On the day before the nation remembers the late Rev. Martin Luther King for his civil-rights struggle for all Americans, the Brownsville Historical Association is sponsoring a celebration for Sons of Confederate veterans who fought to keep blacks in bondage.
Critics of the event to be held Sunday at Washington Park at 2 p.m. which will feature the gathering of the neo-Confederates, charge that in contrast, the city has no public celebrations scheduled for Martin Luther King Day on Monday and the schools of the Brownsville Independent School District will remain open.
As cities and states across the country endeavor to shake off the dark heritage of the rebel states against the Union, the city will sponsor the celebration of the Confederacy. The Brownsville Historical Association will once again partner with the Sons of Confederate Veterans Col. John S. (RIP) Ford Camp #2216 to honor the Confederate Veterans that are buried in Brownsville.January 19, the anniversary of the birth of Robert E. Lee in 1807, is annually observed in the state of Texas as Confederate Heroes Day, providing a forum to explain the "appropriateness" of commemorating as heroes those who fought for the Confederacy.
Few people remember that Brownsville was one of the last strongholds of the Confederacy, and that the running of the Union embargo and port blockades allowed the rebel states to continue to wage war against the North as a result of the proceeds they derived from the sale of cotton through the Port of Bagdad using Mexican-flagged ships to evade the blockade.
Through this subterfuge, people like Charles Stillman, Miflin Kenedy, and Richard King were able to amass great fortunes. They were also supplying the Confederacy with the lifeblood that enabled them to continue to wage war in defense of slavery in the South. What is little known is that Stillman also sold cotton to the Union, playing each against the other for profit.
Brownsville's role in the war went even further. In fact, it was at Palmetto Hill on the Road to Boca Chica that the last battle of the Civil War was fought, more than a month after the war had ended with the signing of Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox.
This year’s guest speaker will be Jack Ayoub with the Cameron County Historical Commission, and the "Bard of the South" Rickey Pittman. Although not a historian, Ayoub has written many articles for local newspapers on the role of Tajanos in the war for Texas independence.
Pittman is a storyteller, author, and folksinger. He earned a BA in New Testament Greek and an MA in English Literature from Abilene Christian University.
His numerous compositions include titles like "I am a Rebel Soldier," "Good Ol' Rebel" and "The Cruel War."
Davis, by the way, was once a colonel with the Union Army but shifted sides when the rebel states seceded. He landed at Port Isabel in 1846 at the head of a contingent of Mississippi troops. He fought at the battles of Buena Vista and Monterrey. He resigned from the Union army in 1861 and assumed the presidency of the Confederacy until his capture and imprisonment after the war.
As a U.S. Senator, Davis advocated for slavery and states’ rights, and opposed the admission of California to the Union as a free state – such a hot button issue at the time that members of the House of Representatives sometimes broke into fistfights.
"African slavery, as it exists in the United States, is a moral, a social, and a political blessing," Davis wrote.
He was later indicted for treason but was never tried.
17 comments:
The colossal eye roll at the mention of this little event needs to be memorialized in a comment. Yes, this is history, and history like family cannot be chosen. However, one shouldn't crawl over broken glass to adopt monsters.
Didn't President Washington have slaves as well? Can we rename the park something more honorable? Perhaps "Broken Fountain Park"
Of course Brownsville siempre la caga!
I don't understand how anyone can be proud of their Confederate heritage. If I had a Nazi grandfather I certainly wouldn't be celebrating that.
Start the event with a mock lynching of some brown Meskins hanging from a tree.
To get people in the party spirit, while of course remaining historically accurate.
Individuals who honor their ancestors should not have them reviled by those ignorant of history. The Confederates in my family did not own slaves, but, as farmers, opposed a Federal government which imposed an unfairly stiff tariff on agricultural implements. Federal troops also burned their home town to the ground. They served honorably as cavalrymen, and there were thousands more like them. To call me a "neo-Confederate" is borderline libel, as i t has implications of racism, when in fact I have been married to a woman of color for decades. You, sir, do a terrible disservice in bandying about your insensitive political correctness.
Mr. Jack Ayoub is a great speaker and noted historian on hispanic Texas war heros. If any of Mr. Montoya's 4-5 readers are studying Texas history, don't miss Mr. Ayoub's findings.
so there's no 2nd place trophy..no silver medal..you loose a war that's it..you will never be able to honor those who fought for what they believed at the time to be correct..loosing side should just disappear and act as if nothing happened..forever..kids guess what.. there really is no 2nd place
Should be a fine event, honoring those men and women who help build this fine nation and state.
BTW....You should tell your readers that after holding Davis for several years and a detailed investigation which included going over thousands and thousands of documents, he was released, as it could not be found that he violated any laws of the United States
The folks that will gather are not "neo-Confderates" but people whose ancestors served with distinction in the army and navy of the Confederate State of America. They are in no way attempting to, nor wanting to reestablish the Confederacy. They are Americans though and though, many of which have served this country in the Armed Services of the United States. It is unfair to indicate they are anything less.
Neo-Confedrate is just a pejorative term thrown about by the far left to try and indicate that folks who choose to honor their Confederate ancestors are that than loyal Americans. This is a lie, pure and simple.
My lineal ancestors served the the American Revolutionary War, the war of 1812 and came to Texas in 1842. They served in the US/Mexico war, the Spanish American war, WWI, WWII and Korea. It just so happened they were living in Texas in 1861 when the Federal government sent an invading army, they enlisted in the Confederate Army to defend their farms, homes and families, as any honorable man would do. They were not fighting for slavery, but to protect their people. Such men deserve to be honored.
The bottom line is my family was and is American as long as this country has existed. When America split into two halves, they chose to serve Texas and the people of Texas.
There were many thousand Hispanics that served in the Confederate Army and their descendants are with us now in the hundreds of thousands. I would suggest that folks read up on Col. Santos Benavides. He was a true Texas patriot and one of those honored on Confederate Hero's Day.
As to the fellow that says there is no reason to honor the 2nd. place looser in war, I would only say that by that measure we should forget and dishonor our Viet Nam Vets. It is also looking like our Afganistan and Iraq vets would fall into the same category. It should be recalled that honorable service to one's country is always worth remembering and honoring even though there is no clear cut victory. We honor their service not the way the conflict ended.
Probably gringos and Mexicans coconuts will attend.
"Probably gringos and Mexicans coconuts will attend."
This form of ignorant racism is one of the main reasons that Brownsville is such a backward, uneducated and poverty ridden place.
"We honor their service not the way the conflict ended." Instead of honoring Davis and his white supremacist views, why not honor the locals with a plaque at the museum? Too many racists are using this holiday as an excuse to dress up and wave the rebel flag.
Blows my mind the amount of people who are not educated. The Civil War was about government at the State Level! There where more Black slave owners than white slave owners at the end of the Civil War. Davis fought for Government at the State level, he was not a bigot.
Please Andrew Swan show us proof of this, it amazes me what people online throw out there as proven facts. Sad.
Please share with us your proof that more black people owned slaves than the whites at the end of the War. Amazing!
Just Google it. Link Below. Doesn't matter for shit. Marker stays.
"The answers to these questions are complex, and historians have been arguing for some time over whether free blacks purchased family members as slaves in order to protect them -- motivated, on the one hand, by benevolence and philanthropy, as historian Carter G. Woodson put it, or whether, on the other hand, they purchased other black people "as an act of exploitation," primarily to exploit their free labor for profit...."
http://www.theroot.com/articles/history/2013/03/black_slave_owners_did_they_exist.html
@onc9 - I am not going to go through 4 years of collegiate history lessons with you because you probably stopped your intellectual exploration in High School so you actually believe what they teach in public school is what the teachers want to teach which is the truth compared to what they have to teach or they lose their jobs. There are THOUSANDS of charters you can find showing that the first slave owner was black and passed the idea to everyone else. 28% of free black men where slave owners by the end of the civil war (That is a proven fact via charters) and only 4% where white and of that 4 percent less that 1% were slave owners equivalent to what you would see in Roots. But let us take a look back since Black people have been playing the victim card since I was a child. The Jewish people have had it FAR worse than Black people could EVER proclaim and we don't see them "Acting a fool to get theirs!." Women have had it worse than Black people throughout the ages and not sure you even realize that Asians where slaves as well. Now granted white people have a past for us to be ashamed for and the slaves did not deserved to be slaves. History is filled with disgusting things that all races and religions have done and they are never going to be excused from such hate and ignorance. But the fact that is is 2016, we have a Black President, Famous Black people in which I love such as Morgan Freeman who has stated that "If we want racism to stop we need to stop talk about it." This race baiting and ignorance between White and Blacks needs to stop and it won't as long as there are idiots such as the people on this site that actually believe this garbage and people starting riots because a black kid was shot. The media is baiting racism fights and it works and it is getting to the point that it is humor. We as Americans need to stand up and say this is enough bullshit and come together and fix this damn country.
In closing every race was either a slave or have owned slaves. Get over it in 2016 and start making a positive difference and bring peace and love and stop with the hate.
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