The Fort Brooke Record

February 2000

In Celebration of

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February Meeting

Tuesday, February 15, 2000

Supper @ 6 PM
Meeting @ 7 PM

Program by:

Mr. J. J. Johnson
Editor of the publication
SierraTimes.com

Speaks on
“It’s Not About Race”

@

Buddy Freddys
134 South Gornto Lake Rd.
Brandon, FL
(813) 661-6005

map

In Celebration of

In the continuing struggle to educate a society and nation which is surely moving away from traditionalists like us, we have our annual opportunity to interject some historical truth into the celebration known as “Black History Month.” Of course the John T. Lesley Camp has been known for its innovative and assertive style of edifying the black Southerner about his role in the history of the South, particularly the Confederate South.

In 1998 we set up our Camp display at the south St. Petersburg Juneteenth Celebration commemorating “Freedom from Slavery in America.” With great preparation, we set up our booth with a first rate visual display on two stand-up boards for educating the black audience of south St. Petersburg. We were unabashedly Confederate in every respect. We wore Confederate gray uniforms, sold the book Black Southerners in Gray, ran the video Black Southern Heritage on a TV monitor, and all of this under numerous large Confederate flags all flapping in the breeze. For the entire day we interacted with all comers and what a glorious day it was. We were well received. Our participation was covered and reported by National Public Radio. The St. Petersburg Times did fair reporting of our participation as did a couple of TV stations.

Then in 1999 we were invited back to that year’s Juneteenth celebration. Again, we had a marvelous time with no difficulty. But that year we were blessed to have with us Compatriot Nelson Winbush of the Summerlin Camp. Having a black SCV member with us was a very big plus. Nelson is articulate and able to deal people of colour with a disarming ease. Another success and good coverage on the news angle.

Why it is important, at this time, to bring these facts to your attention is simply to let you know and to be aware that we have always bent over backwards to educate the black Southerner and to properly define the flag and heritage to all. It is not easy to get the press to seriously listen and, when we have obtained coverage, we were treated as an anomaly. Serious editorialists in the mainstream press have always avoided us and our message.

Do we have a message and a truth to share. You bet!  No doubt about it.   An outline of some of the truths and insights we have to offer are listed here:

1. The true causes of the War
Economic
Cultural

2. Nature of the South as a unique society
Celtic origin
African origin
The blend of these into a common culture

3. Black underpinnings of the Confederacy
Military
Free Civilian
Slave

4. Interpretative Constitutional differences
(North & South) or Federalism vs. States Rights

5. Conduct of the War
Northern vs. Southern styles and methods

6. Multicultural makeup of the Confederacy

7. Southern Reconstruction & the bitter consequences

For those in mainstream society to accept any of the above tenets from our Southern belief system is for those in that society to question the very basis of their own pre-concieved beliefs concerning the South. You see, Abraham Lincoln is a saint in the Republican Party and in mainstream intelligentsia. Of course, we know the truth of Mr. Lincoln and what he did for creating federalism at the expense of constitutional liberty. We know that Father Abraham was not particularly fond of the black race yet he is idolized as the saviour and freedom giver of the black race in America. It is not comfortable for those in the mainstream to understand the true Lincoln or to learn the fact that President Jefferson Davis of the Confederacy was the only American president to adopt (into his household) a black child (Jim Limber).

The Confederacy was multicultural before multicultural was cool. A Jew (Judah Benjamin) was Secretary of State; an American Indian (Stand Watie) was a Confederate general; thousands of Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi Cubans were in the Southern army; many thousands of Mexicans fought with the Trans-Mississippi Confederate army; and, of course, the 3.5 million black slaves and 500,000 free blacks in the South who by their service and duty performed left the country able to hold off for four horrible years the onslaught of a vicious and ruthless invader.

We welcome Black History Month but we lament that the history and heritage that is common to all Southerners will not be taught. There will be no coming together under a common roof whereby we appreciate not the colour of our pigment but the common links of our past. Woe to the plight of a society and culture which rejoices at the differences that we can create, enhance and celebrate and ignores the oneness that binds us all to our God, our culture and our land. God help us and God Save Our Common Land, the Southland.

The Confederate Flag:
Should We get Rid of It?
By J.J. Johnson
SierraTimes.com Editor-n-Chief

Okay, so what’s wrong with me? In celebration of slain Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King’s day (week?) if I watch enough news, I should be out there with my black brethren yelling, screaming and looking to burn every free waving set of Stars and Bars I run across. So what’s wrong? Shouldn’t I be offended as well?

In a way, yes. I am. And here’s why:  

I had ancestors who fought on both sides of that war – which was anything but civil.

Surprised?

Yes, in Northern Mississippi in fact. Cousin against cousin. One man trying to protect what was his, and one who escaped slavery only to be drafted into taking his cousin’s land away. This little fact, along with all the arguments about Southern Heritage, Southern Pride and Remembering the Gentlemen who in died war gets lost in all the noise about why it’s so “insensitive.”

…And I am just fed up with it.

More than that, I’m fed up with the yellow-bellied, white guys who don’t have the guts to fight back on the issue. I know, no one wants to get labeled the “R” word. To politicians, it’s a label that’s worse than being called a liar, an adulterer or a draft dodger. And heaven knows, you white guys in the public sector better not even bring it up at work or in public. There’s a civil rights lawsuit with your name on it. Yet, I know how many of you – especially you folks south of the Mason-Dixon line must feel right now.

Wanna fight back?

Hold my coat for a minute…

Where were these protests against OUR Confederate battle flag for the last 135 years? Why are these black people allowing themselves to be manipulated by the media and their left-wing, so-called "black leadership?" Whenever I hear a black person talk about this flag issue, I ask them the same questions. Do you know how long that flag has been flying over those state capitals? Haven’t you seen them there before? The answer from most blacks I talk to out west is, “who cares?”

Not good enough for the National Association for the Advancement of Career Politicians (NAACP). Not good enough for these modern-day “Plantation Pimps” who can’t find any other juvenile criminals to fight for so now they retaliate by “dissing” a great hunk of American culture. This is ONLY being done to pander to black voters this political season. You see, back in 1992, folks just decided to burn down Los Angeles while liberal politicians mailed gasoline to the rioters. This time, let’s burn down a heritage instead.

I hope some black person is reading this right now and fuming. You should be. If you think the Confederate flag is insulting to you, you are being used, or as we say it in the hood, you bein’ played – for a fool. By who? Not by those evil conservatives, but by the liberal white man. The ones who’ll take your votes, then tell you you’re not good enough to make it on your own.

But there is no sense giving you the same argument many of the Southern Ladies and Gentleman are trying to give now. You don’t want to hear them, anyway.

Let’s talk about “insensitivity,” shall we?

If you don’t mind, some of us with southern roots are going to find every Vietnamese American citizen in this country, bus them to Washington, D.C. and protest to have the Vietnam Memorial removed from the park. Why stop there? On the way to Washington, we might as well grab every citizen with German or Japanese ancestors. With enough noise, we can get rid of that World War II Memorial, too. After all, These people all had relatives who were killed by the men and women America honors at those Memorials. You liberal, nothing-else-better-to-do black folks wouldn’t mind, would you?

Yes. Let that sink in real good. That’s what you’re doing to these good people of the South. You are DESECRATING THEIR MEMORIAL… Check that – Our Memorial.

What ever happened to Diversity? Tolerance? Must be a one sided thing.

Don’t give me that “Symbol of Slavery” bull****. If that were the case, turn in all those 1, 20, 50, and 100 dollar bills. The faces on these bills were men who were leaders when many blacks were slaves. But let’s get down and dirty, shall we?

The worst riot in American history was not in Los Angeles. It was in New York, back in 1863. You see, there were a bunch of people who, like during Vietnam, didn’t want be conscripted (read: drafted) to serve in an unjust war. Talk to your President about that. Over 1200 people died in just two days. Most when President Lincoln sent federal troops in to put down the “rebellion.” Oh, by the way, 83 blacks were lynched in those two days – right there in The Big Apple. So, which flag do you really want taken down?

But since we’re all told to boycott, will those leftist, black elected leaders in South Carolina boycott the Statehouse while its in session? I doubt it. Will they avoid buying goods in their own state? Doubt it. Our forefathers who wrote the Constitution gave all of us a way to deal with a state’s policies we didn’t like. That’s what the South was fighting for. It was not about slavery. If that were the case, we’d be bombing China right now, and we would not accept license plates made with prison labor right here in the good ol’ USA.

Oh…What’s the black population percentage in prison these days, anyway?

The multicultural extremists can’t call me racist, but in the black socialist community, they have even uglier words for people who refuse to live on that “plantation,” such as me. Just ask Clarence Thomas.

So let that flag wave proudly as a monument to the last Army in this country that actually fought for the Constitution. I am proud to have ancestors who fought with them. And for those people who don’t want their state to fly the stars and bars, here a solution that’s much easier that protesting…

…leave.

There’s a term for it. Its called “white flight.”

J.J. Johnson – Proud Black American
And Editor-n-Chief

Columbia Rally a Hugh Success

Numerous members of the Lesley Camp attended the January 8 rally in support of the flag on the dome of the Capitol in Columbia, SC. The press reported that 6,000 were in the march but we have it that 6,000 was the number later fed. The actual number our people we think to have been about 10,000 marching. It was really a wonderful time. Quite refreshing.

Rally in Montgomery, Alabama

The momentum of the very successful pro-flag rally in South Carolina is being funneled toward Montgomery, Alabama for Saturday, March 4. The Alabama Heritage Coalition has been created to channel the diverse Southern Heritage organizations into common action. If you will recall the South Carolina event was sponsored by the South Carolina Heritage Coalition. This event in Alabama is directly supporting the effort to have the Confederate Battleflag restored to its place of honour atop the old Capitol building in Montgomery. The rally is also being billed as a Southern Independence Day Celebration in order to assert our cultural independence as a people. Danny Verdin, SC SCV Division Commander, and Ronnie Simmons, Alabama SCV Division Commander will be speakers. For details and for more information please log on to the following site:

http://www.dixienet.org/dnframeset.html

For information on who may be going from the Lesley Camp please contact 2nd Lt. Cmdr Mike Herring at 681-6922.

Lee/Jackson Dinner

On January 22, on a Saturday evening, the Plant City Chapter 1931, United Daughters of the Confederacy put on one great Lee/Jackson Banquet. Over 115 folks were in attendance for this gala evening at Roman’s Country Elegance located south of Plant City on Hwy 39. But never was the reason of our commemoration on this evening forgotten. A great time was experienced but this was done in remembrance of two of the greatest Americans who ever graced this green earth.

After extending a warm welcome, Mrs. Martha Sue Skinner began the evening with the prescribed Ritual with the help of Mrs. Carole Shelton, the chapter chaplain.  Lesley Camp Asst. Chaplain Rev. Calvin Martin did a great job with the blessing and benediction but he really outdid himself as he led in Dixie and did a solo of “How Firm A Foundation.”

There was no shortage of door prizes.  Mrs. Becky Jordan passed out some really wonderful gifts.  A new member of the Chapter, Mrs. Lunelle Siegel, won several wonderful framed pictures including one really great picture of General Lee.

After the opening ceremonies, Compatriot Jake English did a marvelous job of performing as Master of Ceremonies. Jake introduced the speakers for the evening, Compatriot Jim Armitage on Gen. Jackson and Compatriot Marion Lambert on Gen. Lee.

Let’s not forget the food. What wonderful dining! The cuisine was the best that this writer has ever witnessed. Really the best. And the birthday cake that was brought out at the end of the evening was divine. Ladies, we can hardly wait until next year.

Medals Awarded

Compatriot Gordon Meadows as seen on the evening he was presented a Military Service Award by the Tampa Chapter 113, United Daughters of the Confederacy.  He is also listed on the prayer list this month.

On Saturday, January 29, Tampa Chapter 113, UDC, held a very special ceremony at the Valencia Garden Restaurant on Kennedy Blvd. In Tampa. The occasion was the bestowal of service medals upon Rev. Gordon Meadows for his service in the Korean conflict, upon Landys McClamma for his service in World War II and upon Clifford McDonnel (posthumously) for his service in World War II. The evening was really quite touching. Past recipients along with this night’s new recipients of the UDC service awards gave at times emotional accounts of their military service. Mr. McClamma told of his capture in the Philippines in 1941 and his imprisonment by the Japs until 1945. A bagpiper played a martial tune as the recipients walked into the room and played Amazing Grace later in the program. Nicely done. Compatriot Dan Hall gave a rousing and very creative toast, interspersed with memorized poetry, to the Old Flag and called the US flag that he served under the most beautiful of all.

Compatriot Jim Armitage was the keynote speaker and he really did a fine job. He talked about the Southern soldier and the important role that he performed for the United States military right up to the present. It was a great talk.

Mrs. Shelly Jakes was the MC for the evening and she did a fine job. Not only was the ceremony a fine success but the meal and cake were fabulous. Chapter 113, ya'll did real good..

Editor's note:  It is really special to have two great and active chapters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy right here in Hillsborough County.

Camp Business

CALL TO ARMS!

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

The Captain of the Lesley Camp Colour Guard extends an invitation to members and Legionnaires to join with us as participants. There is no better way to proclaim your heritage then when you join our ranks.

Requirements include period uniform (gray in colour with kepi), white canvas leggings and flag with staff. As a unit we march in parades, perform at ceremonies and provide colours for funerals.

You are encouraged to give me a call and become part of a true “...band of brothers, native to the soil.”

-Captain Mike Herring (681-6922)

2000 SCV Annual Convention

The convention for this year (2000) will be held in the beautiful city of Charleston in the fabulous state of South Carolina from August 2 through August 5. With the NAACP having declared a visitors and tourism boycott for South Carolina until the Battleflag comes off the Capitol dome surely this is the year to go to Charleston.

This will be the 105th convention. The host Westin Francis Marion Hotel is fully booked. There are three other hotels within one block of the Westin facility. They are the Embassy Suites (843) 723-6900 (most historic and classy), the Holiday Inn (843) 805-7900, and the Hampton Inn (843) 723-4000. The rate, over the phone, for the Embassy Suites was quoted at $159.00 per night.

Special Need of the Camp

We are in special need of a good looking and quality utility box trailer. The body needs to be made of aluminum, be at least 10 feet long and 6 feet wide. We prefer to have a trailer with a side door along with the standard rear door. One axle is fine. This trailer is needed to carry the volume of material that we use for Living Histories, school displays, reenactment displays and to carry the materials for the meetings that we are constantly farming out to many different people. The fulfillment of this need is very necessary if we are to continue with our community outreach efforts.

Chaplain's Column

- Rev. Ken Simpson

A Chaplain’s Looks at the 23rd Psalm

Part I

The twenty-third Psalm is one of my favorite Psalms written by David, with a precious message for needy souls. Its words are refreshing and comforting, with a charm, a fragrance, and a full sweetness that has lifted and calmed many a trouble heart. In these familiar words we find the voice of a human soul securely nestling in the arms of a loving God.

This little poem lies between the psalm of the cross and the psalm of the crown. In Psalm twenty-two there is pictured the Good Shepherd who died, the Saviour who suffered (John 10). In Psalm Twenty-Four we see the chief Shepherd reappearing in glory, bringing crowns (I Peter 5:4). In the twenty-third Psalm our Lord is presented as the living Shepherd, keeping His redeemed ones all through life’s difficult journey (Hebrews 13: 20-21). I have chosen to address this psalm in my column for the next few months because I know about many of the trials and difficult times many in our camp family are presently experiencing. Strength and steadiness and serenity and security will be ours as the message of this psalm breaks in upon us.

This psalm is strangely personal, unusually descriptive of the man David. As we study it we learn several things about him. He knows that he is a needy creature. Full confession is made of his utter dependence, his proneness to go astray, and his ignorance. He felt keenly his pitiful helplessness, his utter lack of ability to protect himself, his longing for companionship, and his hopes for an eternal home at the end of the journey. He makes it clear that he is speaking from ripe experience. He has tried the keeping power of God and has found that in every area of life the Lord had proved to be the loving Shepherd described in these verses. In all of life’s experiences David found Him faithful.

David reveals his great love for his Shepherd. A grateful heart is evident in every line. David had fallen in love with his divine Guide, and every moment with Him was a distinct joy. That sweet fellowship has given him a sense of the eternal serenity of one who trusts and leans on the Shepherd. A beautiful assurance runs through the psalm transforming it into a shout of triumph. No emergency can be too much for him. No dark valley can be a conqueror. No hour in all of life can be without victory, for the eternal Shepherd guarantees it. David delights to claim the Shepherd as his own. We too, with our trials, difficulties and uncertainties about events in our lives can, like David, appropriate the Shepherd through faith.

You are in my prayers, my dear camp,

Your Chaplain and friend,

Brother Ken

Special - HERITAGE REPORT - Special

Editors Note: The below resolutions of the NAACP are presented to convey the degree of the mean spiritedness and intolerance that our avowed enemy in this cultural war have embraced. But please remember, that this organization is playing this hateful tune to the applause of a society and culture already divorced from traditions and values that we as Southerners appreciate. It is to this politically correct and liberal mainstream that the NAACP is serenading and from them they thrive politically and economically. Our own real enemies here in the heartland of the South are the local Chambers of Commerce and their politicians who value perceived dollar loss over the demise of culture.

NAACP 1991 Resolution

At their 1991 national convention, the NAACP passed the following resolution:

"VII. INTERNAL AFFAIRS

1. Resolution abhorring the Confederate Battle Flag on State Flags Approved WHEREAS, the tyrannical evil symbolized in the Confederate Battle Flag is an abhorrence to all Americans and decent people of this country, and indeed the world and is an odious blight upon the universe; and,

WHEREAS, African-Americans, had no voice, no consultation, no concurrence, no commonality, not in fact nor in philosophy, in the vile conception of the Confederate Battle Flag or State Flags containing the ugly symbol of idiotic white supremacy, racism and denigration; and,

WHEREAS, we adamantly reject the notion that African-Americans should accept this flag for any stretch of the imagination or approve its presence on State Flags;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the national office of the NAACP and all units commit their legal resources to the removal of the Confederate Flag from all public properties."

NAACP 1999  Emergency Resolution

At their 1999 national convention, the NAACP passed the following resolution:

ECONOMIC SANCTIONS FOR SOUTH CAROLINA

July 12, 1999

Whereas, the Confederate States of America came into being by way of secession from and war against the United States of America out of a desire to defend the right of individual states to maintain an economic system based on slave labor, and

Whereas, the Confederate Battle Flag was raised in the States that comprised the defunct Confederate States of America for the supposed celebration of the Centennial of the War Between the States and as an unspoken symbol of resistance to the battle for civil rights and equality in the early 1960’s, and

Whereas, the Confederate Battle Flag has been embraced as the primary symbol for the numerous modern-day groups advocating white supremacy, and

Whereas, the placement of the Confederate Battle Flag at the South Carolina State House with the flags of two existing governments, the United States of America and the state of South Carolina, implies sovereignty and allegiance to a non-existent nation, and

Whereas, the Confederate Battle Flag in its present position of display makes a statement of public policy that continues to be an affront to the sensibilities and dignity of a majority of African Americans in the state of South Carolina, and

Whereas, the state of South Carolina possesses a unique linkage of heritage and family which makes South Carolina a prime destination for African American family reunions, resulting in tourism dollars that benefit the state of South Carolina, an estimated sixty-eight percent (68%) of all African American family reunions are held in South Carolina, and

Whereas, dollars spent on tourism, conventions and meetings by African Americans, other people of conscience and corporate entities serve to enrich the state of South Carolina, the "Mother State of Secession", which continues to fly the banner of secession

Now Be It Therefore Resolved, that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People at its 1999 Annual Convention reaffirms its condemnation of the Confederate Battle Flag being flown over the South Carolina State Capitol and displayed within the South Carolina House and Senate Chambers, and renews its call for the removal and relocation of the Confederate Battle Flag to a place of historical rather than sovereign context

Be It Further Resolved, that all units of the NAACP shall join in the South Carolina Conference of Branches in urging all families planning reunions in South Carolina to consider locations outside of the States as reunion sites until such time that the Confederate Battle Flag is removed from positions of sovereignty in the state of South Carolina

Be It Further Resolved, that the National NAACP shall call upon other African American National Organizations, churches, and faith groups, businesses and corporations, and similar national entities of other cultural compositions that embrace freedom and justice to consider locations other than the state of South Carolina as convention or meeting sites, until such time that the Confederate Battle Flag is removed from positions of sovereignty in the state of South Carolina

Be It Finally Resolved, that the National NAACP shall apply these economic sanctions against the state of South Carolina as well as any further measures as appropriate, commencing January 1, 2000, until such time that the Confederate Battle Flag is no longer displayed in positions of sovereignty in the state of South Carolina.

Bitter Fruits

As a result of this current mean spirited attack upon our heritage and the symbols of that heritage there have been numerous horrible results. The following have occurred within the past month and are listed below:

The massive and beautiful marble Lee monument on Monument Avenue in Richmond was painted in red with the following words, “Death White Devils.”

The Lee picture on the Canal Walk in Richmond was fire bombed and destroyed.

The ladies in staff at the headquarters of the SCV at Elm Springs in Columbia, Tennessee have received personal threats and insulting comments via telephone.

Adreath the caterer who so wonderfully provided the marvelous Bar-B-Q on the day of the flag raising ceremony north of Havana, Florida has until very recently flown the Georgia state flag in front of her restaurant business on Hwy 27. She is now the recipient of a pure and simple telephoned death threat demanding that the Georgia flag never be flown again.

None of the above have been officially classified as a “Hate Crime.”