Back to the main articles page     

Open Letter / The Battle of Columbia Living History
and Education Day – Friday, May 5, 2006

On Friday past May 6, 2006 my little brother, Terry Lee and I were
given the honor of speaking to over 1,500 students and their teachers
at the Battle of Columbia Living History and Education Day activities.
Many of us who find ourselves in the fray seeking to right the historic
wrongs taught not only to our nation, but also the entente it has
forged against the South ; have always resonated in our speech that
the public school systems have not taught our children truths, or
very little about the War Between the States, the events leading
up to it, and the magnificence of our relations to each other as
a people whether free or in some form of servitude in the South.

The affirmation of thinking became more evident as the groups of
students, teachers , and parents found themselves being grilled
by Terry Lee . One such question was; what do the Stars on the Confederate
Flag represent ? To even my own surprise, most could not answer
correctly. I thought I would get in on the action , so I asked them
about Black History Month and if their teachers had told them of
Reverend Mack Lee, Levi Carnine, Holt Collier, Horace Greene, Napoleon
Nelson, or any of the many Black heroes both men and women that
had served their homeland so very heroically in the War Between
The States for their homeland ; the Southland of America. Their
reply was : "No" ! "Bad Teacher"! In their defense
, many of the teachers expressed that they not only had no knowledge
of most of what we spoke of , yet wanted to seek more information.
I was so very glad that Terry Lee was armed with the Historic March
Across Dixie Documentary, which is a teaching tool extraordinaire
by itself, but I too was armed with the Asheville/ Hendersonville
Tribune News Paper which has gone to unprecedented steps to inform
a public with historic truths of the events, issues, and personalities
of this volatile period that the mainstream media would not have
the courage to do. Their issues on Slavery, Succession , and the
Burning of Columbia were right on time. I was so very proud of the
genuine interest of the many Black students and parents as well
as all who were there. I also told the teachers to ask the Sons
of Confederate Veterans to have them bring their students to their
meetings , or at the very least go themselves if they truly wanted
to seek truths about our honorable ancestors and the men and women
who gloriously gave their lives for their homeland that had been
invaded, and who now find themselves , their memories , their symbols
desecrated and under threat of total genocide, garnered by a Reconstruction
agenda to divide and separate Black and White Southern folks .

I am so very proud to be presented with a Battle Flag by General
Lee himself and the very grand ovation given to me by who were present.