White Supremacist Celebration at Arlington National Cemetery Protested

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=66863

WASHINGTON, June 2 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The president of the Confederate Memorial Association, a Washington-based association that operated the Confederate Memorial Hall museum and library for nearly a century, said the Arlington National Cemetery ceremony commemorating the birth of Jefferson Davis has been funded and operated by white supremacists.

John Edward Hurley, president of the association, said that the Confederate Memorial Committee of the District of Columbia has scheduled their meeting for 3 p.m. on Sunday, June 4th, and is not authorized to use the name of the Confederate Memorial Association in their program.

Hurley said that both the chairman and the former chairman of the committee have ties to Kirk Lyons, the former attorney for the Aryan Nations and the Ku Klux Klan, and Lewis Doherty, a leader of the neo-Nazi National Alliance. Current chairman Vicki Heilig was appointed to her post by former chairman Richard Hines, a major funder of conservative causes and political ally of Ralph Reed and Jack Abramoff, the disgraced lobbyist who awaits sentencing. Hines has also served as the lobbyist for Cambodia, Gambia and Nigeria. snip

In addition to authorizing a Confederate cannon salute at the event last year, the White House sent Robert Wilkie, a top National Security Council official at the time. Others who have participated with this Confederate committee include Stephen Page Smith, a Department of Energy lawyer who wired money overnight to Heilig; Charles Goolsby, the Voice of America producer who posts wanted alerts with pictures of terrorists; Judge Richard Abell of the U.S. Court of Claims and former director of the Office of Justice Programs; Thomas O’Neill, board member of the American Defense Institute; and David Eno, who runs the fraud hotline for the National Credit Union Administration.

From the Iwo Jima Memorial, head south past the Netherlands Carillion and enter the Cemetery. Follow the paved path until it bears right uphill, a long shallow stairway. On the left is a large tree and a patch of dirt where the grass won't grow. There is a lone grave there. That's Medgar. And one of the pebbles on top of his stone will be mine.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050829/blumenthal

And here's a little letter that's going to be sitting underneath my pebble on Medgar's grave.


D-Day, 2006

Dear Medgar,

It has come to my attention that a ceremony was recently held here at Arlington Nat'l Cemetery commemorating the birth of Jefferson Davis, and that the sponsoring group has ties to both white supremacists and to election thief/criminal lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and therefore, the White House.

It seems like America has been turned on its head. The party which freed the slaves is now stealing elections, starting spurious wars, and proposing amendments which will restrict, rather than expand, the rights of Americans.

These are shameful times, and sometimes I fear that your hard work, both in the hedgerows of Normandy and here at home, will be forgotten.

But I haven't forgotten, and there are many others like me who love both my country AND my fellow Americans. The tide of liberty recedes today, but it, unlike the South, WILL rise again.

Until that day,

(sofa king)

__________________

Hope I don't get arrested for this. Then again, maybe I do.

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.org/historical_information/prominent_blacks.htm

Prominent Figures in Black History and Black Medal of Honor Recipients Buried at Arlington Cemetery:

Maj. Alexander T. Augusta — Black surgeon with the Union forces. Although given an officer's rank, was paid black-enlisted wages during most of his service in the Army. (1-124) J34.

Oscar Chapman — Secretary of interior and a strong advocate of President Truman's civil-rights programs, including integration of the armed forces. (12-8471)

Contrabands —3,800 Civil War "contrabands" (fugitive and liberated slaves) are buried in Section 27, their headstones marked with the words "Citizen" or "Civilian."

Brig. Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Sr. — Selected by President Roosevelt and Gen. of the Army George C. Marshall as the first black general in the U.S. military in 1940. (2-478) W32.

Medgar Evers — Civil-rights leader who was shot outside of his home in Mississippi in June 1963. Following his death he became a symbol of black pride and a martyr of America's civil-rights struggle. (36-1431) BB-40.

Matthew Alexander Henson — On April 6, 1909, Henson was the first African-American who first reached the Pole and planted the American flag. (8-S15) X8.

Robert Ingersoll — A strong advocate of equal rights for blacks and women in the late 1800s. When hotels refused to house Frederick Douglass, Ingersoll welcomed the black journalist into his Illinois home. They later become close friends. (3-1620) S16.

Air Force Gen. Daniel (Chappie) James — First black four-star officer in the armed forces. Veteran of World War II, Korea and Vietnam. (2-4968) V33.

Louis Vaughn Jones — Concert violinist, professor of music at Howard University.

Allard Lowenstein — N.Y. congressman who actively fought for the civil-rights cause in 1960s. Shot in his law office in 1980. (30-2005) U36.

Joe Louis (Barrows) "The Brown Bomber" — Held the title of Heavyweight Champion of the World longer and defended it more times than any other boxer in history. As a sergeant during World War II, he donated $100,000 to Army and Navy relief efforts and fought 96 exhibition matches for more than 2 million troops. (7A-177) U24.

Thurgood Marshall — First black justice appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967. (5-40-3) W36.

James Parks — Born a Custis slave in the mid-1800s, "Uncle Jim" lived on the Arlington Estate for almost 90 years. During the Civil War he helped bury soldiers and build Union fortifications. He died in 1929, having fathered 22 children and leaving a rich oral history of the Cemetery. (15-2) G26 1/2.

Brig. Gen. Noel F. Parrish — White commander of the all-black Tuskegee Airman. Organized and directed the military's first systematic effort to train black pilots for combat duty during World War II. The general was instrumental in planning the integration of the armed forces in later years. (3-1667) PQ17 1/2.

Lemuel A. Penn — Prominent black educator and civil-rights activist who was shot in Georgia in 1964. (3-1377) LM19.

Spotswood Poles — One of the best baseball players in the Negro Leagues during the early 1900s. Batting average in 1914 was 487. (42-2324) U46.

Gen. Roscoe Robinson Jr. — The first black in the Army to attain four-star rank. In a 34-year military career that began in 1951, the U.S. Military Academy graduate served with the 7th Infantry Division during the Korean War and the 1st Cavalry Division in Vietnam. Between them he earned two Silver Stars, three Legions of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross and a Bronze Star Medal. He served as U.S. representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for the three years preceding his retirement in 1985. The general died July 22, 1993. (7A-18).

Col. Frank Snowden — Senior black officer at Camp Lee, Va., in World War II. Major consultant on interracial matters between 1946 and 1947. (12-8471) CC26.

U.S.C.T. — United States Colored Troops who served with the Union forces during the Civil War. More than 180,000 blacks served in U.S.C.T. units. Buried in Sections 23 and 27, their headstones are marked with a Civil War Shield and the letters U.S.C.T.

USS Maine — The USS Maine was sunk in Havana Harbor, Cuba, in 1898, and became the rallying call for the Spanish-American War. Aboard were 22 black sailors who were buried along with the rest of the crew in Section 24 near the mast of the Maine.

Capt. O.S.B Wall — One of 100 black officers during the Civil War. Wall was a primary mover in the recruitment of blacks in the Union forces. (1-124) H33.

Col. Charles Young — The third black to graduate the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Graduating in 1889, he was the first black to reach the rank of colonel in 1917. (3-1730) WR17 1/2.

Black Medal of Honor Recipients Buried at Arlington

Civil War:
William H. Brown, U.S. Navy (27-565)
James H. Harris, U.S. Army (27-985)
Milton M. Holland, U.S. Army (23-21713)
James Richmond, U.S. Army (27-886)

Indian Wars:
Henry Johnson, U.S. Army (23-16547)
William McBryar, U.S. Army (4-2738)
Thomas Shaw, U.S. Army (27-952)

Spanish-American War:
John Davis, U.S. Navy (11-637)
Dennis Bell, U.S. Army (31-349)
George H. Wanton, U.S. Army (4-2749)

Interim 1871-1898:
William Johnson, U.S. Navy (23-16648)

World War I:
There are no black recipients from World War I buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

World War II:
Edward A. Carter II, U.S. Army (59-451)

Korean War:
There are no black recipients from the Korean War buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Vietnam War:
Lawrence Joel, U.S. Army (46-15-1)
Dwight H. Johnson, U.S. Army (31-471)
Charles Calvin Rogers, U.S. Army (7A-99) (major general - top-ranking black Medal of Honor recipient)