Dear Ms. Lunelle,
The Memphis Daily Appeal on August 8, 1868 would headline:
Meeting of the Conservative Club of Colored men of the Fourth Ward at Stillman Hall
A large and enthusiastic meeting of colored men was held at the Stallman Hall last night. Some three hundred colored men were present. Loud calls were made for the Honorable General Nathan Bedford Forrest, whose notoriety for befriending the black man, was well known across the South, and he appeared and made a forcible address, informing the colored men who were truly their best friends, and of the designs of the radicals to plunge the country into a war of races.
He informed them that the Southern man was the true friend of the black race, and if the scalawags got them into trouble, the black man would have to do the fighting, while the scalawags ran away as usual. He advised them not to be seduced into joining loyal leagues, or other secret societies, but to go to work and become industrious.
When the white people become free, through the aid of the colored man, then all would be at peace, and the conservative man would protect them in all their rights. He would protect them, and every honest Southern man would do likewise. General Forrest spoke about an hour and was fondly applauded.
History Repeats Itself
Putnam Co. Commission Chambers – Palatka, Florida
On the evening of November 10, 2020, we would journey to the City of Palatka, Florida, located in Putnam County, to voice our support to the recommendation of the County Commissioners special appointed citizen committee, whose charge was to present to the commissioners a course of action on what to do in the location process of the Confederate soldier’s Cenotaph from its place of honor on the courthouse grounds.
At their final meeting, the committee would propose to the county commission to leave the Cenotaph in place. However the moderator, a paid county employee directed them that they should have at least two more recommendations… (1) Melrose Park was suggested; they refused: (2) Move the Cenotaph to Palatka Veterans State Park – no such entity exists – this is a causeway, a stretch of land below a bridge located in the flood plain adjacent to the St. Johns River that runs North, and (3) Let it remain on the courthouse grounds.
It is important to mention here that this committee was never provided with minutes of this final meeting that they have continuously asked for.
And not to forget, we had come to dispute the false Jim Crow narrative being presented. And that this Cenotaph is clearly representative of the integrated armed forces of the Confederate States of America, unlike the segregated Union forces. And, not to forget, that every member of the Supreme Court, with the exception of one former Southern plantation owner, voted against Jim Crow.
I would also tell those present that the two black women and the three white folk guilt women who tried to convince those present in believing the lie about how black folks who gathered daily around Confederate Cenotaphs on courthouse grounds just like Palatka’s all across the South taking pictures, eating, drinking, smoking, or just plain confabulating with each other in the most festive and joyous terms, are so mentally distressed by its presence, and affirms in their minds that there will be no justice served by the functionalities in the courthouse building.
I suppose that Judge Calvin Hill, the only Democrat that I would vote for in this election, and all the other black judges who adjudicate in these like circumstances will affirm this lie. I doubt it!
The commission chair, after two motions to remove the Cenotaph to the “so-called Veterans Park” failed to get a second, said that he was tired of this affair and vowed to bring it to closure on this very night.
Commissioner Rawls, the lone commissioner who had previously voted not to remove the Cenotaph, presented a motion that he declared to be a compromise for all those so mentally challenged by walking past the Cenotaph to….build a fence around the Cenotaph, and a sidewalk from the parking lot with an entrance to the building that did not pass the Cenotaph. Neither the rest of the Commissioners or the take it down six or seven supporters supported this motion or so-called “compromise,” and it, too, failed for lack of a second.
And finally, the real truth began to unfold: the commission chair announced that the county was not going to pay for the relocation, but that they had been in negotiations with an entity who voiced that they would pay for the relocation. The county commissioners agreed that they should be given 90 days to come up with this paltry sum. And to cover the stink they would agree that the money would come from private interests of Putnam County.
The renowned, honorable and courageous Attorney, David McCallister, would rise from his seat and, with his fist pumping, would exclaim rightfully to the Commissioners that they had just ”sold out” the people of Putnam County. The commission chair would sadly retort that if this entity had not raised the two hundred thousand dollars in 90 days, the Cenotaph would not be bothered again.
My recommendation in an upcoming report to both Save Southern Heritage and the Southern Legal Resource Center’s Board of Directors is that we begin exploring a criminal and civil class action procedure against these municipalities to include Putnam County. And that we begin major fundraising campaigns to those ends.
I would be willing to begin a fundraising march from Selma, Alabama to Austin, Texas as a part of this fundraising campaign.
It has become increasingly clear that far too many of these Southern elected officials led by their Yankee conspirators have sold and are willing to sell out the South, and the moral righteousness that led to the honorable stand that the people of the South, our ancestors red, yellow, brown, black, white, freed and indentured, made its stand against tyranny and the Constitutional Rule of Law, and the illegal invasion of the Union Army; a force armed with total warfare orders against defenseless old men, women and children as they brought the theater of war to their front door. God bless you!
Your brother,
HK
Chairman, Board of Advisors Emeritus, Southern Legal Resource Center
Member, Save Southern Heritage – Florida
Honorary Life Member, Ladies Memorial Association
Kentucky Colonel
Honorary Scott of Austin
Honorary Life Member, Zebulon Baird Vance Camp 15, Sons of Confederate Veterans
Recipient, United Daughters of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis Medal
Recipient, Virginia Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans, Robert E. Lee Award
Honorary Life Member, Kentucky Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans
Honorary Life Member, Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans
Honorary Life Member, North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia Orders of the Confederate Rose
President, Southern Heritage 411
