This is ridiculous and I am surprised it received notice.

Most Cemeteries in the South have days where graves are cleaned and marked with fresh flowers. Those serving in the military are also honored with flags. We pride ourselves in the service to our Country down here. And yes, those that served in the CSA are honored as well. They were, after all, Americans too.

It is a fact of life in the South. Who do you think our ancestors are?

If you disagree with this practice, you probably don't need to watch or come by. It doesn't use tax dollars and therefore really is no business of anyone not directly affected.

I am sure Black Panther members and other racist organizations do similar things to their grave sites if they are connected to their past. You don't see me protesting! Get a life!

I respect the decision to honor those fallen in the Civil War, not because of what the war was being fought for but because these men were brave enough to fight for what they believed was right. People must remember that there were black men fighting in this war as well. They might not be mentioned and/or recognized as taking part but according to history this did happen. I am from Georgia and Robert E Lee is in my heritage, so I do feel extremely strong about the confederacy; however I still do not consider myself racist or prejudice in any way. I have plenty of friends that are not caucasion in race and I have no problem with them. I feel that the apology in Virginia, for building the school using slave labor, is a personal choice on someone's conscience.

Sure. why not? they can have their own holiday. They can call it Traitor's Day. It is an appropriate name, since they did in fact commit an act of treason.

God bless the men and women of the Confederate States of America who during the War Between the States, 1861-65, fought to be free.

The people of the South stood as their Revolutionary War ancestors did in 1776.

May America never forget the soldiers who wore the gray on Confederate Memorial Day and everyday.

April is Confederate History Month in the USA!

Have a Dixie Day!

That one could have a problem with this is nothing short of astonishing. No one is forced to particpate in what are essentially private ceremonies and observances. I refuse to apologize or be anything less than completely proud of my ancestors who fought for the Confedracy.

Do what you will with the graves but please spare us all the baloney. Labeling the Confederates as the same as the American Revolutionaries is a slander. The American Revolutionaries fought for freedom, the Confederates were traitors to that cause who fought for the right to withhold freedom from others.

Dr. Francys Johnson should explain his charge of "treason" .

Southern voters elected cooperationist and secession delegates to secession conventions where they discussed the issue and voted for secession. Everything they did was in accordance with the law, the Constitution and the ideals of independence and self-government set forth in the Declaration of Independence of 1776.

Lincoln,without any legal authority, decided that the South did not have a right to leave the Union. In his first inaugural address he made it clear that he was not concerned about slavery, but he stated that he would collect tariffs. He then took action to hold on to and reinforce Fort Sumter in order to collect a US tariff in what was by then a foreign port. When that failed, again without any authority, he deceded that secession was rebellion and called for 75,000 troops to invade the South. That led to the secession of the last four Confederate States. The first state which was invaded was Virginia which was one of several states which had reserved the right to secede when the constitution was sign. By what authority did Lincoln nullify that provision inserted by Virginia's signers of the Constitution?

Lincoln invaded the South for the tariffs and to protect the economic interest of the Northerners who controlled the business and shipping end of the cotton trade. There were a number of causes for secession, but the sole cause of the war was Lincoln's decision to deny the South independence and self-government. In 1215, the Magna Carta established the cornerstone of our legal system,the principle that no one is above the law, not even the King. Lincoln put himself above the law, threw out the Constituion, trampled on the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the concept of government by,for and of the people.
Lincoln was the traitor!

What about Minnestota?

We have the Defeat Jesse James days to celebrate that Rebs death.

Slander and traitors my foot.Those who make such absurd allegations simply do not know history and applying that skewed logic then the Continental Army were definitely traitors and slave mongers . In 1776 all thirteen colonies allowed slavery and all thirteen colonies had slaves.The sanctimonius British tried to utilize the slavery issue in exactly the same manner the sanctimonius Yanks would successfully do so during the Civil War,never mind that those two groups were almost solely responsible for having brought the slaves to America.Slaves built huge sections of New York City(New Amsterdam),many of the Founding Fathers were slave owners,almost all Southerners have ancestors that were Revolutionary War soldiers.Nope, there cannot be any doubt (applying such flawed logic)the Revolution was fought to perpetuate slavery and to deny a people their freedom by a group of rebels who were traitors to their sovereign Great Britain , who was nobly seeking freedom for the poor slaves. You liberal South-haters think you can have your cake and eat it too , well it ain't gonna happen .

To say that the American Civil War was fought to end slavery is like saying that we are still in Iraq looking for WMDs. To 90% of the Confederate forces, it was about a state's right to say what it wanted. Yes there were slaveholders who wanted to keep that system in place, but it was more so a group of states who didn't want the GOVERNMENT to tell them how to conduct their business. Even Abe Lincoln understood that. The great Emancipation Proclaimation only declared those slaves in captured territory free. It was the abolistionist who really fought to free the slaves. If John Brown was Islamic, he would be considered a terrorist today. Of course, slavery was not always a black issue, many "white" cultures after they beat an army in a battle, enslaved their enemies. Also don't forget, that some Africans, freely sold their captives in to slavery. Honoring those who fought for what they believed in is a sacred trust and should not be said to treason.

Whites Southerners need to admit that celebrating the Confederacy as the key thing that defines their "Southern Identity” is nothing more than choosing to define themselves as being part of a group that was once united in fighting for the right to enslave people of African descent. The irony of the whole “Southerner = Supporter of the Confederacy” viewpoint is that most of the people who embrace it are descended from whites who were typically too poor to even own slaves, but were sucked into supporting the institution of slavery and conscripted into fighting to maintain it by rich landowners who were able to “play the race card” and dupe their butts into believing that being a “White Southerner” was a good thing because “at least they weren’t slaves”. Until poor and middle class whites stop allowing the rich to bait them into thinking that “life is good because at least we’re not (as bad off as) black people” they will continue to support politicians and government policies that are slowly stripping them of their civil rights and economic security.

I am proud of my Confederate ancestors that sacrificed their all to protect their homes and families. They did not own slaves nor did they risk life and limb so that some rich man sitting in his mansion could own them. The men of the Confederacy did everything they could to protect the South from the invading armies from the north. As a descendant of a Cherokee Great-great-grandfather, that was separated from his family and sent to live on a reservation, (not to mention all the other things done to native Americans over the years), I could be greatly offended by the flag that flies over America now. But I love that flag and I honor it, for I have many ancestors that served in the Revolution, WWI, WWII, Korea, Germany and my own husband, (who also has Confederate ancestors), served in Vietnam. I will honor them, and I will honor my noble Confederate ancestors and all those brave men that wore the gray. I will not buy into the lies and hatred that is being handed down by the naacp, the media and hollywood. I will hold fast to the truth! God Bless Dixie and all that love her!!!

The other thing they fought for was "State's Rights." Boy how we need that today, with Washington dictates a la Russian Czars coming down weekly. We may have gained by eliminating slavery but we lost by
destroying state's rights.

First and foremost, being against celebrating any group that fought to maintain slavery is not hatred but decency and respect for the dignity of ALL human life. Second, you've obviously never read ANYTHING about the history of slavery or the Cherokee nation or you'd know that 1) Southerners kicked off the Civil War when they formed an army and attacked US troops at Fort Sumter, and where I’m from if you start a fight you can’t claim that you were merely “defending home and family” even if you get your butt kicked; 2) there was no real benefit for anyone who wasn't well off to support secession, which was initiated by slave owners (EVERY member of the Confederate Congress owned slaves) only after Lincoln, whom they feared would abolish slavery, was elected in 1860; and 3) the Cherokees were major slavery owners and owned them collectively, so if you are a Cherokee descendent then you are a descendant of slave owners. Since you clearly “don’t know much about history, don’t much about geography”,
BTW, I’m black AND descended from blacks who owned slaves, so my ancestors probably had a vested interest in slavery and fighting the Civil War, but we don’t celebrate it as if it were some high point in our family history.

FYI, the Civil War was so popular in the southern states that the Confederate Congress passed the Conscription Act in 1862, thus creating the first military draft in US history. Ironically the act was amended to allow draft exemptions for any man who owned 20 or more slaves or could pay someone to go as his substitute.

Do any of you people realize how few people owned slaves? Maybe 10 to 15%, if that many. That leaves a whole lot of fighting men that were fighting for the plantation owners to have slaves? I think not. Their states had been invaded,,,,they were fighting for their homes, their land and their state. By the way, the South doesn't complain about 'Black History Month'. Why can't we have a Southern history month? Confederates we are by birth and we too HAVE A HISTORY.....

As stated before, the Confederates KICKED OFF the Civil War (Fort Sumter), so the argument that they were defending themselves and their families is moot. Second, South Carolina (the 1st state to secede) did so because they feared Lincoln was going to end slavery after he was elected. Finally, if white Southerners were so supportive of the Civil War, why did most of them have to be drafted, and why were the rich getting exemptions or paying poor white guys to go in their places.

Whites (who are only 60% of "The South") have been complaining and negatively responding about anything and everything that has to do with black people since the Reconstruction--witness Jim Crow, poll taxes, closing entire school systems in order to prevent integration, and lynchings. So I think you shouldn't be to accept and get over black opposition to celebrating the Confederacy, because at least they aren't running around burning crossed in people's yards over the issue.

Friends,
Here is a paragraph from my article entitled "It's Confederate Memorial Day in Dixie."

Tennessee Senator Edward Ward Carmack said in 1903, "These Confederate soldiers were our kinfolk and our heroes." He also said, "The people of the South have the right to teach their children the true history of the War Between the States, the causes that led up to it and the principles involved."

The truth is that Confederates were fighting for many of the same reasons as that of the Revolution.
My Southern ancestors were not traitors, they were REAL PATRIOTS.

The United States and Confederate flags are both flags of freedom and should be flown whereever people desire to be free.

God Bless America and have a Dixie Day!

pretty well says it all, as to the way the north thinks about us here in the South. And, remember, those comments include Southern Blacks as well as Whites and other ethnicities.

If the Southerners were not here to fight and win the empire's wars, the north would have gone into the ash pile long ago.

lets just remember the one's that fought and fell for the true bill of rights as our forefathers wrote them