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March Across Dixie Re-Union, An Open Report / Grayson & Jena,
Louisiana
While my agenda clearly stated that I would march in Dunn Louisiana on the
16th of November, 2007;I would after consultation with the 1st Lt. Commander
of the Louisiana Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans honor the
request of another Son; one Danny McDowell, of Grayson,to visit his town.
Arriving in Grayson around 8:30 AM, I would immediately position myself
across from the front door of Town Hall. Here I would remain at attention,
adorned in the uniform of the Southern soldier,the Christian Cross of St.
Andrew, firmly in my hand; until a very nervous young lady would come across
the street to where I stood. She identified herself as the Mayor of Grayson.
She of course wanted to know why I was in Grayson , and if I knew about the
compromise the Council just approved to allow the First National Flag to be
flown on a pole somewhere near. She also told me that she was the one who
had ordered the Battle Flag removed. She said that she was afraid that the
people that Al Sharpton and Jessee Jackson brought with them might see the
flag and bring trouble to her quiet and peaceful town. She told me that she
owned a business in Jena, and had seen first hand, an honorable people
wronged and many business owners suffer great losses, and the people of Jena
stigmatized in unjustifiable shame.I told the Mayor, that while I sympathized with her concern for her town and
it’s people, she had done them no favor by taking down the Battle Flag and
now putting up the 1st National; in hopes that just as the men who had seen
it on the battlefield, unable to distinguish it from the Stars and Stripes,
too much like sweeping dirt under the rug, I said. Put it up if you may I
told her, but you need to teach the people the truth about it and of the
glorious one you replaced it for. I would find my self posing for pictures
with the Mayor, the Chief of Police, Pastor Yerby( I hope I spelled his name
right)(a Black Minister), Danny McDowell and his long time family friend,
the Honorable Ms.Virginia Sue Russell who had now joined us and would fuss
over us for the rest of this beautiful day. The Mayor would give us
permission to seat ourselves right on the lawn of townhall, have her staff
bring us coffee, and with her blessings, wish us well. Danny’s very own
Pastor would come and join in the moment of brotherhood that was now surely
taking place on the townhall square, as more and more people came to join us
in conversation. The Black Minister would invite us all to lunch, call his
daughter on the phone, whose was a history student at the University of
Louisiana Monroe, just so she would not miss the chance to speak to me. I
was honored. I presented all around one of my now famous shirts, and a copy
of Mikes Scruggs The Un-Civil War. As requested, Danny, Virginia Sue and I
would have lunch with Pastor Yerby and his wife, before I would have to
hurry off for a press interview in Monroe. I don’t remember how Jena ever
came up, but I was told that it was just 30 minutes from where I had sat all
day, and that it would be so wonderful if I would go to Jena and work the
magic that all had witnessed in Grayson on this day.
