An Open Letter & Open Report/ Talking With The Black Folks, from H.K. Edgerton
I thought this was a very succinct way of explaining the current events taking place primarily in the South. Mr. Edgerton, who previously served as president of the Asheville, North Carolina chapter of the NAACP, is a well-known figure in the Civil War community, so I wanted to share his thoughts:
In two separate radio interviews (Dallas & Atlanta), I would tell the predominantly Black audiences that before the White boys from the North come to the South spray painting Confederate soldier monuments with the message, “Black Lives Matter”; they should buy as many mirrors as they can and place them in every Black community, starting with Obama’s and Emanuel’s Chicago, before they are caught and punished to the fullest extent of the law.
“And then they should go to the Capitol Mall in Washington, DC and spray paint that message on the monument of Lincoln and every Union soldier monument they can find. I would tell them about a letter written to Lincoln by a Black woman, Ms. Hannah Johnson, and delivered by her White friend, Ms. Carrie Coburn, begging Lincoln to instruct his Union doctors to care for the wounded Black soldiers of the 54th Regiment of which her son served. The doctors refused to touch the Black soldiers. Ms. Johnson went on to ask that the Colored troops also receive equal pay.
Lincoln did not respond to her letter, but told Fredrick Douglas that the employment of Colored troops in the first place was a great gain to the Colored people, but their enlistment was a serious offense to popular prejudice. To not receive the same pay as White soldiers seemed a “necessary concession” to smooth the way to their employment as soldiers (putting it mildly).
In the integrated Confederate army where they were not even there legally, the White Confederate soldiers divided up their pay so that the Colored troops would receive the same pay. And just as they were attended by the same White doctor before the War, they continued to receive the same care during the War. I would tell them that the only people to ever care for the lives of the African people in America was and still is the Southern White folks, bar none. God bless you!
Your brother, HK
Chairman Board of Advisors Emeritus
Southern Legal Resource Center
Defending the Heritage
Date: July 9, 2015
(Courtesy of The Southern Comfort, Private Samuel A. Hughey Camp #1452, Sons of Confederate Veterans, Vol. 39, Issue, 9, September 2015)
J.D.R. Hawkins 