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H.K. Edgerton Speaks To Tennessee Historical Commission



From: HK Edgerton [hk.edgerton@gmail.com]
Date: Mon, Oct 16, 2017
Subject: H.K. Edgerton Speaks To Tennessee Historical Commission
To: siegels1 [siegels1@mindspring.com]

Dear Ms. Lunelle,

On September 30, 2017, I made my way, don in the uniform of the Southern soldier, alongside the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the ladies of the Order of the Confederate Rose in the Annual Gopher Day Festival in Ridgeland, South Carolina, marching while soaking up the love, hugs and overall glorious reception given by the spectators who gathered along the parade route.

I would later be asked to post the Colors and join in with a famous Southern gospel band in the singing of “Dixie” on stage to the delight of the crowd gathered. It was a great day to be a son of the South in this city whose residents and visitors showered us with love.

On Tuesday, October 3, 2017, I would join the Honorable Attorney, David McCallister, and a host of Save Southern Heritage Florida members in a lobbying effort in the Florida Senate and House offices for a bill aimed at protecting all veterans and their memorials in the State of Florida. God bless all participants, and especially Mr. McCallister for his mastery of the moment.

On Friday, October 13, 2017, alongside a host of dignitaries from the Sons of Confederate Veterans, United Daughters of the Confederacy and ladies from the Order of the Confederate Rose, I would attend the Tennessee Historical Commission meeting in Athens, Tennessee, whose agenda item to approve a petition that would allow the Memphis City Council to garner permission to move the monument of the Honorable General Nathan Bedford Forrest.

It wasn’t the lies and distortions being put forward by the Memphis Mayor, and his Council President, or the young Black woman who told the biggest lie in accusing General Forrest of the rape of Black women, and of being a murderer, but only being given two minutes to rebut this unholy diatribe.

Had I been the Commission President, I would have told the Mayor, and the members of his Council…”I would have expected you to be one of the greatest advocates of the man who saved your city from the looting, burning, rape and murder that was taking place at the same time that taking place down the road in Mississippi by Grant as he burned 42 cities in that state, with the intent for Memphis the same.

“And, to your claims that his monument was somehow demeaning to Black people because it was built near a path that they frequently travel was atrocious. It could not have been put in a better, or safer path. General Forrest was legendary, not only in his military exploits, but also in his efforts to befriend the African people, and they loved him! The Pole Bearers Association, a front runner to the NAACP, rewarded him for that friendship by having him as the only White man to address their annual meeting as the keynote speaker.

“And, I might add, an organization (Pole Bearers) rarely spoken of during so called Black History Month, or any of the Black Confederate soldiers who rode with the General like the Honorable Napoleon Nelson, who could neither read or write, but was asked by General Forrest to serve as his Chaplain in Chief because he had memorized the King James Bible in its totality.”

Had I been the Commission President, I would have told those gathered that the Jim Crow laws distorted as a catalyst for the building of the Confederate soldiers monuments, was validated by the Northern dominated United States Supreme Court with the objection of one former Southern Plantation owner.

And, had I been the Commission President, I would have told that Mayor, and his Council, not to come into my meeting disparaging the name of General Forrest with the Ku Klux Klan, as the United States Congress had already exonerated him of those charges, as well as his actions at Ft. Pillow.

I would have also, had I been President of this Commission, reminded all gathered that the only reason that we are here today is because of the photoshopped images of a crazed young man (Dylann Roof) with the Southern Cross in one hand and the weapon he used to kill nine innocent Blacks that included a Black State Senator who, in a speech, memorialized several Black Confederate soldiers buried on the grounds of the Church.

I would have entertained a motion to establish a Statewide forum to educate our citizenry about the lives of our Southern heroes, to include President Davis and his wife, who took into their home a young African slave (Jim Limber) as their adopted son.

However, not being the President, don in the uniform of the Southern soldier, I would leave the meeting place, and post his Colors by the side of the road, and hold court with the many citizens who now stopped where I stood.

I am somewhat saddened that Saturday, October 14, 2017, marks the date of the Historic March Across Dixie, and I have not raised a single dime to mark the event. And, now wonder if the so called African American History Museum, or even this Commission ever will. God bless the Ridgeland, Tallahassee and Athens law enforcement officers who kept everyone safe in all these endeavors. And God bless you!

Your brother,

HK

Honorary Kentucky Colonel
Member, Save Southern Heritage Florida
Chairman, Board of Advisors Emeritus, Southern Legal Resource Center