An Open Letter & Open Report / United Daughters of the Confederacy, Tennessee Division



From: HK Edgerton (hk.edgerton@gmail.com)
Date: Tue, Oct 11, 2016
Subject: An Open Letter & Open Report United Daughters of the Confederacy, Tennessee Division
To: siegels1 (siegels1@mindspring.com)

Dear Ms. Lunelle,

On Thursday, October 6, 2016, to a packed house, I would deliver a speech to the Sons of Confederate Veterans, their families, guests and members of the public in downtown Waynesville, North Carolina.

On Saturday morning, October 8, 2016, I would travel to Chattanooga, Tennessee to deliver the keynote speech to the Tennessee Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy at their Annual Reunion.

However, prior to taking the mike that evening, I would be privy and honored to attend their closed door business meeting that morning.

As I sat and listened to the many Presidential reports, I would become so proud of the works and accomplishments of these Southern ladies who, beyond any doubt, deserved to be called in the
same breath of their ancestors who had accomplished so many miraculous things, and provided so many other services to their communities and others as well.

That feeling of pride soon gave way to a feeling of personal shame as these ladies gave meaning to my mother’s words when she told me shortly after my brother and I, along with so many others,
had made the some 1,600.1 miles to Austin, Texas, traveling 20 miles a day, six days a week, don in the uniform of the Southern soldier, with the Southern Cross in hand, on the Historic March
Across Dixie, “son, you have not done enough!”

I could only conclude that my personal efforts to shed the true light on the Honorable Southern people and the stand they made against tyranny and the illegal invasion of their homeland was
indeed pale in comparison to the works of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, both here in Tennessee and arguably whereever they exist.

And furthermore, that those of us who find it easy to be their critics, I could only wish that they had been present to hear all the things that I would on this morning. And that includes,
Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, the New Black Panther Party, the NAACP, any or all of those who shout Black Lives Matter and certainly not to forget the Curator of the Black History Museum on the
Capitol Mall who will, in all likelihood, not showcase the names or works of Dr. Alexander Darnes, Holt Collier, Levi Carnine, Rev. Mack Lee, Dick Poplar, Robert Stover, Napoleon Nelson, or any
of the forty plus men who rode with the Honorable General Nathan Bedford Forrest, but the United Daughters of the Confederacy will not only during so called Black History Month, but every day.

By the time that I took the mike that evening at the Daughters Banquet, I could only apologize for the lack of my own efforts while offering my token of praise and thanks to not only the
Daughters of Tennessee, but their entire National Body for their continuing support for me and my efforts to right an American wrong placed upon the legacy and honor of the men and women of the
South who stood and believed then and now in the cause that would pit them against brothers and sisters of the North. God bless you!

Your brother,

HK