On Thursday afternoon, Feb. 20, my babies would come to my door and, after prayer, ask me to turn on my television to Fox News, where President Donald Trump was hosting a large gathering of black folks that included Tiger Woods and other professional golfers.

The event turned out to be a supposed celebration of Black History Month, which came as a surprise to myself and my babies because a Black History Month event in Jacksonville, Florida, was canceled (earlier) by the Army Corp of Engineers after a review of the speech to be given by a Jacksonville city councilman was deemed to be in violation of President Trump’s mandate to rid the armed forces of any DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) agenda. And they deemed his speech to be so related.

My babies related disappointment that “Mr. H.K, you (are) a black man who has put his mark on history with your epic marches that include, especially, the Historic March Across Dixie, when you wore the uniform of the Southern soldier, with the Southern Cross in hand, marching 20 miles a day (and many times more), six days a week from the Historic Landmark Zebulon Baird Vance Memorial cenotaph in downtown Asheville, North Carolina, to the Capitol Courthouse in Austin, Texas.

“Folks from all walks of life from both sides of the Mason-Dixon line came together with you and your brother Terry Lee, marching not only to raise funds for the Southern Legal Heritage Defense, but also to tell the story of the trained cadre of black folks on plantations all across the South, who made the implements of war for General Robert E. Lee’s beleaguered army, provided the food stuffs for General Lee’s men, stayed at home and tried to protect the defenseless old men women and children.

“And most importantly who went off to war with a man who he not only called ‘Master,’ but also family and friend; only to have his honor and dignity earned as a black Confederate all but whitewashed from the annals of recorded history to include the hours of reconciliation and patriotic accord so-called for by his commanding general, the Honorable General Robert E. Lee, as he followed with General Joseph Wheeler into the Spanish-American War and remained on the battlefield when the United States president ordered over 70,000 of the white soldiers — struck by a yellow fever and smallpox epidemic — to remove themselves because they were unfit for battle.

“Black Confederate veterans from the new South, were there in the Spanish-American War, alongside their white counterparts, fighting with the Federal Army in an hour of reconciliation ‘that had been so impressive to President McKinley that he asked the ladies of the South to build a memorial cenotaph shrine to permanently mark the occasion and a place of burial for these honorable and brave men who rejoined their nation in the glory of heroes. 

“Now only to have the disgraced, lying Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to introduce a corruption of blood bill of attainder and lies on the black beterans to justify the illegal removal of the names of military bases named after Confederate leaders and the New South Reconciliation Memorial cenotaph shrine and base of the honorable and renowned Jewish sculptor Moses Ezekiel. She should have been censored and no vote taken by Congress.

“Had you been at this gathering you would have wanted to mention Horace King, a renowned bridge builder who built bridges to carry General Lee’s men, their cannons, horses and supplies. And not to forget that this black Confederate soldier also designed and built the spiral staircase in the Capitol building in Montgomery, Alabama.

“You would have mentioned a black Confederate soldier, the Rev. Mack Lee, body servant of the Honorable General Robert E. Lee, who was educated by the funds given to him by the general; built churches in both the North and South. And he built the first credit union in America designed to help the Freedmen.

“And you would have mentioned black Confederate Dr. Alexander Darnes, childhood friend of the Honorable General Kirby Smith and his aide de camp. Educated by the funds given to him by the Smith family, he became the first black doctor in Jacksonville, Florida, and squashed a yellow fever and smallpox epidemic in that city.

“And you would have mentioned black Confederate Holt Collier, the first black man to be acquitted of killing a white man in the great State of Mississippi because he was killed his master. 

“After the war, President Theodore Roosevelt traveled South for a bear hunt, and hired Holt as his trapper. They couldn’t find a bear that morning, yet, as the president and his entourage dined that evening, Holt went out and caught a humongous bear, tied it to a tree, and told the president to shoot it. 

“The president would refuse, however, the press and gossiping men would tell and, consequently, people from all over would start sending the president stuffed bears that eventually started a boom in the toy industry for the famed “Teddy Bear.”

“Afterwards, President Roosevelt and Holt became the best of friends — and the president gifted Holt with the brand-new rifle he had purchased for the bear hunt.

“You would have mentioned black Confederate John F. Harris, a former slave and Republican member of the Mississippi House of Representatives, who got up out of his sick bed to give the deciding vote to fund the building of the Confederate soldiers’ monument on the Capitol ground in Jackson, Mississippi.

“Yet, here we are at another moment in history, when fraud, graft and corruption are oppressive to the people…like my Mom used to say… ‘with history repeating itself.’ At least the South had the option of secession. ‘the Deep State’ put an end to that.

“I only hope that Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth will call in his judge advocate to recommend to the president the righting of the illegal wrongs of the so-called Naming Commission and those municipalities all across America who, in an Isis-like manner, have destroyed our most treasured works of art and war memorials. 

“The wrong interpretation of the Reconciliation Memorial is a prime example of just how lack of knowledge breeds ignorance.”

God bless you!