Dragoons Sam Reid and Tyrone
Crowley, accompanied by their wives, attended the annual Stephen D. Lee
Institute's 2020 Symposium, held on Friday and Saturday, 28-29 February, at an
Embassy Suites hotel in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Symposium was assisted by the SCV North
Carolina Division, represented by its Commander Kevin Stone, who received a
thank-you in his opening remarks from the Symposium's organizer, Past National
Commander Christopher Sullivan.
The theme of this year's symposium was “Is the South American?”. Speakers discussed how the South has been
viewed in American history, beginning in the 18th century when it was the home
of our greatest presidents and statesmen, and now in the 21st century when it
is viewed as alien to the "American Dream" of a "Proposition
Nation". There were threats of a
protest against the event; see the note at end of this report.
Speakers at the symposium were Dr. Jeffrey Addicott, Dr.
Marshall DeRosa, Dr. John Devanny, Dr. Sam Mitcham, Dr. Carey Roberts, and
National SCV Chief of Heritage Operations Walter D. "Donnie" Kennedy,
who was the speaker at the evening banquet.
Before offering the invocation, National Chaplain Dr. W.
Herman White started the meeting with his usual rousing shout of "Are you
proud to be a descendant of a Confederate soldier?" After the noisy and affirmative response from
the 50-60 attendees present and the Chaplain's prayer, the meeting was
underway.
Greetings were offered by National Commander Paul C.
Gramling who recognized the new Executive Director at the SCV's National
Headquarters at Columbia, Tennessee, Adam Southern. Commander Gramling urged all present to
attend the historic two events which will occur at the National Headquarters on
Saturday 23 May: the re-interment of
General Nathan Bedford Forrest and his wife, and the Grand Opening of the SCV
National Museum. The Commander stated
that information and updates for this event can be found at
MakeDixieGreatAgain.com.
The first speaker was Dr. Addicott, who posed the
question, Why do they hate us? The
answer, in brief, was that we are a distinct people and constitute the most
conservative part of this country, so any one who wants fundamental changes
must remove our influence on the national culture. He said Southern culture is based on four
pillars: 1) individualism [as Jefferson
Davis said, "All we ask is to be let alone"], 2) marriage, 3) family,
4) nationalism.
Next up was Dr. Mitcham, who has authored the books It Wasn't About Slavery and The Greatest
Lynching in American History, among others. The most interesting point
he made was that this "greatest lynching" took place in New York City
in 1863, all part of the riots that occurred there in opposition to the War
being waged against the South. Dr.
Mitcham also made the interesting observation that the black vote changed from
Republican to Democrat in the 1960s, when Lyndon Baines Johnson and others
began to promise benefits to the black segment of voters. Since then blacks have voted majority
Democrat.
The third speaker was Dr. Roberts, a member of the
Abbeville Institute, which was also recommended by Dr. Mitcham (https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org). Dr. Roberts stated that, indeed, Southerners
are considered unacceptable by the "elites" who control this country
but that indeed all of this country (the "deplorables" in
"flyover country") and its history are unacceptable to them, which is
why we now see even Thomas Jefferson and George Washington as objects of
criticism. The South is now the object
of "vented rage" by groups supported by these elitists. Dr. Roberts's advice to counter all this was
to "build more monuments" and to continue to "tell our story,
without shame". One of Dr.
Roberts's closing comments was that Americans' birthrate is too low; they need
to have more children.
After a good lunch of salad and a wide variety of
sandwiches with sweet tea of course, attendees heard Dr. DeRosa, a speaker of
many years' standing with the S D Lee Institute. Dr. DeRosa stated that he is a political
scientist, first and foremost, so looks to politics for answers to
questions. His main points were that we
should not deify (worship) the Confederacy, since it was just another flawed
attempt by humans to govern themselves, and it too had its weak points, but
that its "beauty" was that it wanted to restore the Principles of
1776 and the original Republic envisioned by the Founders. He defined injustice as "aggression
against rights", adding that the Supreme Court is now the source of much
wrong committed against our rights and traditions, as seen in its rulings against
prayer in schools and in favor of abortion and same-sex marriage. One interesting point Dr. DeRosa made was
that slaves had legal protection in antebellum courts, and cited as an example
rare cases where owners were convicted of murdering their slaves. Dr. DeRosa
ended by saying that Americans are all "tax slaves" since they have
to, in some cases, pay taxes that they didn't vote for. He added that we are still too comfortable,
and for that reason we don't fight back but instead accept the amazing
transformation of our culture in the 21st century.
The last speaker was Dr. Devanny, who continued with the
theme of the conference by discussing the Puritans and their belief that they
were a special people whom all others should follow. They were not believers in liberty and had
strict rules that all had to follow in their communities. Puritans and their descendants were
abolitionists because they believed blacks were a "seed of darkness"
and should be sent away, out of the country.
Abraham Lincoln shared this view and so was a member of the American
Colonization Society, whose purpose was to repatriate blacks back to
Africa. Dr. Devanny said the modern
leftists are today's Puritans, in that they accept only their own vision as
permissible; all others must be silenced.
An interesting point made by Dr. Devanny was that one motive Andrew
Jackson had in removing the American Indians to Oklahoma was so that their
culture wouldn't suffer from too much contact with white culture, i.e. so they
could maintain their own traditions and culture.
The day's session ended with an interesting
question-and-answer session, with speakers giving their views in response to
questions from the audience. Dr. DeRosa
made the observation that our schools don't offer education but rather
indoctrination, and it's up to us to offer our children the antidote to that
indoctrination.
The speaker at the evening banquet was Dr. Walter D.
"Donnie" Kennedy, National SCV Chief of Heritage Operations. Dr. Kennedy is most well-known for the book, The South Was Right! which he wrote with
his twin brother, Ronald "Ronnie" Kennedy. Dr. Kennedy spoke about what we can do to
"Make Dixie Great Again" and urged all to go to the website
MakeDixieGreatAgain.com and support the Southern Victory Campaign. The website has some interesting videos and
information, to inspire us and explain how we can support this effort. The January 2020 National Commander's video
describes the historic events that will take place at National Headquarters on
23 May 2020.
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