Dear Ms. Lunelle,
On this day of February 20, 2023, there they stood at my door 20 strong of my babies. Mr.HK, can we come in? “Yes”, would be my reply, sensing something different in the way they looked at me on this morning.
After prayer, “Mr. HK” began Ms. Cynthia, “we have heard you describe this month of February that has been deemed ‘Black History Month’ as Beat Up On White Folk In The South’ Month.
However, most of us have come to view it as something more sinister than that. It is also an exclusion of one of the bravest, if not most courageous, civil and human rights advocates of all time from the pages of not only Black History, but of history. And you Sir and your exploits are what we speak of.
On January 8, 2000, after the NAACP declared that the Confederate Battle flag was placed on the Capitol’s Dome in Columbia, South Carolina in 1961 in defiance of the 1961 Civil Rights movement; you declared in a speech to a national audience that this was a lie. And that it was placed on Capitol buildings all across the South in commemoration of the 100-year anniversary of the War for Southern Independence.
On many occasions afterwards, too many to count, you would don the uniform of the Southern Soldier with the Southern Cross in hand and take to the streets touting a message that trained Cadre of black folks on Plantations all across the South made the implements of war, provided the food stuffs for General Lee's beleaguered army, stayed at home and tried to protect the defenseless old men women and children in the best way they could, and went off to war with a man they not only called Master, but also family and friend.
And as if this behavior was not enough, you would don the Confederate soldier’s uniform with the Southern Cross in hand, and with your brothers and folks joining in along the way began a journey that totaled some 1,606.1 miles from where the Honorable Zebulon Baird Vance Monument once stood traveling 20 miles a day, 6 days a week to the Supreme Court building in Austin, Texas.
That journey would take you through North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia (where you would be given the Key to the City of Toccoa by a Black Mayor), Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana (where the Mayor of Logansport would declare it HK Edgerton and the Historic March Across Dixie Day), and on to the Supreme Court Building in Austin, Texas. And not to forget, after all this you would travel at the request of a predominant Black Historical Society to Buddah, Texas.
Shortly after this journey, you wrote a letter to President George W. Bush expressing why you made the journey to Texas and that your babies were being attacked and denied their 1st Amendment Right at the school house door for the expression of their Heritage. Not hearing from him; shortly thereafter the Republican Party invited you to the Capitol of North Carolina to hear a speech from President Bush about making Social Security private. You accepted that invitation from the Republican Party to attend. And from the seat on the third floor level, with a copy of the letter you had written to him; when he asked if anyone had any questions? You raised your hand, while everyone around you proclaimed he could neither hear nor see you. You climbed out onto a rail about 18" wide for about 10' shouting ‘Mr. President, Mr. President’, until you got his attention; telling him that you had written him a letter, but did not believe he was given it, and if he would read it when he got back on Air Force 1? Covering his eyes as he looked up, and hitching up his pants, he said yes I will, give it to that Secret Service Agent that has crawled out on that rail behind you before he poops in his pants!”
And continued Mark, “let us not forget your March from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania don in the uniform of the Confederate soldier when the citizens there told you that no one since the Civil War had entered Chambersburg don in the Confederate soldier’s uniform since the Battle of Gettysburg. And there you were making your way to Gettysburg in defiance of a Black man who had built a gallows with the intent of hanging the Confederate Battle flag.
Let’s not forget the Purple Heart given to you by a Vietnam War Veteran as you made a March to the internment of the Hunley submarine in Charleston, S.C..
Yes Mr. HK, let us not forget your recent sojourn to Harvard University don in the uniform of the Confederate soldier as you crossed their campus with the Southern Cross in hand decrying the injustice of not having Confederate soldiers alumni in their Memorial Hall. And most importantly Mr.HK, that just recently (February 16, 2023), you added your name to a lawsuit to protect the Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.
Mr. HK, we stand by our revelations…you are the greatest.”
I told them with tears streaming from my eyes that I appreciate their declaration, but that I felt that there were other more deserving. God bless you!
Your brother,
HK
Chairman Board of Advisors Emeritus Southern Legal Resource Center
Member Save Southern Heritage Florida
Honorable Life Member Zebulon Baird Vance Camp 15 Sons of Confederate Veterans
Associate Member Abner Baker Chapter 14 United Daughters of the Confederacy
Honorary Life Member North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia Orders of the Confederate Rose
President Southern Heritage 411