THE EXTREMISM AND RACISM OF THE SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS

-- Edward H. Sebesta 7/24/2013

The SCV Façade

The racism and extremism of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) isn’t subtle or something that needs to be decoded from texts they write. It needs no post-modern analysis to uncover. It is explicit. Yet it is largely unknown to the public. This is because the SCV has a careful and disciplined management of its relation to the media. In the Confederate Veteran (CV), the official publication of the SCV Commander-in-Chief Charles E. McMichael explains what he calls “Message Discipline.” At a public event by a local Camp of the SCV members are instructed not to talk to the media but to refer reporters to a designated media spokesman of the camp. As McMichael explains:

To begin, let’s examine one of the greatest areas of challenge to the SCV. This is, of course, our relationship with the news media and the issue of Message Discipline. For instance, if your camp or Division is hosting a public event, like a memorial or a booth, there needs to be a designated spokesman for the group. I am well aware that most of your are very articulate in telling our story. However, we need to make sure that the spokesman putting forth our message is the most experienced and well-versed in the traps that reporters like to set. Once the designated spokesman is selected, other attendees at the event should refer to him when approached by a media representative.

Also, as part of Message Discipline, McMichael instructs that before responding to the media the leaders in a local camp need to conference so that they have one message and not contradict each other when dealing with the media.[1] The fear is that if the members of the SCV speak candidly about what they feel about the SCV, the organization will be revealed for what it is, namely one that at the start of the 21st Century, as described by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Heidi Beirich “is returning to its roots, which were firmly planted in the soils of Southern white supremacy.”[2]

The SCV has been engaged in a program going back to 2005 to train their members and local leadership to control their message with the media and avoid issues in which the less palatable views of SCV members might come to public attention and which would discredit the organization. As an example, then Lt. Commander-in-Chief Christopher M. Sullivan advises members to “Stay on-message” in which he says:

Reporters will want you to say something crazy and sensational; you should stick doggedly to a simple message and avoid being dragged into other more interesting issues. For instance, if you are dedicating a new historical marker, don’t be drawn into unnecessary discussions of slavery. (Italics in the original.)[3]

Since the SCV sells and recommends books defending slavery and asserting that slavery is justified by the Bible, having members discussing slavery would be disastrous to the image of the SCV as a sentimental historical remembrance organization. Hence there is this ongoing program of controlling the flow of information to the media to present an image of the SCV, rather than the reality of SCV members’ opinions to the media. This paper will report what the SCV believes and advocates through its various publications and Internet media, the reality and not the controlled message to the media.

Pledge of Allegiance

Neo-Confederates denounce the Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag as socialist and anti-Southern. They don’t like the word “indivisible.” In the Nov./Dec. 2007 Confederate Veteran SCV Lt. Commander-in-Chief, Ronald E. Casteel in his column reprints a newspaper column from the Richmond Times-Dispatch by Waite Rawls, head of the Museum of the Confederacy (MOC), along with a letter to the Times-Dispatch sent by future SCV Chaplain-in-Chief Fr. Alister C. Anderson. Introducing Anderson’s letter, SCV Lt. Commander-in-Chief Ron Casteel explains that he feels that the letter most, “likely represents the feelings of many SCV members”.[4] Anderson’s viewpoint:

The following paragraph from Rawls’ article arouses Anderson’s ire:

The Civil War defines us all today, whether our ancestors were here to greet John Smith at Jamestown, fought for or against the Confederacy, or recently immigrated. When they say the pledge of allegiance to the American flag, the phrase “indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” rings in our ears.

Anderson rejects and condemns Rawls’ paragraph stating:

When you write your letter, “… when we say the Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag, the phrase ‘indivisible, with liberty and justice for all’ rings in our ears,” … and we’re the products of own internal conflict,” I must insist these words are not the products of our own internal conflict. These words were written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister who was forced to resign his pastorate because of his Socialist sermons and political activities.

This leads Anderson to attack Bellamy and the Pledge of Allegiance because it uses “indivisible” which is held to be oppressive to white Southerners and is additionally some type of socialist conspiracy. Anderson writes, “Through some devious political connections he was permitted to write the Pledge of Allegiance with his Socialist intentions to weld together the mentality of all Americans in their allegiance to a centralized Federal Government.” Bellamy’s original intention to use the phrase, “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity,” in the Pledge instead of “liberty and justice for all,” is denounced as “the atheist words of the radical French Revolution.”

Lincoln Compared to Hitler and Marx, Republican Party Held to Have Marxists Origins

Between 2003 and 2008, Southern Mercury magazine was the official publication of the Educational PAC of the SCV.[5] It was promoted in the Confederate Veteran as “the latest weapon in the war for Southern Heritage,” by SCV Commander-in-Chief Ron G. Wilson.[6] It is worth examining to see what the SCV defines as Southern Heritage.

In the March/April 2008 issue of Southern Mercury is an article by Alan Stang titled “Republican Party: Red from the Start,” in which the Republican Party is asserted to be a Communist organization. Stang discusses complaints made by supporters of Ron Paul that the Republican Party has lost its way and needs to return to its original principles. Stang rejects this arguing that the Republican Party did not “go wrong,” did not “go left,” and further stating:

It has been wrong from the beginning, from the day it was founded. From the beginning the Republican Party has worked without deviation for bigger, more imperial government, for higher taxes, for more wars, and for more totalitarianism. From the beginning, the Republican Party has been Red.

By “Red,” Stang means communist. Stang thinks that if Robert E. Lee and Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson had been better informed about the issues of the Civil War he would have “hanged our first Communist President [i.e. Abraham Lincoln]”. Stang explains:

Lee and Jackson did not fully comprehend what they were fighting. Had this really been a “Civil” War, rather than a secession, they would and could easily have seized Washington after Manassas and hanged our first Communist President and the other war criminals.

The article recommends that the reader purchase the book, “Red Republicans: Marxism in the Civil War and Lincoln’s Marxists,”[7] by neo-Confederate authors Walter D. Kennedy and Al Benson. The assertion that the Republican party was some type of communist conspiracy is based on the supposed communist influence of immigrants who left Europe after the failed revolutions of 1848. Some of these immigrants become Union generals; others are held to have influenced the nomination of Lincoln. Stang explains that “The GOP Convention of 1860 took place in Chicago, a flaming center of German Communism,” and through their influence helped Lincoln to get the nomination. At the conclusion of his essay Stang reiterates his assertion that the Republican Party was communist from the beginning and further comments, “The characterization of Republican states as ‘red states’ is quite appropriate.”[8]

More recently in the Nov./Dec. 2012 issue of Confederate Veteran is the cover article by Walter D. Kennedy titled, “Lincoln’s Band of Tyrants.” In this article President Lincoln’s preservation of the Union during the Civil War is held to have advanced a communist agenda against states’ rights. Lincoln’s preservation of the Union is supposed to parallel Adolph Hitler’s creation of the Third Reich. The essay concludes that, “Lincoln, Marx, Engels and Hitler are indeed a strange but deadly ‘Band of Brothers.’” Kennedy further asserts that the communist and Nazi dictators of the 20^th century are held to be inspired and instructed by Lincoln:

Yet these men found much in Abraham Lincoln, the Republican Party, and the war upon the South which would aid them in promoting their form of tyranny.[9]

Such opinions represent the current ideology of the SCV’s leadership and is actively promoted by them in magazines and internal publications.

Race and Civil Rights

The SCV sees the modern Civil Rights movement as an attack on the South and Western civilization. In the Sept./Oct. 2003 Southern Mercury Frank Conner has an white supremacist article “Where We Stand Now: And How We Got Here.” In it, African Americans are asserted to have low IQs, a fact which has supposedly been covered up by a liberal conspiracy. In a section of his article titled, “Liberals Create a False Public Image of the Blacks,” Conner writes:

Previously, anthropologists had routinely recorded the notable differences in IQ among the races; but at Columbia, a liberal cultural anthropologist named Franz Boas now changed all of that. He decreed that there were no differences in IQ among the races, and the only biological differences between the blacks and white were of superficial nature. The liberals swiftly made it academically suicidal to challenge Boas’ flat assertion. Meanwhile, the liberals in the media heaped special praise upon black athletes, musicians, singers, and writers – and treated them as typical of the black race. The liberals were creating a false image of the blacks in America as a highly competent people who were being held back by the prejudiced white southerners.[10]

The 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka is denounced as “patently-unconstitutional.”[11] Conner also sees the landmark civil rights legislation the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as “patently-unconstitutional”.[12] Civil rights legislation is denounced by Conner as being part of a liberal conspiracy, which he calls “Reconstruction II.” He explains: “Black civil rights was simply the best moral weapon with which to destroy the white Southerners as a people – just as it had been in the 19^th century.”[13] The creation of Jim Crow is defended. Conner calling African Americans “a childlike people” and that “the white Southerners had disenfranchised and segregated the blacks, in perhaps the mildest reaction possible at that time to the black’s transgressions.”[14]

Conner sees civil rights and efforts against racism as a means to destroy the South and America stating:

Thus reinforced, Reconstruction II is steadily shredding the traditional white society – first in the South and then the rest of the nation. But the liberals are in a big hurry to replace Christianity with secular humanism and limited government with socialism.[15]

This article was not an isolated example in the Southern Mercury, in another Frank Conner article, “The Enemy’s Strategy,” the SCV author writes:

The liberals overran the South’s main defenses during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, and outthought and outfought and intimidated and demoralized the white Southerners so badly then that most of our people reacted by pretending that this war is not even happening.[16]

Although the primary complaint of this article is how the American film industry has portrayed the civil rights movement positively and hasn’t promoted a white supremacist view of Southern or American history, in complaining about films about race relations in the South Conner writes:

The majority of these films are about the Southern civil rights movement of the 1950s/60s, and all of them carefully follow the liberal party line: the blacks and white liberals are heroes; and the conservative white Southerners are villains. And 30 years of these hate-mongering films in theaters and as steady TV reruns have done far more to shape the terrible public image of the white Southerners than all of the newspaper headlines put together.[17]

It should be noted that Conner is equating conservative white Southerners with segregationists and white supremacists.

In a 2006 Southern Mercury article, “The Tolerance Scam,” Michael W. Masters denounces tolerance, denounces the very concept of racism, and maintains that anti-racism efforts and civil rights legislation are Marxist attacks on western civilization and Christianity. Masters writes:

Using the wedge of anti-racism, cultural Marxists orchestrated judicial and legislative changes to society over the course of decades – e.g. Brown v. Board of Education in 1955, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Immigration Reform Act of 1965. … The cultural Marxists relentlessly hammered away at Western cultural norms using the sledge of anti-racism as a battering ram to bring down the walls of traditional Western culture.[18]

Civil rights for racial minorities are a part of what Masters sees as part of a larger conspiracy:

And just as the Bolsheviks inflamed the masses to violence against the Russian aristocracy, today’s cultural Marxists harness the massed numbers of a new proletariat – composed of people of color, feminists, homosexuals and other disaffected groups – to secure social acceptance and the numbers sufficient to convey political power.[19]

This denunciation of civil rights in SCV publications continues to the present. In March 2012, Boyd Cathey’s contribution to Confederate Veteran, “The Land We Love: Southern Tradition and Our Future,” argues, “Southerners have understood perforce that the races must live and work side by side, and hopefully harmoniously, but that did not imply legal and social equality for all, either black or white.”

Cathey also believes that the “Southern republicanism is anti-egalitarian” and as a consequence everyone didn’t “have some unqualified right to participate in or rule over the commonwealth. Participation in government wasn’t based on the modern concept of ‘one man, one vote.’”

Like his SCV peers, Cathey perceives the 1950s and 1960s civil rights movement as an attack on the South:

The decisions of the Supreme Court, the triumph of the civil rights movement which in some ways was a frontal attack on constitutional republicanism and the rights of property, and the triumph of political correctness and cultural Marxism, all signaled the beginning of a “Second War of Northern Aggression” aimed at totally reshaping and restructuring our culture and at rejecting the principles and beliefs our ancestors.[20]

Another means by which the SCV advances an agenda against civil rights and racial equality is by promoting the book, “The South Was Right,” by SCV members Walter Donald Kennedy and James Ronald Kennedy, one of the major books of the modern neo-Confederate movement. The Kennedys characterize Nineteenth Century Reconstruction as a period of oppression of the South, and the 1867 Reconstruction Act an “evil scheme” which accomplished “evil goals” of destroying the constitution.[21] The passage of the 14^th amendment and the15^th amendment to the United States Constitution are asserted to be fraudulently adopted and part of the oppression of the South by Reconstruction and destroying the constitution.[22] Three appendixes are added at the end of the book to additionally attack the legitimacy of the 14^th amendment.[23]

The Kennedys condemn the 14^th and 15^th Amendments writing:

The radical change in the form of our original constitutional government is a direct result of the success of the Northern armies in their war of aggression against the Southern people. With military success and the force of bloody bayonets, the Northern philosophy of centralist federalism became the standard for the new American government. This centralistic philosophy was articulated into its “legal” form by the various Reconstruction acts, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, and the subsequent Supreme Court decisions that are based on these acts and amendments.[24]

The Kennedys also oppose the legislation and action of the modern civil rights era. In a chapter titled the moral right to be free the Kennedys write:

In addition to a huge deficit, we have received from our political masters in Washington a second-rate Southern economy, a Congress dominated by liberals and Southern Scalawags, a Supreme Court that has not had a traditional Southerner on it since the War for Southern Independence, and a school system controlled by the liberal Supreme Court and the NAACP. Two generations of Southerners have grown up under numerous court orders, guidelines, government edicts, affirmative action programs, minority set-asides, desegregation consent decrees ad nauseum; yet we are still no closer to appeasing the collected wrath of our masters in Washington![25]

The Kennedys attack the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in a chapter titled, “Equality of Opportunity.” They advocate a list of restrictions of the voting franchise arguing:

The liberal concept of one man-one vote, or universal franchise, is so deeply entrenched in the liberal dogma of the Yankee government that very few are willing to challenge its legitimacy. This is especially true in the South. Here we are faced with the danger of being labeled as a society attempting to deny the franchise permanently on the basis of race. Where will anyone find a popular politician who is willing to confront charges of racism and bigotry just to promote an improvement of the quality of the electorate.[26]

The first is to restrict voting to those who can pass a test on reading, writing, history, geography, and mathematics. The second is to require a direct tax payment, excluding sales tax and payroll taxes to qualify for voting, and mandating that a potential voter can neither be on welfare nor have been bankrupt. They conclude:

Some will protest that we are “repealing” the Voting Rights Act; this is not true! You do not repeal a fraud; you correct it. You do not recall a tyrant, you remove him. The same is true with the so-called Voting Rights Act. The Voting Rights Act, as with all other Reconstruction legislation (see Chapter VI), must be annulled to restore the balance between the federal and state governments. These Reconstruction acts violate the consent of the governed within each of the sovereign communities of the South, and therefore they were invalid in their inception and are discriminatory in their enforcement. Thus, the South must use its political strength to terminate this illegitimate use of governmental force. The federal government does not have the right to deny the sovereign community the right to establish legitimate, non-arbitrary voting qualifications![27]

Michael Hill, President of the League of the South, reviews two of the Kennedy books in Chronicles magazine in a review titled, “The Good Kennedys,” that included a biographical background of the authors and a history of the origin of the book.[28] As Hill explains, the book, “The South Was Right!” originates from the Kennedy brothers activism against Civil Rights in the 1960s. Hill writes:

As teenagers in the 1960s, the Kennedys came to regard the defense of the South from its detractors as a “spiritual duty.” When the civil rights activists stepped up their attacks on Southern traditions, especially states’ rights, James and Walter volunteered to serve Mississippi gubernatorial candidate Ross Barnett and the “unpledged electors” movement. Both cast their first vote in a national election for Democratic candidate George Wallace in 1968. …

As Lyndon Johnson and the civil rights movement continued to dismantle the Constitution, the Kennedys contemplated a book project to defend the founding principles of the Old American Republic.

Hill also explains that the Kennedys’ book is a significant factor in the formation of the Neo-Confederate movement and that they helped found the LOS to further their agenda:

The success of the Kennedy’s first book has contributed significantly to a renewed interest in the South’s cultural and political heritage. According to James, the most frequently asked question from their readers is, “Now that we know the lies and distortions spread about our Southern heritage, how can we organize to come to its defense?” By mid-1994, the Kennedys could give an answer. They both were instrumental in forming the Southern League, a rapidly growing organization dedicated to advancing the cultural, social, economic, and political well-being and independence of traditional Southerners.

When first released in 1991 the Kennedys’ book “The South Was Right!” received a favorable review in the SCV’s Confederate Veteran, Vogler writing that the Kennedys “want to instill a renewed pride in being Southern and show us the way to reclaim that which we have lost over the last 125 years.… the authors outline how we as Southerners must renew our regional pride, and elect legislatures who will represent all of our best interests.”[29]

When the 2^nd edition came out Vogler, acknowledging the wide impact of this book wrote this review in 1994:

In 1991, Ron and Don Kennedy first released The South Was Right, and many of us have not looked at the War Between the States the same way since. …

I found this new, expanded volume to be excellent reading. The new additions definitely add to what already was a most interesting and thought-provoking book.[30]

In 2001, the SCV started to sell the Kennedys’ The South Was Right! directly to its members, promoting it in Confederate Veteran as a “Classic Southern Reprint” Christmas gift.[31] It was sold in the SCV Merchandise Catalogs for 2004-2005, 2005-2006, 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2011-2012. [32] The SCV continues to sell it online as of 6/9/2013.[33]

Slavery

The SCV doesn’t run articles directly defending Antebellum slavery, but defends slavery by promoting and praising books that do defend Antebellum slavery.

The SCV has a group called the Chaplain’s Corp and they published a newsletter, Chaplains’ Corps Chronicles of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which is available on their website: http://www.scv.org/chaplainsChronicle.php. In April 2008, Chaplains’ Corps Chronicles favorably reviewed “Antebellum Slavery: An Orthodox Christian View,” by Gary Roper. Reviewer and SCV member Michael Andrew Grissom, author of “Southern by the Grace of God,” “The Last Rebel Yell,” “Will the South Survive,” each of these titles a white supremacist neo-Confederate book, writes:

What makes this book so refreshing is that it is devoid of the hysterical modern views propounded so effectively by the civil rights industry. It actually deals with truth, -- a commodity virtually unknown in today’s poisoned culture.

The book makes the point that it is ludicrous to apologize (as several states have done recently) to a black population for legal slavery that occurred years ago when presently illegal slavery exists in at least 20 countries of the world including the USA.

Roper’s “Orthodox Christian View” insists that the Bible justifies slavery and those who disagree are not really Christian.

The 1995 Southern Baptist resolution repudiating slavery is condemned in the book. Roper writes, “It was a sad day indeed when the Southern Baptist Convention placed “Political Correctness” above “Biblical Truth” and then quotes white supremacist Samuel Francis to say that this resolution “placed them [Southern Baptists] on the path to a modernist, secularized and socially radicalized version of Christianity that breaks with their own traditions and history, as well as with the historical meaning of the New Testament.”[34] The Presbyterian Church in America is also condemned for their apology for slavery in the book.[35]

The SCV sells Roper’s book in their Confederate Veteran magazine as one of the “Confederate Gifts from IHQ,” advising readers that “This 350 page book does not pander to the ‘politics of guilt and pity.’”[36] It is sold in the online SCV book store as of 5/25/2013.[37] It was sold in the SCV Merchandise Catalogs of 2008-2009, 2009-2010, and 2011-2012.[38]

In the very first July/August 2003 issue of the Southern Mercury, the United Daughters of the Confederacy’s Ann Rives Zappa praises “Myths & Realities of American Slavery: The True History of Slavery in America,” by John C. Perry. This book, Zappa writes, “will be a welcome addition to the bookshelves of all Southerners.” This book was also sold as a “Confederate gift from IHQ” in the Confederate Veteran with the comment, “Should be required reading for every history student, and on the shelves of every public library in America.”[39] It is no longer sold online by the SCV but was in their 2004-2005, 2005-2006 and 2008-2009 Merchandise catalogs recommended as “thoroughly reliable.”[40]

In a subsequent SCV Southern Mercury, Zappa lauds “Myths of American Slavery” by Walter D. Kennedy in a book review by Ann Rives Zappa, who states the book “is required reading for all Southerners.”[41] This book is as of 5/25/2013 sold in the SCV Online Book Store.[42] Additionally it has been sold in their Merchandise catalog for 2004-2005, 2005-2006, 2008-2009, 2009-2010, and 2011-2012.[43] In this book Kennedy argues that Abolitionism is anti-Christian[44] and condemns the 1995 Southern Baptist apology over slavery:

The passing of the so-called Racial Reconciliation Resolution by the assembled delegates defamed and otherwise slandered the good name of Southern Baptists of the past 150 years. The resolution is nothing more than liberal double-speak for an act of cultural genocide against the South.

He also argues that slavery doesn’t violate the Golden Rule. His argument is interesting to recount as an example of neo-Confederate logic.

MYTH: The Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” makes holding a person in slavery sinful.

REALITY: If the Golden Rule is enforceable upon the master of the slave, it is also enforceable upon a slave. Therefore, according to the Golden Rule, a slave must view his master’s betterment before his own. How can taking away a valuable asset (slave property) better his master? …

The book argues that Abolitionism is anti-Christian in a chapter titled “Abolitionism Versus Christianity.”[45]

The SCV likes to pass resolutions against the contemporary Ku Klux Klan, however, it has a long history of praising the Reconstruction-era Ku Klux Klan . When United Daughters of the Confederacy General Historian S.E.F. Rose first published her enthusiastic praise for the Ku Klux Klan in 1914 it was endorsed by the Sons of Confederate Veterans at their 1914 Jacksonville convention. Such SCV venerations of the Klan are not, however, only a century old.[46]

In Vol. 1 2001 issue of the Confederate Veteran in a section titled “Classic Southern Reprints,” a video of the notorious film “Birth of a Nation,” which glorifies the Ku Klux Klan is for sale. The SCV notice for the book avoids mentioning the Ku Klux Klan stating:

… director D.W. Griffith recreates the human tragedy of the War Between the States and Reconstruction in the South after the downfall of the Confederacy. Filmed just fifty years after the end of the war, this epic motion picture takes a controversial look at the birth of Lincoln’s “new nation” out of the ashes of the Constitutional Republic.[47]

However for the Volume Three 2001 Confederate Veteran ad for the video the notice is changed to, “Relive history with this classic silent film from 1915, D.W. Griffith’s masterpiece takes a controversial look at the birth of Lincoln’s ‘new nation’ out of the ashes of the constitutional republic.”[48] The idea that this film is historical instead of shrieking negrophobia is laughableand calling it a ‘masterpiece’ is an endorsement of the film.

The Volume Two 2002 Confederate Veteran laments that “Birth of a Nation,” is “So demonized in today’s politically correct climate that it is no longer shown publicly.”[49]

It is also currently as of 5/25/2013 sold online with the comment, “his silent film masterpiece made in 1915. An epic account of The War Between the States and Reconstruction. So Politically incorrect it hasn’t been shown in years!”[50]

It is also sold in the SCV Merchandise catalogs for 2004-2005, 2005-2006, 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2011-2012 with the comment, “An epic account of The War Between the States and Reconstruction. So Politically incorrect it hasn’t been shown in years!”[51]

The avoidance of actually mentioning that this film is about the Ku Klux Klan is typical of how the SCV promotes the Reconstruction KKK as heroes. They promote a pro-Klan work, but they at the same time keep the support off stage by not mentioning directly that the contents of what they promote is pro-Klan.

The SCV also promotes and sells books which cover multiple topics but include sections that defend the Ku Klux Klan, such as SCV member Michael Andrew Grissom’s 1988 book, “Southern by the Grace of God.” In this book, Grissom enthusiastically recommends, “The Clansman,” by Thomas Dixon as well as Dixon’s other racist screed, “The Leopard’s Spots.”

Grissom captions an illustration of a hooded Klansman on a movie poster for D.W. Griffith's, "The Birth of a Nation":

The original Ku Klux Klan (1866-1877) played a vital role in ridding the post-war South of brutal carpetbagger rule.

Grissom also defend several other nineteenth century Louisiana groups that were violent white supremacists, The Knights of the White Camellia and The White League. Depicting them as heroes and saviors of Louisiana,[52] Grissom writes:

With a negro police force in Shreveport who cared little for the safety of white citizens, the white men organized the Knights of the White Camellia. The Knights in Caddo parish declared “a white man’s government or no government” and made night rides, breaking up political meetings in which scalawags and carpetbaggers were instructing and inflaming the gullible freemen.[53]

There were three requisite conditions for Republican power in the South: the negro vote, Republican control of the national government, and federal troops. Should any one of these supports be weakened or removed, Republican rule would collapse. The southerner had little control over troops or national politics, having himself been barred from voting, so he turned his efforts to the local scene, where the secret societies began to spring up in an effort to stop negro voting and run the carpetbaggers out of the South. The romance of the period, with its night rides, daring plots of retribution, and scenes of southern women sewing costumes by date that southern men would wear by night, has best been captured in the works of Thomas Dixon. For a true sampling of the tenor of the times, it his highly recommended that the reader obtain a copy of Dixon’s 1905 classic, The Clansman, which inspired D.W. Griffith’s motion picture epic, The Birth of a Nation. The movie, which portrays the classic struggle between the carpetbag regime and the Ku Klux Klan, was so controversial that Dixon and Griffith enlisted the aid of United States Chief Justice Edward Douglas White in overcoming would-be censors. It has passed into our literature as a masterpiece of American drama, described by Woodrow Wilson, who held a White House screening of the silent movie as “history written with lightning.”[54]

The Red Shirts in South Carolina, which overthrew multiracial democracy through violent terror and established white supremacy in South Carolina are also praised by Grissom. [55]

In a short section in the book titled, “Papa and the KKK” Grissom portrays the Klan of the early 20^th century as a benevolent patriotic organization that fought socialism and communism and did “benevolent work among the poor.” An example given of their patriotism was in a case of sugar rationing violation in which “they stopped the man and gave him a good beating.”[56]

When Grissom’s “Southern By the Grace of God” first came out James N. Vogler, Jr., book reviewer in the Confederate Veteran praised it enthusiastically calling it a “569-page love letter to the Southland and the author makes no bones about it,” but the review avoids any mention of the Ku Klux Klan[57] or Grissom’s denunciation of emancipation as “the idea advocated by fanatic abolitionists, of freeing the slaves.” [58] Grissom assesses Southern slavery as follows:

There was a rudimentary misconception among northerners about slavery and the negro in general. Fiercely believing that slaves, who in the mild form of slavery practiced in the South would more fittingly have been called servants, were an unhappy lot just waiting for a chance to escape, …[59]

Grissom has a chapter titled, “Reconstruction – Nightmare of the South.” Quoting Thomas Dixon, he portrays African Americans as wild ignorant irresponsible savages in a time of misrule and corruption:

In North Carolina, burned plantations had resulted in roaming bands of negro bandits. In the northeastern part of that state, the crimes perpetrated by these hoodlums were particularly atrocious. They raided the unprotected countryside, burning houses and looting with near impunity. They entered the homes of defenseless ladies, forced them to entertain at the piano, cursed them, robbed them, stripped them of their clothing, and subjected them to indignities better left unprinted. [60]

With a little prodding, the illiterate negro masses could be worked into a frenzy at most any time. [61]

Grissom defends the infamous Black Codes explaining that they were needed to get African Americans to work for wages. [62] Voting rights for African Americans, the 14^th Amendment, and 15^th Amendment to the United States Constitution which, respectively, made African Americans citizens and gave African Americans the right to vote are asserted by Grissom to be the cynical plans of the Republican party to manipulate ignorant African Americans. Grissom writes:

… There were nearly 4,000,000 negroes in Dixie, most of whom could neither read nor write. Most of them had no comprehension of matters beyond the boundary of the plantation, this ignorance of affairs presenting a golden opportunity to the Republicans who could instruct them how to vote. Forbid white people to vote, and Negroes could be manipulated into sending Republicans to Congress from every Southern state.[63]

Grissom refuses to recognize African Americans as citizens in the Reconstruction state constitutional conventions complaining:

Every southern state was required to rewrite its constitution in a constitutional convention of delegates chosen in a statewide election of all adult males, except those with disqualifications. This meant that many ex-Confederates could not vote, and it meant that Negroes, even though they were not citizens, could vote. [Italics in the original][64]

The SCV started selling Grissom’s book in Confederate Veteran in 2001in the “Classic Southern Reprints,” section with the notice, “Celebrates in photographs and text the enduring legacy of being a Southerner. Issues a clarion call for those who love the South to defend and maintain that heritage.”[65] It is currently sold by the SCV in online with the notice, “The essential handbook for Southerners-proudly proclaims the traditions, the culture and the values that have long distinguished the South from the rest of the nation.”[66] It was sold in the SCV Merchandise Catalogs for 2004-2005, 2005-2006, 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2011-2012, with the same book notice.[67]

Other books sold by the SCV praise or defend the Klan. One is Mildred Rutherford’s book, “The Truths of History,” which also defends slavery. A reprint of this 1920 work is sold in the SCV Merchandise Catalog for 2004-2005, 2005-2006, 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2011-2012.[68] The book is continues to be sold by the SCV online as of 5/25/2013.[69] It was also sold in the Confederate Veteran as a “Confederate Gift from IHQ.”[70] There are other books that defend the Reconstruction era Klan sold by the SCV.

Another book sold by the SCV and since 2006 that defends the Klan is “When in the Course of Human Events: Arguing the Case for Southern Secession,” by Charles Adams. It has a chapter titled, “The Ku Klux Klan,” which is a lengthy defense and justification of the Ku Klux Klan. It is first sold in the Sept./Oct. 2006 issue of the Confederate Veteran.[71] The SCV currently sells this book online.[72] It was sold in the SCV Merchandise Catalog for 2004-2005, 2005-2006, 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2011-2012.[73]

Most notable is the SCV selling and promotion of reprints of Stanley F. Horn’s 1939 book, “Invisible Empire: The Story of the Ku Klux Klan 1866-1871.” It is a pro-Klan book with a white supremacist view of Reconstruction. The review in the Journal of Southern History notes that “There is a pro-southern and pro-Klan bias…”[74] The book review in the Journal of Negro History comments:

Hr. Horn’s account lacks objectivity. … He is able to see grave danger in a Negro walking innocently near a white woman, and yet he is able to see only amusement in a mob of white Klansmen frightening a Negro almost to death with grotesque costumes and weird threats.[75]

It is sold in the May/June 2004 Confederate Veteran with the book note comment, “Conceived in the minds of six former Confederates as a social club for their own amusement, this Klan was disbanded in 1871 after its purpose of countering post-war aggression against the Southern people by the carpetbaggers was fulfilled. Presented for research purposes.”[76] This book note is also a justification and defense of the Klan. Currently the SCV sells this book online with the same comment.[77] It was sold in the SCV Merchandise Catalog for 2004-2005, 2005-2006, 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2011-2012 with again the same comment of the Klan being a defender of the South.[78]

Frank Conner’s 2002 book, “The South Under Siege: 1830-2000,” is white supremacist,defends Antebellum slavery, and virulently anti-Semitic. Conner’s essay published in the SCV’s Southern Mercury, mentioned above, is drawn from his book, but with one important difference: The Southern Mercury essay has all his comments about Jews removed. In “The South Under Siege,” Conner argues that the civil rights movement is a Jewish conspiracy against the South. Compare this section with the quoted section from the Southern Mercury article:

Until after the turn of the 20^th century, anthropologists had routinely recorded genetic as well as cultural differences between races and ethnic groups – that being the whole point of anthropology. The highlighted differences among the races hand included those of intelligence. But as Kevin MacDonald points out in The Culture of Critique, a German-Jewish-immigrant named Franz Boas changed all that. At Columbia, Boas arbitrarily claimed that biological differences between races were miniscule – that environment alone shaped the behavior of the different races and ethnic groups (a la Rousseau). A number of other Jewish anthropologists swiftly adopted Boas’ position; and soon the Jews dominated the field of cultural anthropology. As MacDonald points out, by 1915 the Jews had gained control of the American Anthropological Association; and by 1926 they were chairing the anthropology departments at all of the major universities.

Conner has a lot to say about Jews in his book and calls “Northern Jewish intellectuals/activists,” the South’s “dedicated and deadliest enemies.”[80]

This book is praised by Ann Rives Zappa in the SCV’s Southern Mercury, as “a masterful volume of work painstakingly researched by author Frank Conner.” Zappa mentions Conner’s chapter on the civil rights movement, stating, “Author Conner uses several Chapters of “The South Under Siege” to detail the rise of powerful black political movements and the proliferation of our enemies. He covers policies and events created by liberals through the Supreme Court and Congress during the Fifties and Sixties to keep the South in subjugation.” Zappa avoids mentioning Conner’s ideas about Jews or the IQ of African Americans in her review, demonstrating a tactic of the SCV to promote extremist ideology, but do it in a way that is not in plain view.[81]

The book is sold in the Sept./Oct. 2004 Confederate Veteran, as a “Confederate Gift from IHQ,” with a book notice stating:

This important new book by SCV member Frank Conner examines the true relations between the North and the South from 1830 to June 2000. It identifies the real history of each region, and the lies and distortions by which the Northern liberals have created totally false stereotypes of both the Northern liberal and the traditional white southerner. It tells what the North has done to the South and why the North claims to have done it, why the North really did it, and what the consequences have been. An excellent defense against the official history currently taught in the government schools.[82]

Though in the book Jews are discussed extensively, again the SCV doesn’t mention this in its ad when promoting this anti-Semitic book to its members. Again this shows how the SCV promotes prejudice under the table.

The book is sold by the SCV Online as of 5/25/2013 with the same book notice.[83] As well it is sold in the SCV Merchandise Catalog for 2004-2005, 2005-2006, 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2011-2012, with the same book notice.[84]

The Chaplains’ Corp of the SCV in their Chaplains’ Corps Chronicles of the Sons of Confederate Veterans explained that there was a Confederate view of Islam. In a Nov. 2006 issue is an article titled, “Confederate View of Islam,” with the introduction:

Our Confederate compatriots saw the immense paganism and evil in false religions, and Islam was one of those that they viewed in such a way.

The article consists of quotes disparaging Islam from leading Antebellum pro-slavery theologians, James Henley Thornwell, John L. Girardeau, and R.L. Dabney, who neo-Confederates identify with the Confederacy and whose theological ideas form the basis of modern neo-Confederate Christianity”[85]

In the SCV’s Southern Mercury, an article “What Thomas Jefferson Learned From the Q’uran,” by Ted Sampley holds Muslims to be dangerous enemies. Sampley opens up with the statement:

Democrat Keith Ellison is now officially the first Muslim United States Congressman. True to his pledge, he placed his hand on the Q’uran, the Muslim book of jihad, and pledged his allegiance to the United States during his ceremonial swearing-in.

The article states that Ellison “chose to use Jefferson’s Q’uran because it showed a ‘visionary like Jefferson’ believed that wisdom could be gleaned from many sources.” Sampley recounts the history of the 1^st and 2^nd Barbary Wars against some North African states which practiced piracy. Sampley recasts this war as not against the Barbary pirates but recasts it as a war against Muslims. He sarcastically concludes his article stating:

Jefferson had been right. The “medium of war” was the only way to put an end to the Muslim problem. Mr. Ellison was right about Jefferson. He was a “visionary” wise enough to read and learn about the enemy from their own Muslim Holy Book.[86]

The Sons of Confederate Veterans at their national convention in 2011 in Montgomery, Alabama awarded their Law and Order award to Maricopa, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio which was presented to Arpaio by the Commander of the SCV Arizona Division.[87]

This wasn’t surprising since the SCV has been developing a view on immigration over the years. In Volume 2002 issues of Confederate Veteran, Patrick Buchanan’s book, “The Death of the West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil our Country and Civilization,” is sold in the “Classic Southern Reprints” section with a book notice stating, “Bursting with facts, from which the reader can draw his own conclusions. Should be required reading for every American voter.”[88]

It is in the Southern Mercury that the SCV’s agenda on immigration was communicated to the membership. Michael W. Masters’ essay, “The Tolerance Scam,” mentioned above, has an apocalyptic view of immigration. After discussing civil rights and anti-racism, Masters writes:

But there is worse yet to come. Immigration is profoundly changing the demographic face of America. Massive Third-World immigration is the cultural Marxists’ ultimate weapon in breaking the hegemony of Western culture. But, has anyone considered the nature of post-Western society, when Western people are no longer numerous to win elections?

Masters sees this leading to dictatorships and asks the reader, “Would America’s current majority feel secure living in a country ruled by the likes of Idi Amin?” His fear of non-white immigration is part of his fear of minorities, multiculturalism, and civil rights in general which he feels is going to be oppressive if not genocidal to white Southerners.[89]

Other articles in the Southern Mercury discuss immigration, quote Tom Tancredo, and one article rejects a working paper on immigration by the United Methodist Church, “To Love the Sojourner.” In one article the reader is told that “To view the ‘Immigration Profile’ of any United States Congressman, Visit http://profiles.numberusa.com.”[90] This is an advocacy group for lower immigration.

One note worthy article in the August 2007 Southern Mercury was by Rev. Robert Slimp, a member of the Council of Conservative Citizens and who had spent years defending Apartheid in South Africa. In the article Slimp is alarmed by a new immigration bill being discussed in the U.S. Senate including Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Slimp warns readers:

It is important for Southerners to know that Senator Graham recently received a top award from La Raza at a recent national meeting of this racist organization. La Raza, which means race is Spanish, is not only in favor of allowing all Mexicans who wish to enter America to join those who are already here, but they want to eventually start a new country in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. The new country would be called Atzlan, and Aztec word for “lost territories.”

There is no reason for this madness. We must stop granting amnesty to illegals, many of whom are criminals, drug dealers, and members of treacherous gangs ..

Slimp sees passage of an immigration bill as part of a plan to merge Mexico, Canada and the United States into single nation, the North American Union, with a Trans-Texas Corridor which is supposed to be some super highway and a proposed currency “Amero.” An organization called The Minutemen is praised.

Those of us in the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the League of the South, and other dedicated Neo-Confederates must continue to be very active and effective. We must continue the fight. We can win![91]

Immigration is a legitimate topic for discussion and has long been discussed in America. However, the SCV promotes a hysterical view of immigration and sees it part of the agenda of their organization.

The campaign against immigration in the SCV’s regular publication Confederate Veteran began in 2008 when an article by then Lt. Commander-in-Chief R. Michael Givens, who is now the SCV’s Commander-in-Chief, is upset with an article by Chris Dickey about immigration and sounds the alarm about immigration as follows:

What young Mr. Dickey is pressing is that if we would just give up our devotion to the past, we could be forgiven our sins and embraced into the world of Marxist utopia. We could destroy all borders and make one North American nation from the Arctic Circle to the Panama Canal (Now, wouldn’t that be grand). His article amounted to campaign propaganda for presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama.

In addition to this familiar attack on our culture, we must realize the opposition in the form of apathy that plaques our fellow Southrons. America has within her borders more than 20 million illegal aliens. About 700,000 to 1,000,000 more cross our borders every year. I doubt that nary a one of these adventure-seeking nomads cares one iota for our Confederate and American heritage. All of our American institutions will be diluted right before our eyes. And most Americans will sit quietly by and hardly notice.

But there is hope. There is hope as long as we have men who are committed to the Charge of the SCV. We will not be alone in this struggle, but we may be along at the vanguard of defense. [92]

The “Charge of the SCV,” is a specific text which is held up as the purpose of the SCV and Givens here is defining that purpose as opposing immigration.

Givens however, doesn’t feel threaten only by immigrants from outside the USA. Later writing as Commander-in-Chief, Givens blames the declining admiration for the Confederacy in the South on Northerners who have moved to the South explaining:

What in fact has happened to our Southland is the continued free-flow immigration from the North. It has been said ad nauseam the victors of the war write the history books. This is true, but the close proximity of the authors of liberty’s defeat had been a bigger problem for our region. Granted, many of our friends from the North are kind, God-fearing people, but they rarely share with us a respect for our ancestors.

The problem with “Northerners” Given’s explains is that they don’t have the proper view of the Civil War like the Sons of Confederate Veterans and as a consequence he writes:

Therefore, we are left with an unthinking, uneducated mass of domestic immigrates who care nothing for our traditions and have little tradition to offer of their own. I know this sounds harsh, and really I don’t mean it as an insult but more as an observation. I feel these are the factors which are chipping away – not only at our beloved Southern culture – but also at the very foundation of American liberty.[93]

The Red Shirts were a white supremacist group that terrorized the supporters of multi-racial democracy in South Carolina and through these tactics won the election of 1876 in South Carolina. Since 2004 the SCV has sold books which represent the Red Shirts as heroes and the overthrow of South Carolina’s multiracial democracy and the establishment of a white supremacist regime as a great accomplishment. The SCV sold “Hampton and His Red Shirts” by Alfred B . Williams as a “Confederate Gift from IHQ” in their May/June 2004 Confederate Veteran. The book note states, “This book is a fascinating chronicle of how the people of South Carolina, let [sic] by former Confederate General Wade Hampton and his famous Red Shirts, rose up to free themselves from the intolerable and dangerous conditions of the Reconstruction period.”[94] The SCV currently sells this book online.[95]

The SCV sells online “Ousting the Carpetbaggers,” by Henry T. Thompson, another book glorifying the Red Shirts.[96]

Both of these books were sold in the SCV Merchandise catalogs of 2004-2005, 2005-2006, 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2011-2012.[97]

SCV chaplains in the SCV Chaplain Corps use the terms ‘sodomites’ and ‘sodomy’ when referring to and condemning gays. H. Rondel Rumburg, past Chaplain-in-Chief of the SCV, in the March 2007 issue of the Chaplain’s Corps Chronicles of the Sons of Confederate Veterans condemns those who would support historical apologies by the State of Virginia for past wrongs stating that “these same people need to confess their own offenses to God and to the people they have mislead,” among the things Rumburg considers offenses, is that of being, “guilty of protecting sodomites, thus spreading AIDS.”[98] In another article in Sept. 2009 issue of the Chaplain’s Corp Chronicles Rumburg laments that after the Civil War “Deconstructionists” worked to bring humanism to the South which he claims has had disastrous results, among other things such as “an enthroning of sodomy as a preferred lifestyle.”[99]

Former Chaplain-in-Chief Alister C. Anderson gave the Invocation delivered at the Confederate Evangelistic Sesquicentennial Service on February 25, 2012 which was reprinted in the April 2012 issue of the Chaplain’s Corp Chronicles. In it he enthusiastically praises “Southern ancestors” that they were “manly men who preached about ‘tough love’ and who would not condone the ministry and preaching of non-Biblical, cheesy, whinny, quiche-eating, effete, effeminate pastors who were afraid of their own shadow,” which presumably is a criticism of contemporary pastors. Further, Anderson worries, “O Lord Jesus Christ, could the radical, despotic, contempt for women, Jihadist Muslim critique of our supposedly Judeo-Christian civilization be true?,” and “O Lord, are we a narcissistic, selfish, self-centered, spectator-oriented, voyeuristic pornographic culture that is possessed with the desire for elicit [sic] sexual activity, fornication, and sodomy?”[100]

In the Sept./Oct. 2009 Confederate Veteran Chaplain-in-Chief Cecil A. Fayard, Jr., in the Chaplain’s Comments section asserts that America is in trouble. Fayard says is that America has become immoral, "We have sown immorality," he writes and "We live in a very loose society, a wicked nation morally. All types of unspeakable and deplorable acts are being committed by deviant men and women." Fayard also states as a sign that America is in trouble that “One school curriculum in America teaches acceptance of homosexuality in the first grade…”[101]

The SCV is an organization that is entirely hostile to any rights for gays and Lesbians.

Neo-Confederates see the Civil War not as a conflict over slavery but instead a Holy War between an Orthodox Christian South with a Christian army and a heretical North. Unitarians and Transcendentalists are held to be special enemies of the South. Abolitionism in particular is held by neo-Confederates to be one of these heretical ideas against what they feel is the Christian orthodox view that the Bible does defend slavery.[102]

This idea has been presented in the Confederate Veteran more than once, but the “Chaplain’s Comments,” columns by Chaplain-in-Chief Mark W. Evans in the issues of the Confederate Veteran in 2010 and later show that this Confederate Christian ideology is current in the SCV.

In the Nov./Dec. 2010 Confederate Veteran “Chaplain’s Comments” column, Evans states that, “Our Southern ancestors had reverence for the Bible and believed what it said. Because of this God-given knowledge, they remained steadfast in orthodox Christianity.” This he contrasts to the “North” which he states, “Erroneous theories flowing from the Northeast were especially troublesome. One wave of heretical teaching followed another, striking at the vitals of orthodox Christianity.” In particular, Transcendentalism is singled out by Evans, who also asserts that Abolitionists were heretics whose “godless enthusiasm reached a pinnacle when they demanded the immediate elimination of slavery.”

Evans quotes James Henley Thornwell, an Antebellum pro-slavery theologian from South Carolina, regarding abolitionism:

The parties in this conflict are not merely abolitionists and slave holders – they are atheists, socialists, communists, red republicans, Jacobins on the one side and the friends of regulated order and regulated freedom on the other. In one world, the world is the battleground – Christianity and atheism the combatants and the progress of humanity is at stake.

Benjamin Morgan Palmer, another pro-slavery theologian of New Orleans pro-secession speech of 1860 is also quoted by Evans:

The abolitionist spirit is undeniably atheistic … To the South is assigned the high position of defending before all nations the cause of all religion and of all truth.

In the conclusion of his column Evans states, “Now, almost 150 years later, ungodly thinking has taken our land to the brink of destruction,” representing this conflict as continuing to the present day.[103]

Evans advocates that ideas of Confederate Christianity are applicable to the present and that the membership of the Sons of Confederate Veterans should act as a ‘religious right’ organization in present day politics. In a 2011 Chaplain’s Comments” column eulogizing Confederate leaders Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson and Robert E. Lee as Christian warriors, Evans states:

Such Christian warriors were not bigoted racists and traitors. They were God-fearing defenders of their homes, their Constitutional liberties, their biblical convictions, and their right to self-government. As Sons of Confederate Veterans, we maintain and defend our heritage. The principles motivating our ancestors came from the Bible. We need the same teachings spread through our land today. Our country is in danger from Marxism, humanism, atheism, secularism and other anti-Christian movements.[104]

In another column in the March/April 2013 Confederate Veteran Evans discusses Robert L. Dabney, another pro-slavery nineteenth century theologian. “History has proven the correctness of the foresight of our ancestors,” Evans explains, “Now, some 150 years later, the land faces another crisis which is beyond the Southland and includes the entire country.” Again the theological idea of the Civil War and the Confederacy are seen as applicable to present day politics.[105]

This idea of the current SCV being a political Christian organization to fight “culture wars” and Confederate heritage as being applicable to present day politics is not new with Evans. Alister C. Anderson as Chaplain-in-Chief in a 1999 Confederate Veteran “Chaplain’s Comments” column stated:

My brother compatriots I ask you to remember we are soldiers in the Army of God and are organized along the military lines of our soldier ancestors. We are called to discipline ourselves so that we can train and teach our posterity about the true history and moral foundation of our ancestors’ lives. I ask you to remember that the spiritual discipline within our brotherhood is essential for the success of our mission and in a larger sense is crucial for the survival of our Republic in these dreadfully immoral times.[106]

In a 2003 article, the SCV’s Frank Conner calls for the SCV to instruct the membership on what Confederate heritage is, namely, a pre-civil rights Old South ideology, so they can be advocates for it.[107] What is key here is that Confederate heritage is being defined not as just remembering the historical Confederacy, but a whole ideological system of politics, religion, and culture of the Old South before emancipation and before civil rights. In a more ominous follow-up article in 2004 in Southern Mercury, Conner proposes to reorganize the SCV to fight “culture wars,” and explains his training plan.

The first training program will teach each SCV member what his Confederate heritage is: the Protestant-based conservative belief system, and the set of values and way of life resulting from it, which were the essence of the Old South ...”

Conner’s second proposed training program is to “teach each SCV member about the ideological (culture) war that various groups of Northern liberals have been waging against the South ever since the 1830s.”

Conner asserts that if his plan is followed, “it would stand a good chance of defeating our liberal and black activist enemies in the culture war that they have been waging so devastatingly against us and our heritage until now.” [108]

The SCV isn’t just a history interest group, it is instead mobilizing and planning on being an “Army of God” for a reactionary culture war agenda that is against civil rights, pluralism, racial equality, denounces Abolitionism as being heretical and anti-Christian, and defends Antebellum slavery as being justified by an orthodox Christian understanding of the Bible. It is an organization at war with American values.

In the ideology and arguments of the SCV there is an indirect and subtle defamation of white Southerners by assuming that all white Southerners, except those who they call ‘scalawags,’ their term for those they consider traitors to the South, are what their idea of a white Southerner is, which is some type of bigot and someone who identifies with the Confederacy. White Southerners, like any people, are a complex group, and are far from homogenous. Many do not want to go back to 1920 and see the restoration of Jim Crow. The assumption made by the SCV that they represent the opinions of this population is defamatory, as the definition of what is a Southerner is evolving and is less and less is to be automatically assumed to be white, but instead a member of a multiracial society in the Sunbelt states.

[1] McMichael, Charles E., “Report of the Commander-in-Chief: The Power of an Unflinching Spirit,” Confederate Veteran, Vol. 68 No. 4, July/August 2010, pages 4-5. Discussion of media on page 4. Note: The volume and numbering system of Confederate Veteran magazine issues has varied widely and been somewhat eccentric. The volume and number given for this issue is what is on this issue.

[2] Beirich, Heidi “The Struggle for the Sons Confederate Veterans: A Return to White Supremacy in the Early Twenty-First Century?” in Euan Hague, Edward H. Sebesta and Heidi Beirich (ed.) Neo-Confederacy: A critical introduction (Austin, University of Texas, 2008).

[3] Sullivan, Christopher M., “Report of the Lt. Commander-in-Chief,” Confederate Veteran, Vol. 63 No. 4, Sept./Oct. 2005 pages 8-9, guidance quoted on page 9.

[5] Wilson, Ron, “Important Message from the Editor,” Southern Mercury, Vol. 6 No. 4 July/Aug. 2008, page 8. I mention why the publication was closed down to preclude assertions that it was shut down because the SCV rejected the publications message. The neo-Confederates have a strategy when found out about one of their extremists beliefs to try to assert it was a rogue element or that they have changed, they were racists or extremists 15 minutes ago, but now they are reformed.

[6] Wilson, Ron G., “Report from the Commander-in-Chief,” Confederate Veteran, Vol. 3 2003, pages 2-3. Note: the Confederate Veteran had at this time a system where the issues would be given a year and a different volume number for each issue of that year, So 2002 had six volumes identified as 2002 Vol. 1, 2002 Vol. 2, etc. Ron Wilson was indicted for running a silver ponzi scheme defrauding investors of tens of millions of dollars.

[7] The title given is jumbled, it is “Red Republicans and Lincoln’s Marxists: Marxism in the Civil War.”

[8] Stang, Alan, “Republican Party: Red From the Start,” Southern Mercury, Vol. 6 No. 2, March/April 2008, pages 26-29. His web page was www.alanstang.com. Using www.archive.org you can visit his webpage in 2008 and read about a book in which he accuses George W. Bush and Carl Rove as being part of a conspiracy where, “while all along they have colluded to make the Republican Party a sodomite organization from the top down.” Hence possibly his use of “flaming” in his writings.

[9] Kennedy, Walter D., “Lincoln’s Band of Tyrants,” Confederate Veteran, Vol. 70 No. 6, Nov./Dec. 2012, pages 16-22, 24, 52-53, 56-57.

[10] Conner, Frank, “Where We Stand Now: And How We Got Here,” Southern Mercury, Vol. 1 No. 2, pages 10-14, quote on page 12.

[11] Conner, Frank, “Where We Stand Now: And How We Got Here,” Southern Mercury, Vol. 1 No. 2, pages 10-14, quote on page 12.

[12] Conner, Frank, “Where We Stand Now: And How We Got Here,” Southern Mercury, Vol. 1 No. 2, pages 10-14, quote on page 13.

[13] Conner, Frank, “Where We Stand Now: And How We Got Here,” Southern Mercury, Vol. 1 No. 2, pages 10-14, quote on page 13.

[14] Conner, Frank, “Where We Stand Now: And How We Got Here,” Southern Mercury, Vol. 1 No. 2, pages 10-14, quote on page 13.

[15] Conner, Frank, “Where We Stand Now: And How We Got Here,” Southern Mercury, Vol. 1 No. 2, pages 10-14, quote on page 13.

[16] Conner, Frank, “The Enemy’s Strategy,” Southern Mercury, Vol. 2 No. 1, pages 5-7, 32-33, quote on page 5.

[17] Conner, Frank, “The Enemy’s Strategy,” Southern Mercury, Vol. 2 No. 1, pages 5-7, 32-33, quote on page 7.

[18] Masters, Michael W., ‘The Tolerance Scam,” Southern Mercury, Vol. 4 No. 4, July/August 2006, pages 8-9. 30-34.Quote from page 30.

[19] Masters, Michael W., ‘The Tolerance Scam,” Southern Mercury, Vol. 4 No. 4, July/August 2006, pages 8-9. 30-34.Quote from page 32.

[20] Cathey, Boyd D., “The Land We Love: Southern Tradition and Our Future,” Confederate Veteran, Vol. 70 No. 2, March/April 2012, pages 16-23, 56-59.

[21] Kennedy, James Ronald & Kennedy, Walter Donald, “The South Was Right!,” 2^nd Edition, pp. 167-181, Pelican Publishing, Gretna, 1994. “evil scheme” reference pp. 168, “evil goals” pp. 180.

[22] Kennedy, James Ronald & Kennedy, Walter Donald, “The South Was Right!,” 2^nd Edition, pp. 169-178, Pelican Publishing, Gretna, 1994.

[23] Kennedy, James Ronald & Kennedy, Walter Donald, “The South Was Right!,” pp. 369- 379, 2^nd Edition, Pelican Publishing, Gretna, 1994.

[24] Kennedy, James Ronald & Kennedy, Walter Donald, “The South Was Right!,” pp. 178, 2^nd Edition, Pelican Publishing, Gretna, 1994.

[25] Kennedy, James Ronald & Kennedy, Walter Donald, “The South Was Right!,” pp. 151, 2^nd Edition, Pelican Publishing, Gretna, 1994.

[26] Kennedy, James Ronald & Kennedy, Walter Donald, “The South Was Right!,” pp. 251, 2^nd Edition, Pelican Publishing, Gretna, 1994.

[27] Kennedy, James Ronald & Kennedy, Walter Donald, “The South Was Right!,” pp. 247-256, 2^nd Edition, Pelican Publishing, Gretna, 1994.

[28] Hill, Michael, “The Good Kennedys,” Chronicles, Vol. 20 No. 10, December 1996, pages 44-45.

[29] Vogler, James N. Jr, “Books in Print,” Confederate Veteran, Nov. – Dec. 1991, page 10.

[30] Vogler, James N. Jr, “Books in Print,” Confederate Veteran, Nov. – Dec. 1994, page 4.

[31] No Author, “Christmas Ideas from SCV International Headquarters,” 2001 Volume 5, pages 22-23.

[32]Sons of Confederate Veterans Merchandise Catalog 2004-2005, page 29; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2005-2006, page 29; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2008-2009, page 28; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2009-2010, page 28; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2011-2012, page 28. Note, the author only possesses five of these catalogs, there may be others which might also have this book listed.

[33] https://scv.secure-sites.us/store.php, printed out 6/9/2013.

[34] Roper, Gary Lee, “Antebellum Slavery: An Orthodox Christian View,” published by Gary Lee Roper, April 2008, page 281-82.

[35] Roper, Gary Lee, “Antebellum Slavery: An Orthodox Christian View,” published by Gary Lee Roper, April 2008, page 285.

[36] No author, “Confederate Gifts from IHQ,” Confederate Veteran, Vol. 66 No. 2, March/April 2008, page 62-63, unpaginated, book sold on page 62.

[37] https://scv.secure-sites.us/store.php, printed out 5/25/2013.

[38] Sons of Confederate Veterans 2008-2009 Merchandise Catalog, page 26; Sons of Confederate Veterans 2009-2010 Merchandise Catalog, page 26; Sons of Confederate Veterans 2011-2012 Merchandise Catalog, page 26. Note, the author only possesses five of these catalogs, there may be others which might also have this book listed.

[39] No author, “Confederate Gifts from IHQ,” Confederate Veteran, page 32-33, item on page 32.

[40] Sons of Confederate Veterans Merchandise Catalog 2004-2005, page 28; Sons of Confederate Veterans 2005-2006 Merchandise Catalog, page 26; Sons of Confederate Veterans 2008-2009 Merchandise Catalog, page 26. Note, the author only possesses five of these catalogs, there may be others which might also have this book listed.

[41] Zappa, Ann Rives, “Myths of American Slavery by Walter D. Kenney,” book review, Southern Mercury, Vol. 1 No. 3, Nov./Dec. 2003, pages 30-31.

[42] https://scv.secure-sites.us/store.php, printed out 5/25/2013.

[43] Sons of Confederate Veterans Merchandise Catalog 2004-2005, page 28; Sons of Confederate Veterans 2005-2006 Merchandise Catalog, page 28; Sons of Confederate Veterans 2008-2009 Merchandise Catalog, page 27; Sons of Confederate Veterans 2009-2010 Merchandise Catalog, page 27; Sons of Confederate Veterans 2011-2012 Merchandise Catalog, page 27. Note, the author only possesses five of these catalogs, there may be others which might also have this book listed.

[44] Kennedy, Walter D., “Myths of American Slavery,” Pelican Publishing, Gretna, Louisiana, 2003. Golden Rule item on page 98; Comment on Southern Baptist resolution on page 89.

[45] Kennedy, Walter D., “Myths of American Slavery,” Pelican Publishing, Gretna, Louisiana, 2003. Golden Rule item on page 98; Comment on Southern Baptist resolution on page 89.

[46] Rose, S.E.F., “ The Ku Klux Klan or Invisible Empire,” published L. Graham Co. Ltd., New Orleans, 1914. Quote in unpaginated front pages. To read excerpts of the book go to www.confederatepastpresent.org and use search term “Klan” to find other books praising the Klan published by neo-Confederates.

[47] No author, “Classic Southern Reprints,” Confederate Veteran, 2001 Vol. 1, pages 28-29, quote from page 28.

[48] No author, “Classic Southern Reprints,” Confederate Veteran, 2001 Vol. 3, pages 42-43, quote from page 43.

[49] No author, “Classic Southern Reprints,” Confederate Veteran, 2002 Vol. 1, pages 44-45, quote from page 45.

[50] https://scv.secure-sites.us/store.php, printed out 5/25/2013.

[51] Sons of Confederate Veterans Merchandise Catalog 2004-2005, page 37; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2005-2006, page 37; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2008-2009, page 36; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2009-2010, page 36; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2011-2012, page 36. Note, the author only possesses five of these catalogs, there may be others which might also have this video listed.

[52] Grissom, Michael Andrew, “Southern by the Grace of God,” pp. 173-178, Pelican Publishing Company, Gretna, 1992.

[53] Grissom, Michael Andrew, “Southern by the Grace of God,” pp. 173-4, Pelican Publishing Company, Gretna, 1992.

[54] Grissom, Michael Andrew, “Southern by the Grace of God,” pp. 180-181, Pelican Publishing Company, Gretna, 1992.

[55] Grissom, Michael Andrew, “Southern by the Grace of God,” pp. 181-182, Pelican Publishing Company, Gretna, 1992.

[56] Grissom, Michael Andrew, “Southern by the Grace of God,” pp. 446-448, Pelican Publishing Company, Gretna, 1992.

[57] Vogler, James N. Jr., “Books In Print,” Confederate Veteran, Sept.-Oct. 1989, page 37. Note: This issue has no volume or number given to it. The system of volumes and numbers varies widely for the Confederate Veteran.

[58] Grissom, Michael Andrew, “Southern by the Grace of God,” pp. 127, Pelican Publishing Company, Gretna, 1992.

[59] Grissom, Michael Andrew, “Southern by the Grace of God,” pp. 128, Pelican Publishing Company, Gretna, 1992.

[60] Grissom, Michael Andrew, “Southern by the Grace of God,” pp. 151, Pelican Publishing Company, Gretna, 1992.

[61] Grissom, Michael Andrew, “Southern by the Grace of God,” pp. 166, Pelican Publishing Company, Gretna, 1992.

[62] Grissom, Michael Andrew, “Southern by the Grace of God,” pp. 162-164, Pelican Publishing Company, Gretna, 1992.

[63] Grissom, Michael Andrew, “Southern by the Grace of God,” pp. 165-171, Pelican Publishing Company, Gretna, 1992.

[64] Grissom, Michael Andrew, “Southern by the Grace of God,” pp. 167, Pelican Publishing Company, Gretna, 1992.

[65] No author, “Classic Southern Reprints,” Confederate Veteran, Vol. 3 2001, pages 42-43, book notice on page 42.

[66] https://scv.secure-sites.us/store.php, printed out 5/26/2013.

[67]Sons of Confederate Veterans Merchandise Catalog 2004-2005, page 29; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2005-2006, page 29; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2008-2009, page 28; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2009-2010, page 28; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2011-2012, page 28. Note, the author only possesses five of these catalogs, there may be others which might also have this book listed.

[68] Sons of Confederate Veterans Merchandise Catalog 2004-2005, page 21; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2005-2006, page 21; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2008-2009, page 20; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2009-2010, page 20; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2011-2012, page 20. Note, the author only possesses five of these catalogs, there may be others which might also have this book listed.

[69] https://scv.secure-sites.us/store.php, printed out 5/25/2013.

[70] No author, “Confederate Gifts from IHQ,” Confederate Veteran, Vol. 67 No. 1, Jan./Feb. 2009, pages 62-63, book notice on page 63.

[71] No author, “Confederate Gifts from IHQ,” Confederate Veteran, Vol. 64 No. 5, Sept./Oct. 2006, page 63.

[72] https://scv.secure-sites.us/store.php, printed out 6/8/2013.

[73] Sons of Confederate Veterans Merchandise Catalog 2004-2005, page 29; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2005-2006, page 29; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2008-2009, page 28; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2009-2010, page 28; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2011-2012, page 27. Note, the author only possesses five of these catalogs, there may be others which might also have this book listed.

[74] Woody, R.H., book review of “Invisible Empire: The Story of the Ku Klux Klan,” Journal of Southern History, Vol. 5 No. 3, Aug. 1939, pages 402-404.

[75] Browning, James B., book review of “Invisible Empire: The Story of the Ku Klux Klan,” Journal of Negro History, Vol. 24 No. 4, Oct. 1939, pages 457-458.

[76] No author, “Confederate Gifts from IHQ,” Confederate Veteran, Vol. 62 No. 3, May/June 2004, page 62.

[77] https://scv.secure-sites.us/store.php, printed out 6/8/2013.

[78] Sons of Confederate Veterans Merchandise Catalog 2004-2005, page 30; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2005-2006, page 30; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2008-2009, page 29; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2009-2010, page 29; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2011-2012, page 29. Note, the author only possesses five of these catalogs, there may be others which might also have this book listed.

[79] Conner, Frank, “Where We Stand Now: And How We Got Here,” Southern Mercury, Vol. 1 No. 2, pages 10-14, quote on page 12.

[80] Conner, Frank, “The South Under Siege: 1830-200,” Collards Publishing Company, Newnan, Georgia, 2002. Reference to Franz Boas on page 393, reference to “Northern Jewish intellectuals,” page 406.

[81] Zappa, Anne Rives, book review, “The South Under Siege: 1830-2000,” Southern Mercury, Vol. 1 No. 2, Sept./Oct. 2003, pages 30-31.

[82] No author, “Confederate Gifts from IHQ,” Confederate Veteran, Vol. 62 No. 5, Sept./Oct. 2004, Pages 62-63, book notice on page 62.

[83] https://scv.secure-sites.us/store.php, printed out 5/25/2013.

[84] Sons of Confederate Veterans Merchandise Catalog 2004-2005, page 29; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2005-2006, page 29; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2008-2009, page 28; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2009-2010, page 28; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2011-2012, page 28. Note, the author only possesses five of these catalogs, there may be others which might also have this book listed.

[85] No author, “Confederate view of Islam,” Chaplain’s Corps Chronicles of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Nov. 2006, pages 5-6, quote page 6. http://www.scv.org/pdf/chaplains/ChaplainsChronicleNov06.pdf, printed out 6/9/2013.

[86] Sampley, Ted, “What Thomas Jefferson Learned From The Q’uran,” Southern Mercury, Vol. 5 No. 2, April 2007, pages 12-13.

[87] No author, “Army of Trans-Mississippi,” Confederate Veteran, Vol. 71 No. 6, Nov./Dec. 2012, notice with photo of Arpaio and SCV officers, page 36.

[88] No author, “Classic Southern Reprints,” Confederate Veteran, 2002 Vol. 2, pages 36-37, book notice on page 36.

[89] Masters, Michael W., ‘The Tolerance Scam,” Southern Mercury, Vol. 4 No. 4, July/August 2006, pages 8-9. 30-34.Quote from page 31.

[90] No author, “In Other Words: Important and Forgotten Words 1907, Current and Memorable Words, 2006,” Southern Mercury, Vol. 5 No. 1 Feb. 2007, pages 6-7, wherein Tom Tancredo is quoted; Sentell, Lynda, “Immigration Around the World,” Southern Mercury, Vol. 5 No.2, April 2007 pages 16-20; No author, “American Congressmen Speak Out On Immigration,” Southern Mercury, Vol. 5 No. 2, April 2007, page 20, at which the reader is directed to http://profiles.numbersusa.com; Childress, Rev. Edwin, “The ‘Sojourner’ Argument: Scripture Texts Are Often Misused by Religious Communities to Advocate High Immigration,” Southern Mercury, Vol. 5 No. 2, April 2007, page24-27.

[91] Slimp, Rev. Robert, “The North American Union May End Our Constitutional Republic,” Southern Mercury Vol. 5 No. 3, August 2007, pages 12-15.

[92] Givens, R. Michael, “Report of the Lt. Commander-in-Chief,” Confederate Veteran, Vol. 66 No.5, Sept./Oct. 2008, pages 8-9, quote on page 9.

[93] Givens, R. Michael, “Report of the Commander-in-Chief,” Confederate Veteran, Vol. 69 No. 6, Nov./Dec. 2011, pages 4-5.

[94] No author, “Confederate Gifts from IHQ,” Confederate Veteran, Vol. 62 No. 3, May/June 2004, pages 62-63.

[95] SCV Online store, http://scv.secure-sites.us, printed out 6/8/2013.

[96] SCV Online store, http://scv.secure-sites.us, printed out 6/8/2013.

[97] Sons of Confederate Veterans Merchandise Catalog 2004-2005, page 30; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2005-2006, page 30; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2008-2009, page 29; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2009-2010, page 29; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2011-2012, page 29. Note, the author only possesses five of these catalogs, there may be others which might also have this book listed.

[98] Rumburg, R.H., “Scapegoating the South: Apologizing: The Result of Scapegoating,” Chaplain’s Corp Chronicles of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, March 2007, pages 4-8, quote on page 6, http://www.scv.org/pdf/chaplains/ChaplainsChronicleMar07.pdf printed out 6/8/2013.

[99] Rumburg, R.H., “Are We Adrift?,” Chaplain’s Corp Chronicles of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Sept. 2009, unpaginated, pages 10-13, quote on page 12, http://www.scv.org/pdf/chaplains/ChaplainsChronicleSep09.pdf printed out 6/8/2013.

[100] Anderson, Alister C., “Invocation Delivered at the Confederate Evangelistic Sesquicentennial Service,” Chaplain’s Corp Chronicles of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, April 2012, pages 13-15, quotes on page 15, http://www.scv.org/pdf/chaplains/ChaplainsChronicleApr12.pdf, printed out 6/8/2013.

[101] Fayard, Cecil A. Jr., “Chaplain’s Comments: America Is In Trouble, Part I,” Confederate Veteran, Vol. 67 No.5, Sept./Oct. 2009, pages 12-13, 45, quote on page 13.

[102] Hague, Euan, Sebesta, Edward H., "The US Civil War As A Theological War: Confederate Christian Nationalism and the League of the South," in Canadian Review of American Studies, Vol. 32 No. 3, 2002, pp. 253-284. An online pdf of this paper is available at http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/ConfederateChristianNationalism.pdf.

[103] Evans, Mark W., Chaplain-in-Chief SCV, “Chaplain’s Comments: Battle for Truth,” Confederate Veteran, Vol. 68 No. 6 , Nov./Dec. 2010, pages 12-13.

[104] Evans, Mark W., “Chaplain’s Comments: Christian Warriors,” Confederate Veteran, Vol. 69 No. 2 , March/April 2011, pages 12-13.

[105] Evans, Mark W., “Chaplain’s Comments: Is there not a cause,” Confederate Veteran, Vol. 71 No. 2, March/April 2013, pages 12-13.

[106] Anderson, Alister C., “Chaplain’s Comments,” Confederate Veteran, 1999 Vol. 6, pages 60-61.

[107] Conner, Frank, “Death of a Nation?: The Almost Forgotten Body and Soul of the Sons of Confederate Veterans,” Southern Mercury, Vol. 1 No. 1, July/August 2003, pages 8-13.

[108] Conner, Frank, “Reorganizing the Sons of Confederate Veterans,” Southern Mercury, Vol. 2 No. 3, May/June 2003, pages 8-11, 27.

Book	SCV Online Book Store	Sold in Confederate Veteran as either Southern or Confederate Gift	Sold in Merchandise Catalogs*	Commets
“South Side View of Slavery: Three Months in the South in 1854,” by Nehemiah Adams	As of 5/25/2013		2004-2005, 2005-2006, 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2011-2012.	The SCV is somewhat concerned about listing this book and so has a disclaimer that “is presented for research purposes only.”
“The Dred Scott Decision” by Elbert William R. Ewing	As of 5/25/2013	Started selling this in Vol. 1 2001 issue as a Classic Southern Reprint.	2004-2005, 2005-2006, 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2011-2012.	This book is a defense of the notorious Dred Scott decision.
“Liberty and Slavery” by Albert T. Bledsoe		Started selling this in Vol. 2 2003 issue as a “Confederate Gift from IHQ.”		The sales notice says, “Was Southern slavery at odds with true Liberty? This reprint of the 1856 classic by Albert T. Bledsoe states that Southern slavery preserved the 19^th century social order by denying liberty to those as yet unprepared to make proper use of it. Presented for research purposes only.”