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Black History Month / An Open Report


On Friday morning, February 16, 2007, I would once again adorn the uniform of
the Southern Soldier, pick up his glorious banner, and spend some two hours
in the morning chill at the corner of Main street in the beautiful downtown
of Black Mountain, North Carolina. I would later travel to the campus of Montreat
College, where I would spend a great deal of the morning confabulating with
the many students inquiring of the why’s that brought me there on this beautiful
winters morning. I would speak the names of Levi Carnine of Louisiana, Napoleon
Nelson who rode with General Forrest, Horace King, the bridge builder for the
Confederacy, Holt Collier, and the Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp of Mississippi
named so in his honor, Reverend Mack Lee, the builder of churches, and perhaps
the very first credit union in America. On this day I would tell them of the
men who looked like me who wore the Confederate Gray, and as surely as I stood
there , on this very campus where so called Black History is celebrated; their
names or exploits would no be mentioned.

I would leave Montreat and head over the mountains to the campus of East Tennessee
State University, where I would set up a vigil at the History Department where
earlier in the year I was able to extract an apology from the Department Chair,
the Honorable Dr. Collin Baxter because a young Black student, T.K.Owens had
faced a degrading moment from a Northern Professor Andrew Slap , who had shamed
him in front of a class, because of his proclamation that his Great, Great,
Great Grandfather was a Confederate Soldier, and had earned a place of honor
under the Southern Cross. I am so very gratified at the wonderful reception,
and dialogue that I received from the many students who like those at Montreat
who had let the moment of Black History Month slip away without acknowledging
the time of the Black Confederate Soldier, his family and their exploits that
earned them a place of honor and dignity in the annals of American History in
the defense of their homeland; the Southland of America.

As Fred Taylor, my dear friend and brother from the Great State of Virginia
will tell you, tomorrow February 18, 2007 is the birthday of a one HK Edgerton,
who was born 87 years from the day that the Honorable President Jefferson Davis,
gave his first Inauguration Speech on the steps of the then Capitol of the Confederacy
in Montgomery, Alabama. I f I could have one birthday wish; I would wish that
the Kentucky Division of the Sons Of Confederate Veterans write a letter to
the Kentucky State Attorney General, inquiring that he began a criminal and
civil investigation into the actions of the basketball coach of David High School
in Floyd County, and of all those who are complicit in his criminal actions
to inflame the Black community, and others of the community by perpetuating
a fraud against the students at Allen Central High School, the Confederate Battle
Flag, and further that the Superintendent explain his actions of a suppose ban
placed upon myself from speaking to the student populous during Black History
Month, and just how long is this suppose ban to be in place.

We shall culminate our Black History celebrations in the Great State of Florida,
beginning next week; I would hope that my family would please send me a charitable
donation so that we might turn the worm in Florida, as the Sons of Confederate
Veterans have reached out to their Black family there. I want to make an everlasting
impression there; it is going to be a wonderful opportunity. Please help me.

Your Brother,
HK