Suffolk proclaims Confederate History Month

Wisdom of the week

[Reprinted from Issues & Views April 8, 2002]

In direct contradiction of Virginia's Governor Mark Warner, the black Mayor of Suffolk, Virginia, has given official recognition to the South's Confederate history. The state's Governor refused to issue what until recently was a tradition, that is, a proclamation declaring April "Confederate History Month." Citing the usual clichés about possible "racial discord" and the need to promote "healing," Warner rejected the call by southern heritage groups to officially acknowledge Confederate history.

But Mayor Curtis Milteer sees things differently. We learn from the Associated Press that he thinks that reflecting on the past is healthy, and can be used "to bring people together to improve the future." Thus, on March 30, Milteer issued a town proclamation marking April as Confederate History Month.

Met with the expected hostility of the NAACP and their cohorts, Milteer maintained, "The Civil War is over. History is history and we must move on. Whether we are sons and daughters of the Confederacy or the sons and daughters of former slaves, we are all Suffolkians." Milteer reasoned that since the town has rendered proclamations for other groups, "It's a matter of recognizing and respecting everyone's heritage, even if it is not the same as our own."