in the front yard at Christmas with lights all over it, and a big sign about “the reason for the season,” or some such.
Being a catholic, I found it liturgically inappropriate, but I also found the imagery of a brightly lit cross in the South somewhat disturbing.
I was really glad when that house went up for sale.
Then I ran into this photo-essay on the Klan from LIFE, and the KKK people say, “It’s not a cross-burning, it’s a cross-lighting,” and I shudder.
Calouste
@Angry Space Cadet:
It could be interesting when the UK election are next month. The Scottish National party has been running a minority government in Scotland for the last few years, with reasonable success. They only have 7 out of 59 of the seats in the Westminster parliament though, so they could make some serious gains there and, in case of a hung parliament, gain some more concessions for Scotland in exchange for supporting Labour (the SNP is never going to support the Tories, as the Conservative party is a non-entity in Scotland).
Martin
@hamletta: American Family Association is down with that.
I’m always astounded at the lack of social awareness among some populations.
Calouste
@J. Michael Neal:
There have been 2 referenda in Gibraltar on the question of sovereignity. In both cases 99% of the population wanted to stay with Britain.
J. Michael Neal
@Calouste: Sure. The same thing is true of the Falklands. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t imperial possessions, though.
Angry Space Cadet
@J. Michael Neal:
Your most definitely right about the connection between the EU and the general trend towards devolution in Europe. My point is that is that empire and the various wars with native peoples and other European powers helped to foster a sense of British unity(my thinking here is heavily influenced by Linda Colley’s Britons). With the nations of Europe at peace and heavily integrated by supranational institutions and the old empire almost entirely gone, Britain has lost certain unifying influences.
V.O.R.
“… just imagine what might happen if you bring up the Night Riders (AKA the KKK).”
I don’t need to imagine it. I know what some of them do: They tell you the KKK was/is actually a liberal organization.
Since to them “liberal” has come to mean “Anything and everything I either don’t like or won’t accept responsibility or blame for.” I have to admit that while it’s a stupid position, it’s not inconsistent.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
The post-WWI klan made themselves out to be shining knights in armor, true patriots all. This attracted a lot of whites because who wouldn’t want to be a part of something that was being portrayed as a good, virtuous and patriotic organization? The post-WWI KKK unraveling was largely because of what one of the klan leaders did to Madge Oberholtzer and the fallout that ensued from that scandal.
The KKK has born in violence and has been nothing but violence to this very day. I have no doubt that KKK members fervently embrace the teabagger movement.
max hats
@Yutsano:
Wow good point. I guess the tea baggers are actually worse than the KKK.
You’re out of your mind. Wake me when Sarah Palin fans start LYNCHING PEOPLE. get some fucking perspective.
Va Highlander
While we’re discussing the Klan, does anyone have any insight on the following?
Va Highlander
@Va Highlander: A couple of observations:
– That quote is from Mencken.
– I’m fascinated to see that blockquotes and post editing suck just as hard, if not harder, than ever.
That is all.
aimai
Max Hats,
Chill out, no one is accusing the present incarnation of the tea baggers, who are generally too unhealthy to get up on a horse anyway, of being willing to be violent on behalf of their beliefs. But a cross pollination with the militias isn’t out of the question at which point the movement will be,a nd in fact in Oklahoma is announcing its intention to be, fully armed and dangerous.
But something no one has mentioned is the obvious similarity between the Klan manifesto’s imaginary constitutional fetishism and its fetishism of –kinder, kuche, kirche. Its all the same: whiteness, gentileness, the purity of women, the supposed imitation of christ (that noted race warrior).
I’m really enjoying the resurgence of “Confederate History Month” –lets force them to relive it, warts and all, publicly. I think I’ll write a nice letter to the editor today pointing these inconvenient facts out. Everyone should do so, every day of CHM.
aimai
aimai
Did I do that to the italics? I’m sorry if I did!
aimai
WereBear (itouch)
@DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Thank you for bringng up Madge Oberholtzer. Not only a sad tale which still haunts me. It was actually a scandal that drove people away from the organization. How refreshing.
Another great post for Southern Treason Month.
BR
@aimai:
Agreed. This series is great, Dennis. It’s a reminder of the many horrors of the South that I last thought about in American History class in high school.
I think we should each do our part to spread these posts either via links, letters to the editor, emails, whatever.
Va Highlander
@aimai: Nope. I did it and I’d do it again, too. Maybe this will fix it…
Robert M
Rosewood and Tulsa were not ethnically cleaned. That was genocide.
Words matter!
Ash Can
@Yutsano:
I was just thinking the same thing. Between dengre and TNC, this is turning out to be a terrific way to celebrate Confederate Losers Month. Thanks, Bob McDonnell, for being the catalyst to getting all this information on the CSA out in the open. Read it and weep.
flukebucket
This has been the best Confederate History month EVER!
My all-time favorite Klansman
elmo
@hamletta:
Every time I drive from East TN to Nashville, I have to pass that huge CSA flag just off I-40. You know the one I mean? I don’t remember where it is exactly, I think somewhere between Cookeville and Crossville.
I can’t get used to it. I hate the bastards more every time I see it.
RedditUser
So….KKK must be talked about in a Confederate History month? Why aren’t the black panthers discussed in black history month?
frankdawg
Live in Cocoa Beach Florida for a time – only place I ever saw open Klan identification. White guys in white robes driving to their meetings. Made me *realll proud* to an American.
Speaking of which where are brick head bill & jeffy to defend the honor of these fine gentlemen from your scurrilous assault?
Down South they don’t care how close you get long as you don’t get too big.
Up North they don’t care how gig you get long as you don’t get too close.
Gene
@Chris:
Knight Rider comes from the man funding / founding the organization, which produced the KIT car: Mr. Michael Knight.
I think Hasselfhoff was recruited to act as a doppelganger for the unseen Mr. Knight and adopted the Michael Knight persona.
Gene
http://www.starnewsonline.com/section/topic37
When talking about Jim Crow and the South, the 1898 Wilmington riot is worth mentioning.
Colin Laney
I graduated from a high school in suburban Atlanta named after a Confederate general who became Grand Dragon of the Georgia KKK.
Catsy
@aimai:
Nope, it was VA Highlander failing to close their italics at the end of the blockquote. Let me see if I can fix it.
Edit: Nope. Fucking piece of shit WYSIWIG editor is once again too clever by half–it’s stripping out the tags necessary to trick the browser’s rendering engine into closing the italics.
Catsy
Testing italics.
Ed Drone
@WereBear (itouch):
I think we should start a campaign to designate a Madge Oberholtzer Day, coinciding with some given day in Confederate History Month. Hell, designate each day in Confederate History Month with the name and remembrance of various victims — Emmit Till, Goodman, Schwerner & Chaney, etc.
And as for the designation, I think “
RepublicanConfederate Party” is too long. How about “Republiconfederate Party,” or just “Treasonous Bastards”?Just trying for ease of pronunciation, you know.
Ed
Catsy
Let’s try this again.
Ed Drone
@RedditUser:
No reason they shouldn’t be discussed, other than that they had so little effect on the nation, whereas the KKK had a horrendous and long-term effect on our nation.
The Panthers were active how long? 10 years with any power, maybe, though I’m sure there are still a few dead-enders out there. The Klan? 1867 to the 1960s is an arguable date range of their influence, and their dead-enders still run cities, counties and states, not to mention vote in Congress.
Add up the dead. The Panthers aren’t even “in it” for that count. So 100 years vs. 10 years, less than a score of dead vs. thousands. Yeah, we can discuss the Panthers during Black History Month , but the KKK is fair game during any discussion of the Confederacy.
I’ll take that trade-off. Any time.
Ed
Catsy
SON OF A BITCH!
John, I am begging you here. Please ask your code monkey to use a text editor that does not:
1. Close a comment you’re editing the moment it gets to the end of the abitrary period in which you’re allowed to edit it, in the middle of editing and losing everything you’ve typed in the process
2. Creatively reinterpret all HTML tags that people enter and routinely fuck it up
3. Strip out perfectly valid HTML, including the tags necessary for your commenters to fix italics overflows like the one upthread.
4. Superimpose a disappearing “reply” button that obscures comment text when it’s there, and appears and disappears based on mouse hover–someone really missed the part of class where they teach you that having to hover a button in order to make it appear and be clickable is shitty design.
Seriously. This thing is a too-clever-by-half pile of crap that is full of bad design from start to finish, and it gets worse with every iteration. This particular italics overflow is the result of the editor somehow parsing H.L. Mencken’s name into (code that I can’t even demonstrate because the fucking editor also strips out harmless HTML & substitutions), and it is also the reason why nobody has been able to fix it with the methods that work just fine at places like ObWi.
I get that people want a WYSIWIG editor and the ability to edit comments, but please, for the love of FSM, tell your code monkey that it really is okay to use basic HTML instead of this over-engineered, quirky Web 2.0 bullshit.
jake the snake
I have had people tell me seriously that the KKK was originally formed by Forrest to prevent abuse of Southern citizens by carpetbaggers. However it was taken over by some racist extremists which let Forrest to break from it.
El Cid
@Ed Drone: Hey, the Black Panthers did inspire the California Reaganites to back and have Reagan sign the Mulford Act which banned the public carrying of firearms among other weapons and gun controls, ’cause, you know, when black people support their 2nd Amendment rights it’s un-Constitutional or whatever.
Gene
More on the Wilmington riots: A Revisionist History:
Reasons for it:
http://1898wilmington.com/Home.shtml
The untold story of Jim Crow in the South is blacks in many parts and in some states, were the Majority, who were oppressed by a politically and economically powerful minority.
Not until the Great Migration of the 20th Century, did the South become a solidly white majority area.
El Cid
@Gene: The 1898 Race Riot Commission by the city of Wilmington (along with NC state support) itself is quite impressive and a set of documents and photos well worth reviewing.
WereBear
@Ed Drone: Fantastic idea!
If they want to play victim, let’s see some real ones, eh?
licensed to kill time
Uh oh. Italic God is angry again. And Bold Spirit, too.
Va Highlander
@Catsy: With all due respect, I did close my italics. Something else upset the blockquote and it seems to have closed before reaching that bit of code, somehow.
At this point, I have no idea what happened.
croatoan
Highlander used the HTML italics [i] for “Prejudices: Third Series” but closed it with an [h] instead of an [i].
Carol
I get the feeling this is their last gasp before they lose all relevance. With the influx of hispanics and other people whose people werent even in America during the Civil War, Confederate History Month seems to be an exercise in cluelessness and self-pity.
justme
Just for giggles, I wonder if it’s closeable after the fact.
Hokay, that’s odd. It works, but only if the close tag is in the block quote.
justme
Heh, now I read the comments aprez-tag-fail.
Tricksy little bugger, this one. Also odd, closing the tag inside the BQ, but at the end of the text de-italicized from the start of the block. Screwy.
Aww, crap. Now I sort of see what’s up. I bet this reverts to italics as soon as the edit period is up. Bleahhh.
Okay, I give up.
JOHN WILKES BOOTH
ROTFLOL, except you left out the part about the KLAN being theterrorist wing of the Democratic Party–you must’ve gone to pubic school, eh???
Ku Klux Klan – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In effect, the Klan was a military force serving the interests of the Democratic party, the planter class, and all those who desired restoration of white …
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan