On Sun, Dec 18, 2011, Grant Warren
Mr. Edgerton I wondered if you had seen this. I was delighted that Missouri State University played this song-then saddened that the school’s president would apologize and promise the band would NEVER play Dixie again…
-Grant Warren
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From: HK Edgerton [hk.edgerton@gmail.com]
Date: Mon, Dec 19, 2011
To: Grant Warren [hirules_house@yahoo.com]
Dear Grant,
It is too bad that Mr. Smart didn’t invite the NAACP and those who supposedly complained about the playing of Dixie over to the Missouri State University library and have them study the archives about those honorable folks from Missouri, Red, Yellow, Black and White who not only loved the singing and playing of Dixie, but who also earned a place of Honor and Dignity in the defense of Dixie.
And, you tell him that I, HK Edgerton, the immediate past President of the NAACP in the City of Asheville, NC, make no public or private speeches without the singing or playing of Dixie. And if he so chooses to ban something, then ban the playing of the Battle Hymn of the Republic that is so insulting to Southern people and the memory of those Southern soldiers that hail from the Great State of Missouri who gave of their lives and support to the Confederate States of America, and their peers. And you remind him just how much Abe Lincoln so loved to hear Dixie that he tried in vain to steal it as a Northern song. And furthermore, you tell him that the NAACP does not speak for loyal Southern Black folks and,for that matter, the majority of Southern Black folk. And most of us are tired of you using us as a weapon against our Southern White family, as you try to separate us from the place of honor and dignity that our ancestors earned beside him, before, during and after the War for Southern Independence, and the right to live in the framework of the Constitutional Republic forged by the Founding Fathers at the time of our freedom.
And furthermore, how can you ask of us to accept the opinions and direction of an organization that has turned itself so much towards hate that it would deface the monument of the Honorable President George Washington as they did at a rally in Columbia, South Carolina? How can you ask of us who are loyal Southerners to accept the direction of those who would make us traitors of the dry bones of our ancestors and those of Dr. Martin Luther King who would not at the urging of Jesse Jackson and Ralph Abernathy attack the Christian Cross of St. Andrew enveloped in the Confederate Battle Flag?
In this year that began the Sesquicentennial of the War of Northern Aggression, I applaud those babies of Missouri State University who made a Stand just as our ancestors did, Red, Yellow, Black and White, freed or indentured. And I encourage them to play Dixie again. And further the University Board of Trustees of Missouri State University should conduct an open public forum, invite me to speak to these matters, or at the very least avail itself and students of Terry Lee Edgerton’s Pictorial Documentary Book of the Historic March Across Dixie that highlights a great deal of the pride that Red, Yellow and Black folks in the South have in their flag and Dixie. And shortly thereafter dismiss Cliff Smart from any Presidential duties. God bless you.
Your brother,
HK Edgerton
President
Southern Heritage 411
