Black history month: Colored Confederate observances

Sons of Confederate Veterans chapters are participating more and more in Black History Month to honor Confederate soldiers who were of African descent. 

Unfortunately, many people have the misinformation that white Southerners fought primarily to protect the institution of slavery and deny that anyone of African descent would have voluntarily fought with them to protect their homes and families from military invasion. The assumption on its own unfortunately reveals an innate racism on the part of the nay-sayers themselves.

I previously wrote about one such event near Whiteville, NC, our family attended in February 2009, out of sheer curiosity and mild shock that such an event was actually "for real." Well, it was for real, and it was done in good taste, decently, and in order. Shortly afterward we attended an SCV meeting themed to Black history month in Oxford, NC, where African-American Earl Ijames of the NC Museum of History did a program on Colored Confederates.

Here is a report from a group that studies the War Between the States in Belgium which picked up a story and pictures from a recent event in Darlington, SC, this year.