Confederate Supporters Take Stand For Census
Group Wants ‘Confederate Southern American’ Written On Form
Greg FunderburgApril 2, 2010
ANDERSON, S.C. — Some supporters of the Confederacy are trying to have a new race counted on the 2010 Census – Confederate Southern Americans.
The Southern Legal Resource Center is using the popular video Web site, You Tube, to encourage self-proclaimed Confederates to declare their culture. They want people to write "Confederate Southern American" as the answer to question No. 9, which asks for the respondent’s race.
"This is an opportunity for us to put our numbers on record," said Kirk Lyons, of the Southern Legal Resource Center. "Tell the government how many of us there are and tell our fellow citizens how many of us there are."
Michael Graham, a person who supports the push, said that for too long their group has been harassed, humiliated and discriminated against for being proud of their heritage.
"Don’t get me wrong," Graham said. "Slavery was wrong, but there were other things involved in the war too. The general confusion is that we are all racist, stupid, rednecks and we lost the war so we need to shut up. We don’t want our history changed. We ask that the truth be told."
Wayne Mickey with the Census board in Anderson County said that respondents are welcome to write whatever they want in the field. He said he’s just not sure how the race will be counted.
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