Governor Phil Bryant recently released this proclamation:
April is the appropriate month to honor Confederate heritage because it is the month in which the Confederate States began and ended a four-year struggle. The state celebrates Confederate Memorial Day on April 25 to recognize those who served in the Confederacy.
It is important for all Americans to reflect upon our nation’s past and to gain insight from our mistakes and successes. We must earnestly strive to understand and appreciate our heritage and our opportunities which lie before us.
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Mississippi, along with Arkansas and Alabama, also celebrate Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s birthday on the same day as the federal Martin Luther King Jr. birthday in January.
Ironically, a war-weary Gen. Lee said after the Civil War ended that its symbols, including flags, should be put “in your attics.” That is the last thing the Sons of Confederate Veterans, or Phil Bryant for that matter, clearly intend to do.
Bryant has apparently made the same declaration in past years. Here is one from 2012 on the Mississippi United Daughters of the Confederacy website, discussion on the Dixie Outfitters website and on the American Renaissance website in 2013. Read more about Jared Taylor and American Renaissance here, as well as in this Jackson Free Press article about the network of organizations that influenced Dylann Roof.
Mississippi is not the only former Confederate state to celebrate the rebellion to maintain every April. The state joins Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Texas and, until recently, Virginia in the practice, with some calling it “Confederate History Month” instead. In 2010, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican, issued a similar proclamation, it caused a major outcry. In response, McDonell issued a statement apologizing for not mentioning slavery in the proclamation:
“The proclamation issued by this Office designating April as Confederate History Month contained a major omission. The failure to include any reference to slavery was a mistake, and for that I apologize to any fellow Virginian who has been offended or disappointed. The abomination of slavery divided our nation, deprived people of their God-given inalienable rights, and led to the Civil War. Slavery was an evil, vicious and inhumane practice which degraded human beings to property, and it has left a stain on the soul of this state and nation.”
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