12 Klansmen rally briefly before LSU-Ole Miss game

Greg and DarthRoden, it is nice to see that there is at least 3 people who had read and examined different sides of history. I, myself, love history and the different points of view that history has. Litvak claims to have a B.A. in history. He may have. But him and everyone else are only educated by the books they read and the people they listen to. With that, if a student only reads the books that are required for that class, determined by the school and the teacher/professor, then those people will only have the knowledge that certain individuals want them to have. After I had been out of high school a few years and matured a little more, I was amazed at the amount of knowledge out in the world. I have read numerous books about numerous things and watched many documentaries and such, but the two books that really opened my eyes were "The People's History of the United States" and "Guns, Germs, and Steel". Upon reading the People's History, I was shocked and disappointed at the lack of education I recieved in High School and somewhat college. They never taught us about the factories/sweat shops in the North that used newly immigrated Irish in harsh conditions, with minute wages. "What?" you say. There is so much more to history than public education and textbooks present. I am not saying it is a conspiracy, but the companies that publish textbooks have an agenda. They print according to their agenda. If the publishers are a little this way or that way, chances are they will print it that way. Certain things can be added or left out and make it look a certain way. I really do feel bad for the people who are limited in their knowledge and speak as if experts.
Bottom line: Cival War was about a bunch of power hungry politicians in the North interferring with and screwing with the States of the South. The Southern states did not agree with their agenda, because they believed in States Rights. Slavery was only one of the MANY factors that led to the Cival War. Please, people, educate yourself.

I was born and raised in Mississippi. I love my state and my country! And I love My OLE MISS! As long as there is hate and ignorance in the hearts of men, there will be raceism. What is required as I see it, As Mississippians we must hold ourselves to a higher standard because of our past.

Can't we all just get along? haha, Roll Tide

Litvak36,
I can wait to see the Tide roll.....right over on its back when Tebow gets done with it. Go Gators!

WOW- I went to sleep last night in 2009, someone please help me . What year is this I woke up in?

Take it from this old guy with a B.A. from Alabama in History,the Civil War or as its officially called by the government of these United States,"The War of the Rebellion" was most defintely about slavery.When Lincoln was elected in November 1860,the slaveocracy knew that there was no way slavery could be expanded into the territories and they feared actual abolition was in the works,although this could have only been done with a constitutional amendment which the Southern states,if they had not seceeded,could have blocked. How ironic,isn't it,the very act of secession and starting a war by firing on Fort Sumter,sowed the seeds of slavery's destruction.If the South had staeyed in the Union,the Lincoln Administration could have only prevented expansion into the territories but would have been powerless to actually abolish slavery in the states.

The Emancipation Proclamation was just a political stunt,it freed no slaves and it only applied to the areas of the South which were NOT then under the control of the Union Army,and of course,it did not apply to the slave states that did not secede from the Union. This is why the 13th Amendment was needed, As a practical matter,as the war went on,it was the Union Army which freed the slaves when it came to occupy more and more Southern territory.

As far as the war itself,as the late Shelby Foote,the great Southern historian of the war said"The North fought the war with one hand tied behind its back" in that nowhere near the percentage of manpower mobilized in the South,was ever mobilized in the North. In the South,practically every white man of military age who could breathe found his way in the Confederate Army. In the North,there were large areas dominated by Copperheads who wanted no part of the war and many of the Irish and German immigrants in the big Northern cities felt the same way.

There was never any realistic chance that the Confederacy would prevail,it was just a matter of time until the right generals,Grant,Sherman,Sheridan,Thomas came to the fore and replaced the incompetents,that the superior strength of the North prevailed on the battlefield.

Hope y'all enjoyed this History lesson and ROLL TIDE.

Peter L you sir are ignorant. The civil war was not about slavery you idiot. I definitely say you
need to go back to school..The ignorant people wearing those white hoods needs a beating and
need to run them out of this country, They need to realize this is the 20th century..Leave history where
it belong, in the past. Mississippi is moving forward, not backward. We the people of Ms needs to
let the KKK know we don't care for their bs..Proud to be a MISSISSIPPIAN!!!!!!

Chiming in from the North here. New Yorker. Hate racism, love the NY Yankees, not much into ignorance, don't give a dag about the flag symbolism, happen to love the 'Rebs in football (I like Patrick Willis, think Eli is over-hyped), HOWEVER..

Greg is correct.

There is a letter that has been written by none other than Abe Lincoln, stating that if given the chance to keep the Union intact at the expense of emancipation debate, Lincoln would have deferred the emancipation discussion just to avoid war and the risk of creating the confederacy. His point was he would have done anything to keep the Union intact.

True fact, hate to say it. But true.

GO YANKEES 27 times CHAMPS (sorry, had to say that, too)

A few hundred Black Confederates?
Um, how about trying 50,000 of them dude.
And are you saying that the memories of even that many are unimportant in the annuals of Black History and the experiences of African-Americans as a whole?
Are you sure you're not wearing a white sheet yourself man?

Nobody is romancing slavery here you ninny.

The fact is, Jefferson Davis, your fearless leader was dead-set against the notion. And for good reason. When you're fighting for slavery, arming the slaves is a terrible idea! Compare the few hundred black confederate soldiers to the 180,000 Union veterans. Also, how many of these confederates were fighting because their masters made them? Face it. You lost the war. Keep romanticizing slavery and succession. As for me, I'll honor a true American patriot and freedom fighter - John Brown.

Peter L, you are as ridiculous as you are stupid.
Black men served in the Confederate army and those men are today honored by true and respectful member of honorable Confederate heritage organizations.

http://www.petersburgexpress.com/Petersburg_Black-CSA.html

http://www.angelfire.com/ga3/confederaterebels/forgotten.html

http://www.jackmaples.com/black_confederates/biographies.html

I have other examples and webpages if you care to learn more.
Deo Vindice!

Peter L, you are as ridiculous as you are stupid.
Black men served in the Confederate army and those men are today honored by true and respectful member of honorable Confederate heritage organizations.

http://www.petersburgexpress.com/Petersburg_Black-CSA.html

http://www.angelfire.com/ga3/confederaterebels/forgotten.html

http://www.jackmaples.com/black_confederates/biographies.html

I have other examples and webpages if you care to learn more.
Deo Vindice!

The Battle Hymn of the Republic - A beautiful song that inspires freedom for all - something Americans of all colors can get behind - and did, during the Civil War. Didn't see too many black Americans getting behind the old Confederacy did we?
People are free to display the Confederate Battle Flag. Just don't be surprised that black Americans don't want it to rally behind it. And no matter what the origins of Dixie, it was used as a Confederate marching song and is forever tainted with the stink of bigotry and slavery.
Sure the American Flag has experienced dishonor - some shameful things have happened under the Stars and Stripes. But Americans of all colors have also shed blood for it. The only black Americans who shed blood for the Stars and Bars did so at the end of a whip.

As a defender of Southern heritage and the Southern Cross battle flag, I condemn the disgusting attempt to co-opt the fight song argument and the misuse of the flag by members of the so-called "Christian Knights" of the Ku Klux Klan and all other white supremacist organizations.
For them to come to Ole Miss and to claim they are triumphing Southern heritage is a disgusting lie and an attack and affront on the Southern people as a whole!
True defenders of Southern heritage do not use it to intimidate other Southern men and women of different colors and ethnic origins. Such a misuse--especially the waving of the sacred Confederate Southern Cross battle flag against other Southern men and women--is appalling, as is the attempt by such racist trash to co-opt the symbols and songs of our Southern Confederate heritage as part of white supremacist bigotry!
I am proud of the students of Ole Miss, especially those who support the fight song for condemning this disgraceful attempt by the worst enemies of our Southern heritage and history to created strife and hatred.
You honor us all!
Deo Vindice!

C. W. Roden
Proud Southerner and defender of the Southern Cross

right on the money BillJ............. Mick you must be for gun control as well if you believe your leader is so great.

The irony about "Dixie" is that the five-verse song was written by a Northerner with little interest in politics, and whose parents were strict abolitionists.

Daniel Decatur Emmett was living in New York City in 1859 writing songs for a minstrel troupe. The Mount Vernon, Ohio, native composed hundreds of other songs, including "Old Dan Tucker," but none of his other melodies packed the same punch as "Dixie."

The song, like many minstrel show tunes, was critical of authority. It speaks of the white plantation master, "Will the Weaver," taking a black slave named "Old Missus," who then dies. As the fourth verse warns: "Now here's a health to the next old missus ... "

But most Southerners disregarded the final four verses and concentrated on the first one, which is what most people today are familiar with: "I wish I was in the land of cotton/Old times there are not forgotten/Look away, look away, look away, Dixie's Land."

"The first verse made it a Southern anthem," said Jon Finson, a white professor of music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an adjunct professor of American studies. But when the song was written, he said, "it was not particularly Southern."

The minstrel show has been called the first distinct American music-theater genre. Whites wore blackface and entertained their audiences with crude depictions of black life and music, usually using "black-face dialect." Begun in the early 1840s, the shows continued to be popular into the 1930s.

Some say it began in Louisiana, where a bank once printed $10 bills with the French word for 10 -- dix, pronounced "deez" -- on them. But legend says locals mauled the foreign pronunciation and began calling Louisiana "Dix's Land" and later "Dixie," before the term came to describe the entire South.

Another theory is that Dixie referred to stories about a kind slave owner named Dixie or Dixy. "Dixie's Land" became a term for any comfortable place to live in the South.

Hate is in the HEART..not in songs or symbols....Rap music hates on everybody..whites, police, women and mostly blacks....

I wish those 250 people would have just turned their backs and walked away...either that or get as many mixed couples as they could find and start kissing right there in front of those Klu Klukkers

Oh my facts are straight and as a History Major I think that I have studied enough. The North was not going to win the war against the South and they played a very shrewed gamble. A house divided, which is exactly what they attempted and succeeded. Aside from the lessons in American History, my point was that what the Confederate Flag actually represents as well as Dixie is nothing racial. Those that believe that they represent negative ideals are either trully ignorant and get their "facts" from loudmouths who no very little about anything or are just plain stupid and believe everything that the media puts out. These people that continue to dredge up this "racism" non-sense are really the ones that keep racism alive in this country. So, if we are going to base what the Confederate flag and Dixie represent by what is argued incorrectly by so many, that being that the heritage of the South lies in slavery than the same argument can be ridiculously made about the Stars and Stripes considering the majority of the Founding Fathers owned slaves and built their plantations and ergo their fortunes on the backs of those they kept in servitude. This too is the history of our country long before the Civil War and well, is our "heritage". What people fail to see, because they choose to skew facts to fit their agenda is that this is the same argument. It is a ridiculous idea and so is the labeling of the symbols of Southern pride as racist.

Greg - of course the Civil War was about slavery. Confederate Vice-President Alexander Stephens said that slavery was the chief cause of succession in his Cornerstone Speech shortly before the war. "States Rights" was only acceptable to Southerners when it referred to their right to own slaves. They got mad when Northern states would invoke "states rights" so as not to have to follow federal law requiring the return of fugitive slaves. Get your facts right before spouting off "Lost Cause" propaganda.

This whole debate over Rebel flags and Civil War references always makes me thing of the Hawaii state flag. I dont agree with racism, oppression, or segregation, etc. and think it is merely the product of ignorance and hatred so dont get me wrong, I truly despise it. But I find all the above a bit silly when no one is even considering removing the Union Jack from the HI state flag. If you consider how much it is a symbol of the British Empire during colonial times and think of all the oppression, racism, etc. that occurred in this era not only in the Pacific but around the world, then one would or should be equally passionate to correct this as well.

Why do I never, ever hear anyone mention it?

Ok lets set the record straight once and for all. the Civil War was not fought over slavery. It was fought over trade goods and taxation on Southern products versus products from Europe. It was the Union that created the divide of North and South on slavery. Those who think that the Civil War was fought beacuse of slavery are also stupid enough to think that Roots was a true story and all slaves were mistreated. Read your history people. The Confedeate Flag is not a symbol of slavery or racism but Pride and Heritage. This Pride and Heritage is no different than Texans that fly their state flag, which I might add is a symbol of a SOUTHERN STATE! So too, is Dixie and the Stars and Stripes! Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-MO.) raised flack over the Stars and Bars being flown over CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS MONUMENTS and cemetery in Higginsville, MO., his own state. Little could he have known that he would be met with so much opposition to his ignorance that the flags he ordered taken down once again flew proudly over the graves of those brave soldiers that fought and died for their cause, WHICH WAS NOT SLAVERY! As was stated earlier, the only reason this is an issue is so blowhards like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, the KKK and others of their ilk have a sounding board to preach from to spew their hate and keep racial divide alive in this country. Without this controversy they would have no power. So please people, start learning your American History and maybe just maybe we can get this country turned around in the right direction. Let the Confederate Flag fly and Dixie play for the right reasons, the pride and heritage that Southerners evoke. Their pride is their heritage. They are a symbol of hospitality and kindness, a helping hand to a stranger in need. This is the true southern pride and heritage that is alive in the Confederate flag and in Dixie. As for hate mongers like the KKK? It won't matter what you do. Banning the Confederate flag and songs like Dixie or The South Will Rise Again will not stop them or their simple mindedness and hatred. I trust that you are smarter than they are so start acting like it!

Bill.......I think any reasonable person who realizes the condition our country was in, can certainly understand that it takes greatness to reunite, and heal this country. It has taken bravery and insight to bring health care to the masses for the first time in our history. Although not quite here, we are on the brink. We are once again seen on the world stage as leaders from a peaceful standpoint. We have a president who teaches peace, who is not afraid to allow his conscience to lead him. A man who shows no greed, and is absolute in his belief in the good within our country. President Obama is a true visionary who leads for all, not just those of wealth and success. Boomer Sooner.