H. K. Edgerton is an African-American activist for Southern heritage and one of the few African Americans who belong to the Sons of Confederate Veterans. He often is given a prominent place at rallies for the Confederate flag. A former president of the Asheville, North Carolina chapter of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), he is on the board of the Southern Legal Resource Center.
Early life and education
Edgerton was born and grew up in North Carolina, where he has made his life.
Political activist
At one time, Edgerton worked for improving racial issues through the Asheville chapter of the NAACP, where he was elected as president. More recently, he has made statements as an apologist for slavery and attended rallies supporting display of the Confederate flag, events which are generally dominated by neo-Confederate whites.[1]
In December 1998, Edgerton was suspended from the NAACP; according to state officials of the organization, he was not complying with the organization's rules and the Asheville chapter fell into debt.[1] In 1999, he was voted out of office.
By 2000, Edgerton was appointed the chairman of the board of directors of the Southern Legal Resource Center, headed by Kirk Lyons, who has defended neo-Confederates and Ku Klux Klan leaders in court.[1] In a 2000 interview, Skip Alston, Executive Director of the North Carolina NAACP had questions about Edgerton's changes. Alston said that he had been considered "a true activist standing for what is right. I've often wondered what could cause him to do such things."[1]
Edgerton runs a personal website, SouthernHeritage411.com, that is a collection of materials expressing his views on Southern heritage. For instance, he claims that the Civil War had almost nothing to do with the issue of slavery. {Note: That slavery was a fundamental issue of the war has been well documented by a consensus of United States historians. An example is Chandra Manning's 2007 study of soldiers' letters on both sides, which were overwhelmingly concerned with the issue of slavery.[2])
In events to publicize his positions, Edgerton has made solo walks: in 2002 from North Carolina to Texas to build awareness of Southern heritage[3]; and in January 2009, when he walked from North Carolina to Washington, DC seeking "official U.S. government recognition of the Confederate battle flag as a symbol of Southern heritage" from the new administration.[4] He is unusual as one of the few African-American members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which features him at events.[4]
Media appearances
In May 2006 Edgerton advanced his theories about reparations on Penn and Teller's show Bullshit!.[5]
References
- ^ a b c d "Confederates in Black", Intelligence Report, Summer 2000: Issue 99, Southern Poverty Law Center, accessed 19 January 2012
- ^ Chandra Manning, What This Cruel War Was Over: Soldiers, Slavery and the Civil War, New York: Knopf, 2007
- ^ "The Real Price of Forgetting the Past", Civil War Memory blog, 15 September 2006
- ^ a b Andrew Shurtleff, "Sons of Confederate Veterans: Black Southerner marching to D.C., seeks respect for Confederate flag", The Daily Progress, January 2009, posted at Sons of Confederate Veterans blog
- ^ Penn And Teller: Bullshit!@Everything2.com
External links
- SouthernHeritage411.com
- Asheville NAACP Requests Assistance, Southern Legal Resource Center
- "Southern Spirit", YouTube