When the GOP talks about how they want to “take back America” exactly how far back are they thinking? Virginia Governor Robert F. McDonnell has revived the controversial “Confederate History Month.” Civil rights leaders plan to take off their shoes and beat his a$s down. Details under the hood.
Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, reviving a controversy that had been dormant for eight years, has declared that April will be Confederate History Month in Virginia, a move that angered civil rights leaders Tuesday but that political observers said would strengthen his position with his conservative base.
McDonnell said Tuesday that the move was designed to promote tourism in the state, which next year will mark the 150th anniversary of the start of the war. McDonnell said he did not include a reference to slavery because “there were any number of aspects to that conflict between the states. Obviously, it involved slavery. It involved other issues. But I focused on the ones I thought were most significant for Virginia.”
The proclamation was condemned by the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus and the NAACP. Former governor L. Douglas Wilder called it “mind-boggling to say the least” that McDonnell did not reference slavery or Virginia’s struggle with civil rights in his proclamation. Though a Democrat, Wilder has been supportive of McDonnell and boosted his election efforts when he declined to endorse the Republican’s opponent, R. Creigh Deeds.
“Confederate history is full of many things that unfortunately are not put forth in a proclamation of this kind nor are they things that anyone wants to celebrate,” he said. “It’s one thing to sound a cause of rallying a base. But it’s quite another to distort history.”
The seven-paragraph declaration calls for Virginians to “understand the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the Civil War.”
McDonnell had quietly made the proclamation Friday by placing it on his Web site, but it did not attract attention in the state capital until Tuesday.
The Virginia NAACP and the state’s Legislative Black Caucus called the proclamation an insult to a large segment of the state’s population, particularly because it never acknowledges slavery.
“Governor McDonnell’s proclamation was offensive and offered a disturbing revision of the Civil War and the brutal era that followed,” said Del. Kenneth Cooper Alexander (D-Norfolk), chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus. “Virginia has worked hard to move beyond the very things for which Governor McDonnell seems nostalgic.”
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