Dear Ms. Lunelle,
I was saddened to learn that supporters of the most important legislation in front of the Florida Legislature (SB 2211 - Monument & Memorial Protection) this year were subjected to the wiles of the Southern Poverty Law Center and their acolytes by taking words out of context and attacking the the speakers, including the Honorable Attorney David McCallister, as they testified before one of the committees today (02-06-24).
For example the answer to the question “are you here to support white culture?” was twisted and turned around by the members of the committee. Just another example of ‘beat up on white people in the south month’ aka Black History Month.
And, had I been there, I would have told the committee members that white culture and black culture and red culture, and all the many other cultures are part of Southern culture.
And that in the half century that I, a black man, have marched thousands of miles don in the uniform of the Southern Soldier with his Colors in hand (Historic March Across Dixie - 1,600 miles from Asheville, N.C. to the Capitol Building in Austin, Texas), (H.L. Hunley Confederate Submarine Excavation 600 miles from Old Fort, N.C. to Charleston, S.C.), (Black History Month 400 miles from Littleton, VA.to Richmond, Va), (Protest Hanging of Confederate Battle Flag 200 miles from Chambersburg. PA To Gettysburg, PA), (For a Walk Across Florida 400 miles with Jenna and Shorty).....I would later end up alongside you and Attorney David McCallister at the home of the ancestors of Christopher Columbus Quarls, a Black Confederate soldier; and be told by his ancestors that the Ku Klux Klan in their full dress regalia attended Quarls Church funeral services. And left monies to help pay for his burial expenses.
And in all the times that I have had the Ku Klux Klan come to where I stood with the Southern Cross posted at any Confederate Memorial or Cenotaph, street corner, or grave site of the integrated Confederate armed forces, never has anyone of them remarked a racist overture to me.
I have heard the Ladies Memorial Association and the United Daughters of the Confederacy who made it their Charge to build these Memorials in memory of these Confederate soldiers of the integrated armed forces who never made it back home; that they represented all Red, Yellow, Brown, Black and White. I hope this message falls on the ears of this committee and those left to come.
God bless you!
Your brother,
HK
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