Little fictions and simple facts
It is called the Big Lie: A falsehood, a half-truth, or most dangerous, a simplification, repeated so often that it becomes conventional wisdom and for most people, the truth. Hitler did it, and McCarthy, but they were just two of the more overthe-top offenders. It still happens all the time, just on a smaller scale. Little fictions are repeated so often that they appear to be common knowledge. Here are some examples:
LITTLE FICTION NO. 1
› “Racism in The South.” This phrase, repeated ad nauseam, not-so-subtly implies that there is no racism in the North. I first noticed that there was a problem with this phrase when Time magazine had a cover story on the subject in the early 80s entitled, coincidentally, “Racism in the South.” The cover photograph was of a lynching in the 1940s. It showed a bunch of rednecks smiling and pointing to the dead man hanging from a tree. It was a horrible, poignant photo. On the inside cover there was fine print which identified the site of the event as a town in Indiana.
Recently, a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece described Brown vs. Board of Education as the seminal U.S. Supreme Court case that ended “segregation in the South.” The writer may have forgotten that the full name of that case is Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kan.
Correct me if I am wrong, but at no time in history has “the South” included Indiana or Kansas, nor to my knowledge have these states ever applied for membership. Kansas, as I recall, even fought its own little civil war in order to stay out of the South.
You may or may not recall that America’s worst anti-busing riot was in Boston. May I ask, rhetorically: Why did Boston need court-ordered busing?
The most deadly race riot in American was in Los Angeles, Calif.
I am not going to even mention the Northern race riots in Rochester, N.Y. (1964), Jersey City, N.J. (1964), Elizabeth, N.J. (1964), Chicago (1964), Philadelphia (1964), Chicago again (1966), Cleveland (1966), Buffalo, N.Y. (1967), Newark, N.J. (1967), Baltimore, Md. (1968), Chicago yet again (1968), and Chicago one more time (1969); and that’s just a sampling.
I am not going to mention Detroit, either (1967). Racism in the South was certainly not the core complaint which gave rise to these Northern riots.
LITTLE FICTION NO. 2
› “Slavery in the South caused the Civil War.” Slavery is not just a Southern sin; it is an American sin. The Confederate flag flew over slavery from 1861 to 1865. The American flag, however, flew over slavery much longer, from 1776 until after the end of the Civil War. The four slave states which remained loyal to the Union, namely Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland and West Virginia, were treated with kid gloves by the Lincoln
administration. The Emancipation Proclamation had no effect on them. Maryland adopted a new constitution in April of 1864 which freed its slaves, but Missouri and West Virginia remained slave states until 1865, when Congress sent the 13th Amendment to the states for ratification.
Due to resistance to the 13th Amendment from slave owners in Kentucky, the status of its slaves remained undefined for some period of time after the war. Kentucky did not formally ratify the 13th Amendment until 1976.
In a letter to The New York Tribune published Aug. 22, 1862, more than a year into the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln responded to criticism as to why he had done nothing to free the slaves.
He said, “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and it is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.”
Lincoln’s policy evolved to include emancipation, and the Emancipation Proclamation became effective Jan. 1, 1863. It changed the course of the war, because it changed the tone of the war. The war now had a holy cause, rather than just a pragmatic, political one. But was war the answer?
Much of the pre-war debate in Congress speculated on the political and economic effect of three million newly freed slaves, now homeless and unemployed, suddenly turned out into the streets. That concern became a reality after the war, as the South was plunged into an almost universal post-war poverty.
Then, as the impoverished whites subjected the impoverished blacks, Northern speculators bought up hard assets and real estate at fire-sale prices. The local histories of many of Chattanooga’s richest families begin during or shortly after Reconstruction. The post-war history of the South, then, is also not just a Southern sin. It is an American one. It was the American Supreme Court, not a Southern one, that upheld the policy of “separate but equal” in American law (Plessy vs Ferguson, 1896).
What if cooler heads had prevailed on both sides and war had been avoided? According to a report published in the Wall Street Journal some years ago, the United States spent $5 billion dollars (in 1860 dollars) to prosecute the Civil War. This amount could have bought the freedom of every slave in America and provided each with 40 acres and a mule, with $2 billion dollars left over. America chose war instead.
The history of the United States, the good, the bad, and the ugly, cannot be reduced to sound bites, and cannot be obliterated by destroying statues and monuments or by desecrating graves. Such actions will only engender unnecessary animosity from people who were not previously hateful. The goals of the civil rights movement, as I recall, were to create a color-blind society, espouse equality and create mutual respect. Instead, we should all be chagrined that this cause appears to have morphed into preferential treatment, identity politics and disrespect of anyone with a dissenting viewpoint.
Here are some simple facts:
SIMPLE FACT NO. 1
› The City of Chattanooga has a moral obligation to tend to its graveyards. The city cannot and should not abandon the graves of its Confederate dead, or any other. Chattanooga’s mayor has announced his intention to renounce the city’s position as trustee of the Confederate Cemetery on East Third Street. I hesitate to mention that there are union soldiers and civilians also buried in that graveyard; that fact should not be a factor in our choices. We honor the graves of the fallen because it is the right thing to do.
SIMPLE FACT NO. 2
› In a National Public Radio poll just released, 62 percent of Americans (not just Southerners) want Civil War statues and memorials to be left intact. Our history should be preserved and discussed, not destroyed. Unfortunately, this discussion has been taken over by extreme factions and the majority of Americans have no voice. It is troubling that Confederate emblems have been appropriated by fringe elements. Those groups do not represent me or you, or anyone I know. It is also unfortunate that their polar opposites are expending so much effort to erase history and desecrate the memorials of our ancestors.
The message they are sending is that they believe our ancestors deserved to die. Our American history is much more complicated than that.
SIMPLE FACT NO. 3
› When the U.S. invades a nation, kills its civilians, burns its towns and cities, destroys its crops and subjugates its citizens, it creates an enmity that does not go away for a long, long time. The United States could have learned that lesson after the Civil War, but didn’t. The United States could have learned that lesson after Vietnam, but didn’t.
SIMPLE FACT NO. 4
› History is complicated. It is never purely objective, and what we are taught in school is never the full story.
The word “tolerance” is heard everywhere, but can it be found anywhere? It should seem self-evident that a person cannot claim tolerance until that person can tolerate someone with whom he or she disagrees.
I hope that the iconoclasts will adopt the views of more than 60 percent of Americans and find another cause to pursue.
My father’s family was from East Tennessee, my mother’s from Kentucky. Her great-grandfather, Fleming Mahoney, fought for the Union, his brother for the Confederacy. Fleming was captured at Chickamauga and spent 13 months at the Confederate prison at Andersonville. I have a copy of his records from the Andersonville prison. The brother’s history is less known. He was a partisan ranger who was hanged by Union troops.
Most Southerners, indeed most Americans, want their memorials preserved and their graves maintained. Fringe and hate groups are not representative of the vast majority of us, but they currently are attracting all of the attention. It is time someone listened to the rest of us.
Paul Hatcher, an attorney with Duncan, Hatcher, Holland & Fleenor, P.C., was a contributing author to the World War II Desk Reference (Harper Collins, 2004).
Chattanooga’s mayor wants to renounce the city’s position as trustee of the Confederate cemetery on East Third Street. There are Union soldiers and civilians buried in that graveyard, which should not be a factor. We honor the graves of the fallen because it is the right thing to do.