SC (and other Southern States) Still Celebrating Confederacy Day

Today, May 10th 2021, after everything that has happened in this country over the past year (past 200 years!) and STILL today the racist state of South Caroline is celebrating “Confederacy Day,” or “Confederate Memorial Day.”

What does that even mean, well, “South Carolina chose May 10 because it is the day when Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson died in 1863 after he was wounded by his own troops and the day Union soldiers captured fleeing Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Georgia in 1865.”

Apparently, South Carolina is among a handful of states in the South with such an official holiday. State offices in Alabama and Mississippi closed down for their Confederate Memorial Days late last month. Our own Texas and Tennessee still commemorate Confederate day, but it is not an official holiday (still unacceptable)

South Carolina will close state government offices today to mark Confederate Memorial Day- kids are off the school, the whole bit.

All to honor white supremacy and the on-going battle to sustain it’s nefarious hold in this country.

Here is why it is still considered a “holiday,” even after last summer’s protests:

*The day is meant to recognize Confederate deaths during the Civil War, along with the date of the last major Confederate surrender at Bennett Place, North Carolina, on April 26, 1865.

*It was first recognized after the Georgia legislature passed a resolution in 1866 memorializing the war dead, and it later spread as one of several dates recognizing the Confederacy in states across the South.

*Protests during a national racial reckoning after the murder of George Floyd in 2020 took aim at the numerous ways the Confederacy is still revered in public, most notably monuments spread across the U.S. and especially centered in the South. The effort against the public display of Confederate monuments managed to get some results, with several major Confederate monumentscoming down. But it also brought significant pushback in states like Alabama and Mississippi, with the states actually taking up more official acts to protect their Confederate legacies. In Alabama, the state attorney general filed lawsuits against localities that took down Confederate monuments—including Birmingham, the state’s largest city. He claimed the local actions violated a 2017 law called the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act, prohibiting the disturbance of any monuments that have been on public property for 40 years or more. In Mississippi, Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed a proclamation declaring the whole of April as “Confederate Heritage Month,” even though the state did take action to replace its Confederate-themed flag.

This is outrageous and unacceptable that any of this is still allowed.

That any states are still legally able to close and honor the racist roots of our history.

The Confederate flag will even be worn, waved and celebrated today.

We at DJN are horrified by this practice in modern times and stand with all who seek to abolish and celebration of racism and oppression.

(info from https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2021/04/26/state-offices-close-for-confederate-memorial-day-in-alabama-and-mississippi-heres-why-its-still-an-official-holiday-there/?sh=61ba7bdb35fe)