Black leader defends Confederate Flag,
responds to violent attackers
By Dana Davis, The Tribune
Confederate Flag defender, political activist, former President of the
Asheville chapter of the NAACP and 52-year-old black man, H.K. Edgerton was
recently accosted by two black men while standing by his confederate flag
in front of Asheville High School. Though he was appalled by the alleged
violent actions of 19-year-old high school drop-out Andre Dewayne and
32-year-old Kevin Miller, he concedes, "I know and understand their pain
because they've been lied to for so long. A lot of people know nothing
about that time in history."
Describing the event, Edgerton recalls, "A man approached me quickly and
when he got a foot away from me, he lunged at me, tried to grab my flag,
spit on me, spit on my flag, bent my flag pole. Then another man, who was
older, came. I thought he was going to stop him, but he joined in, striking
and spitting on me and bending my flag even more." Edgerton said the
incident left lingering injuries to his shoulder.
Though Edgerton empathizes with the anguish of the two men he asserts,
"You
have to know how to conduct yourselves. And give a man a chance to speak.
Many people have heckled me and cursed at me. When giving speeches I've had
blacks heckle me and they had to be removed in Columbia and Charleston, but
never has anyone accosted me or my flag. It is my 1st amendment right to
take a stand, and you must not violate my right to do so."
Edgerton blames the media and the educational system for creating the
perception that exists today regarding southern history. "This is a
continuation about the lies of the Christian southern white folks during
the Civil War. African Americans in this country don't know a thing about
that war and that time. They see that flag and someone says slavery and it
all falls apart and they think of Southern Christian white folks as being
evil."
"We can't let the stars and stripes get away that easy. Never were the
stars and bars flag flown over a slave ship. And you want to know why?
Because it's a Christian Battle Flag that was emulated after St. Andrew,
Jesus Christ's first disciple. In 69 A.D. in Petro, Greece -- now a part of
Russia -- St. Andrew was jailed because of his teaching and preaching of
Jesus Christ, his Lord and Master, and he was told he was going to be
crucified on the cross. He begged that persecutor not to nail him to that
Latin cross in the shape of "T" because he was not worthy of being
punished
the way Jesus Christ had been nailed. So he begged to be tied in an X-shape
to the cross and the persecutor did what he asked him to. That X is a Greek
symbol to CH, the first two letters in Christ's name. When St. Andrew was
on the cross he continued his teaching of Christ and all the folks started
believing him and for three days he remained on that cross teaching and
after three days they begged the persecutor to take him down and when he
did, St. Andrew came down off that cross and died, and he became a martyr
and a saint.
"When (Civil War Confederate ) General Beaureguard decided they needed
another flag, he chose the cross of St. Andrew for these reasons. Most
Southerners, in fact, did not want to do away with the stars and stripes
because they didn't feel they had done anything wrong. They thought it was
the north who was eradicating the Constitution.
"And as for President Lincoln, our American hero, who signed the
Emancipation Proclamation. In march of 1861 Abraham Lincoln called all
those black leaders in his office and he told them -- Even if I set you
free you'll be inferior. You need to get out of the country because I will
colonize you. Lincoln proposed the 13th Amendment, being the only President
ever to do so. That amendment said Congress would never have the power to
interrupt an institution of state. He told the southerners they could keep
the slaves if they paid the North a 42% tariff. The South agreed to a 10%
tariff but not 42%. So, who I am supposed to blame the institution of
slavery on?
"At that time, one of the richest men in the world, John D. Rothchild told
his family to put all their money into the Confederacy and described
Lincoln as a crook. He said the slaves in the south were better off than
the slaves in the north who had to work for next to nothing in the cotton
mills.
"The attack on the Confederacy doesn't get the attention it deserves.
These
blacks today have no idea what took place back then. (Blacks) earned a
place of dignity in that war. If it wasn't for Africans that war would have
lasted four days, not four years. We made all of the implements of war, we
fought, we participated -- not one slave insurrection happened during that
period of time. They did not have whips and guns forcing them to be there.
God and his infinite wisdom brought these people here. He brought about a
love between master and slave that has never happened before. If you search
this empirically then you will know the only one who cared about the
African was the man in the south. But we don't want to face that.
"Bill Clinton's apology to (the black race) doesn't mean a thing to me. If
Bill Clinton was any kind of a man he would march right down to the
Education Secretary and demand that we start telling the truth to all about
our history. If there are any apologies to be given, it is me. I need to
apologize for walking away from the Christians in the South because I was
lied to. Even the NAACP is not a black run operation. The national board is
run by white liberals and Jews and I question their motives.
"Those who know their history know that we walked away from the war with
dignity. But we took the loyalty we gave to the white man and started
believing the lies of the North and now people are believing this madness.
But even if you pull this flag from every flag pole and stand in the south
you can't pull it from the hearts of the Christians in the south. If you
speak to any blacks in the south my age or older you will find out that
most of them had kinship to Confederate Veterans. The more who search their
backbone will find out they were a part of this. They want to think they
were beaten into this. Wrong. That's not how it happened.
"Times have changed. In the old south a young man would have never
approached an old gray-haired man like myself. We've gotten away from that.
Had we been left alone by the northern carpet-baggers, we would be better off.
"Now I have to watch the Cuban flag flying in land we used to have and
know
that they can live in Florida without ever speaking English. And I have to
hear John Rocker get off the subway in New York and not even know where he
is. Well, come get me John Rocker because I don't know where we are either
and I want to know.
"My fight for my people continues. In all my speeches, I say -- Don't hurt
my people, forgive them. We just don't know. -- I grew up with the same
lies, claiming that Lincoln liberated and saved me. What a crock. All we
have to do is think about this thing and search out the truth. I would
encourage all my African-American friends to go to Southern Confederate
Veterans' meetings and they will be greeted open-armed. The only day we
will truly be free is when H.K. Edgerton walks out his door and every
African-American is holding a Confederate Flag and I will say one thing -
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Praise God, Hallelujah.
"Not one time did Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. put down the
Confederate
Flag. He wanted blacks and whites to sit and eat together. I asked Dr.
Young, one of King's closest friends, what his feelings were about that
flag. He said, Leave it alone. Let's do something about the things we can
do something about, like our children selling drugs on the street. King
could never have brought us all together the way he did if he had put down
the (Confederate) Flag.
"At first, I was confused by the NAACP putting down the flag, but they
just
don't know. I just don't want my people lied to. I hate to see them led
down the path of hate. They're in the wrong ball game. There was a
Machiavellian view in the North - they are different from the south. The
bottom line is, if I would have had a choice back then I would have stayed
in the South. If the Southern man set a man free he gave them land and a
home. The North did not give them anything. You don't set a man free in the
woods without anything.
"But people don't realize this. One time when I was holding the stars and
bars on the street, a black man with dreadlocks told me what I was doing
was wrong, and then he called to his white girlfriend and their child
across the street. Now, tell me that man is not confused.
"It was the wealthy African leaders who sold the poorer Africans to the
slave traders. Blacks want to speak of their African heritage, when it was
their heritage who sold them out to slavery. Furthermore, it is not
uncommon for blacks today to follow the Muslim religion, and Muslims
practice slavery today. But no one wants to talk about that." Send your
comments to [EMAIL PROTECTED].
H.K. Edgerton can be reached by calling 828-281-4454.
*************************************************************************
Elijah Coleman, Georgian http://www.southernmessenger.org/
"May any
Grandson who fails to honor these men who sacrificed everything and lost,
meet a different hereafter, for he would not be worthy of their
reception." ESC
