H.K. Edgerton's Address to the Texas Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy

Madam President, gracious ladies of the Texas division United Daughters of the Confederacy, honored guests…..ladies of the Southland of America….

I count it a great honor to be invited to speak to you to day and my only unfulfilled wish is that my mother could not be here seated among you – taking in your wonderful Texas Confederate hospitality with me.

I bring you greetings from the staff and board of directors of the Southern Legal Resource Center – the only non-profit law center working around the clock for Confederate heritage.

Texas and Texans will always have a special place in my heart.

I am proud to be an honorary life member of the Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans,

As an honorary Texan I am proud that the Lone Star State was one of the first seven states to leave the union in 1861.

As an honorary Texan I am proud that General Robert E. Lee told a foreign observer that “the enemy never sees the backs of my Texans,” and that “my Texans are not much to look at when on parade but, oh, you should see them when they go into a fight.”

As an honorary Texan I am proud that my state gave over 65,000 men to Confederate service – many never returning.

As an honorary Texan I am proud that Texas provided such stellar Confederate leaders as John Hunt Reagan, Oran M. Roberts, Francis Richard Lubbock, Dr. Ashbin Smith, Benjamin Franklin Terry, Samuel Bell Maxey, John Bell Hood and his magnificent Texas brigade, Brave Calvin Crozier, and thousands more…

As an honorary Texan I am proud of our victories at Galveston on New Year’s Day, Sabine Pass, Mansfield & Pleasant Hill in Louisiana that shielded Texas from the torch of the invader.

And of course the final victory at Palmitto Ranch!!!!

As an honorary Texan I am proud that thousands of Texas women heard the clarion call of duty to take over the shops, farms and plantations, work in the factories and hospitals, and do all in their power to keep the home fires burning.

As an honorary Texan I am especially proud that thousands of black men and black women served humbly, but honorably, in a variety of ways to further the Confederate war effort, alongside their fellow white Texans.

Accompanying their master to war, protecting the farms and plantations and keeping them functioning to raise foodstuffs for armies and civilians, serving on the coastal waters as seamen, working in the blacksmith shops, manning the new factories, armories and foundry’s to make the implements of war, working in the hospitals to succor the wounded and dying, performing back-breaking hard labor for the Confederate Engineer Corps to build the Texas coastal fortifications that kept the Yankees at bay for 4 years.

In almost any labor vacuum created by the war in Texas, black men and women stood ready to fill.

Many of them slaves, some free, all willing to serve Texas and the Confederacy – with no explicit demand for emancipation

The black people of Texas knew that eventually freedom would come and that loyalty and hard work would secure the double reward of independence and freedom.

Right up until 1865 we, the people of Texas, and the South … black & white… were family. It took the horrible years of Reconstruction and all the wiles of the carpetbaggers and scalawags to divide black and white. And in many cases, tragically, they succeeded.

To this hollow triumph, the North embittered race relations in the South up to the present day, the present hour.

But, as most of you know, the North and its minions did not entirely succeed. Despite all the obstacles, the pressure, the trials, many Southern whites and Southern blacks, in Texas and throughout the South, were able to maintain the close family relationship that existed before the war.

Every man, woman and child in the South, black or white, knows the truth of this statement, and those that say different are liars.

So let’s let it all hang out. Morris Dees, if you are listening, write this down:

A great deal of love existed between master and slave, black and white, before the war – i.e. while slavery was the law of the land.

Do you want me t o say it again?

A great deal of love existed between master and slave, black and white, before the war. It is a fact, a solid fact and editing and re-editing the slave narratives will not erase that fact.

Love existed between master and slave. We were family, black and white.

Neither were Southern white people solely responsible for the institution of slavery!

Shall I say that again?

The white people of the South were not and are not responsible for the institution of slavery.

A people cannot be responsible for a problem or institution that they inherited.

It was to this end that I decided to march across Dixie a year ago, this October 14.

I marched 1,606.1 miles from Asheville, North Carolina to Austin, Texas, marching from 20 to 25 miles a day. I started marching at dawn carrying the noble cross of St. Andrew and proudly wearing my soldier’s suit of grey.

I marched straight through Greenville, South Carolina, Atlanta, Georgia, Montgomery and Selma, Alabama, Meridian, Jackson and Vicksburg, Mississippi, Monroe, Shreveport, Mansfield and Logansport, Louisiana, then on into Texas, Rusk, Palestine, Corsicana, Mexia, Groesbeck, Kosse, Hearne, Rockdale, Taylor, Elgin, Austin & Buda.

And everywhere I went I walked right through the center of the historic black neighborhood. This was not an accident I wanted to know what black people thought of my flag.

My dear ladies I got my answer and you may take it to the bank:

Black people do not, I said; do not hate the Confederate flag,

The ones I met on the march loved that flag, I said, loved that flag.

I saw very little hate, but a great deal of love.

I saw a great deal of curiosity, but most of all I saw in black folks a thirst for knowledge of what that flag really means to them - of what part of their history it represents for them.

I proved on the march across Dixie that we can solve the race problem in America – but you need the Confederate flag to do it.

Here’s how:

1. We send the race racketeers and civil rights industry bureaucrats packing so we can have honest dialogue, for the first time in over a century, between the races.

2. We establish the pre-suppositional facts, without which no debate can commence. If we can’t even agree on the facts, how can we ever arrive at a solution? Therefore real truth in history is critical to the process.

3. We practice true tolerance – which includes acceptance of Confederate symbols as a bottom line – non-negotiable.

4. We agree to disagree on those points still left in contention.

Of course the liberal commentators and race racketeers do not want such a dialogue to take place – for you see bashing Confederate symbols is good for their business, their perks, their grants, their subsidies. Keeping us divided from one another, black and white, is their goal, They have no interest in solving the problem. Why should they solve the problem that is making them rich?

Some of you fine ladies marched with me on the march, some of you are 20-milers. Any here today?

I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the friendship, the love and the hospitality that you showed me while I was in Texas.

Many of you told me: “HK, if there is anything we can do for you, you let us know.”

This brings me to the second part of the reason for my journey: to bring to the public consciousness the war being waged against Confederate Southern Americans and their heritage.

Consider: A court just this week has let Vanderbilt University skulk out of its commitment to maintain Confederate memorial hall – built with UDC money. The name, with court permission, may be sandblasted off the building.

Consider: Then-Gov. Bush trades our plaques for a backstairs deal with the NAACP that garnered him little if any votes. By the way I have logged over 16 hours duty time at the vigil in front of the supreme court building, and I am convinced that if the vigil had been maintained and the SLRC left on the case, those plaques would be back up by now.

Consider: The Jefferson Davis monument is vandalized in New Orleans and George Washington’s name is not fit to grace a New Orleans school because he was a slaveholder

Consider: Workers across the South are fired, suspended and disciplined for displaying Confederate symbols in the workplace and not a single law protects them in their rights

Consider: Since 2000, over 400 students have contacted me and my associates at the SLRC because their schools have banned Confederate flags and symbols in their schools. And these kids aren’t troublemakers either – we don’t deal with babies like that. All good kids.

Consider: That everything Confederate is under attack, not just the battle flag.

Remember that the symbol of the UDC, the Stars and Bars, was lambasted as a hate symbol on the floor of the United States Senate by Senator Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois over the courtesy renewal of your own logo.

Consider: That the brave men of the Hunley are fit enough to be a tourist beacon for the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, but not worthy to lie in state in the rotunda of the statehouse,

Consider: That our enemies seek nothing short of the complete annihilation of Confederate symbols and Confederate people in our lifetime.

They hate us because we represent constitutional sanity

They hate us because we represent continuity and tradition.

They hate us because we are proud of our Confederate heritage, culture and symbols.

They hate us because we will not bend the knee and glory in the emperor’s new clothes.

And they hate us most of all because we as a people acknowledge as king and master our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Conventional law will not protect us. Politicians will not help us, but betray us

The media and liberal elite will always hate us,

Our brothers and sisters, self absorbed in pleasure and debauchery, ignore and disdain us.

We must band together as never before to fight this great evil, to protect our birthright, our children and our posterity.

We must band together as a people, and act as a people – because we are a people – Confederate Southern Americans.

We are distinct. We are unique. We are a remnant of the Old South.

The Confederate flag is a venerated symbol of our ancestry and the battle flag with its St. Andrew’s cross is a venerated icon of our Christian religious faith.

We have our own way of speaking, our own folklore.

Our own songs: Dixie.

We wear antebellum clothing as a folk costume.

We have our own cuisine.

By every criteria of every ethnologist in academia, we are a people.

People of Confederate ancestry.

As a people we are entitled to be free from persecution, and we have an inalienable right to our heritage.

I said an inalienable right to our heritage.

That is a right that cannot be taken away.

So we are a people.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids national origin discrimination and defines national origin as the place where your ancestors came from.

Well ladies, my ancestor, Hattie Edgerton, born in Africa, came from a place, called Rutherford County in the Confederate State of North Carolina, which for 4 years was part of the Confederate States of America, a nation that from 1861-1865 was not a part of the United States.

You and I fit every criterion to be considered Confederate Southern Americans under federal law – and therefore entitled to the protection of the law as a people.

You can be black and be a Confederate Southern American and you can be white – it is not a racial classification.

Anyone whose ancestor was a citizen or subject of the Confederacy is eligible.

I am a Confederate Southern American, are you?

Raise you hands ladies and let me see them. It is time to be counted.

We can no longer remain silent in the face of injustice.

Now for those who may have a problem with being a hyphenated American, let me be clear:

We are no less Americans than any other American, and we are no less patriotic than any other American, but we insist that we not be persecuted for our uniqueness; that we be allowed to preserve our unique heritage and culture and give our Confederate Southern American children a future.

As a people we must unite to inform our fellow citizens of the heritage outrages committed against our people.

And as a people we must unite to help ourselves and secure a future that will always include Confederate heritage.

The third reason that I marched 1600 miles across the South was to raise funds for heritage defense for the Sons of Confederate veterans and the Southern Legal Resource Center. That was the toughest part of the mission, because the march itself was an expensive undertaking. We did not raise nearly enough funds as I had hoped, and that was the only heartbreak of the march.

Our people have not yet suffered enough to know that they should give to heritage causes until it hurts.

White folks don’t know how to civil rights fight - and they need to learn fast

Our people do not yet understand the concept of sacrificial giving to a cause.

No, most of our brother’s and sisters are unconcerned; and ignore the hundreds of daily violations of Confederate heritage.

Much of my march was for something very dear to my heart: the Southern Legal Resource Center.

Everyone likes to forget the SLRC when they are saying nice things about me.

Ladies, the SLRC and I are inseparable. If the SLRC fails, I fail. If the SLRC goers down, I go down.

People in the Confederate community like to take the SLRC for granted and assume that it will always be around, or that, in the words of Morris Dees, is nothing but a “cash cow.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

Let me say this. No one works harder, for less money than the staff of the SLRC.

No one does more for the rights of students & workers to honorably display Confederate symbols than the SLRC

No one has done more to judicially advance the position that as Confederate Southern Americans we deserve the same legal rights and treatment as any other American.

No other non-profit law firm is on call 24/7 in defense of Confederate heritage

This noble organization has been struggling since its birth in 1997 to provide you a legal arm that will fight for your rights. Like all non-profits, it has fallen on very hard times, and is in very great danger of complete collapse. 30,000 UDC members, 34,000 SCV members, millions of sympathizers, and we can’t keep alive one law firm that fights for all of us?

On the march, as I said earlier, many of you ladies told me, let us know if there is anything we can do for you.

Ladies here it is.

1. By member, chapter, division and general organization pass resolutions declaring that your membership is made up overwhelmingly of Confederate Southern Americans and that you claim and are entitled to legal protection in preserving your unique heritage.

2. Get more involved financially, spiritually and morally in the legal fights across Texas and the South, to defend our heritage, especially the fights to grant legal rights to Confederate Southern Americans and to preserve Confederate symbols in the public schools. If we lose this current generation of students to Babylon, we lose everything. We cannot afford to lose a generation. These kids, these babies are your sons, your daughters, your grandchildren. Many of them can’t escape the public schools, their parents can’t afford private schools or to home school. We cannot abandon them to government brainwashing. If they grow up ignorant of, or hating their Southern heritage, who will care for the monuments when we are gone?

Yes, I know you already have troubles enough.

You must find a home for the TX UDC museum and preserve its priceless collection,

Yes you must find ways to recruit more, younger members.

And, yes, none of us are rich.

But think ladies.

With your men folk you rebuilt the shattered South after the war.

Your organization built a gigantic monument to Jefferson Davis in Fairfield, Kentucky, when the Confederate veterans themselves failed to raise the money.

The UDC built Confederate monuments on almost every courthouse lawn in the South,

You have sent 1000’s of children to college.

You have cared for countless widows and veterans.

Ladies I truly believe that when called to duty and led by Christ, even with your backs against the wall, there is nothing you ladies cannot accomplish once you resolve to do it.

Gaining legal status as a people and protecting the Confederate heritage of our school children is vital.

I beg of you to take up this worthy cause. Make it your cause.

And make sure too that a very brave little non-profit law firm doesn’t go bankrupt fighting the battles for our people.

In supporting heritage causes, everyone must give a little – everyone.

The rights we save, the children we protect; the heritage we preserve is ours!

Ladies, thank you for your many kindness and courtesies shown to this old sable son of Dixie. It has truly been a pleasure to be with you here today.

God Bless You & God Bless Dixie.