From: Valerie Protopapas
Date: Thu, Sep 13, 2012
Subject: [Dixie Outfitters] Perhaps those ladies of the UDC…
To: Dixie Outfitters <112785415419400@groups.facebook.com>
Perhaps those ladies of the UDC and those gentlemen of the SCV who support the Museum of the Confederacy’s curator S. Waite Rawls in the contest regarding the display of Confederate flags would be interested in hearing from those whom Rawls supports regarding both organizations. The following is taken from an essay about the current situation in the Museum:
“The attitude that Director Rawls is ostensibly attempting to counter by virtue of his ongoing collaboration with these foes of Southern culture, history and heritage, was clearly enunciated by author James McPherson. In 1999 McPherson gave an interview with Ed Sebesta on the liberal Pacifica Radio network program Democracy Now! on the subject of the Museum of the Confederacy and its Lone Star Ball fundraising event as well as Sebesta’s views on the historical Confederacy and modern day organizations connected with it. Sebesta stated that the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy were created with the motive of celebrating the Confederacy, including the use of slavery in the Confederate economy, and white supremacy. The interview with McPherson . . . included the following statement: ". . . I agree a 100% with Ed Sebesta about the motives or the hidden agenda . . . of such groups as the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of Confederate Veterans. They are dedicated to celebrating the Confederacy and rather thinly veiled support for white supremacy. And I think that also is . . . (the) hidden agenda of the Confederate flag issue in several southern states."
Apparently, however, MoC’s Administration had made sufficient “brownie points” with McPherson, for him to state that it had changed its orientation, from its original purpose of celebrating the Confederacy: “Over time, and especially in the last decade or two,” said McPherson, “it (the MoC) has become a much more professional, research-oriented, professional exhibit-oriented facility . . ." In other words, the “politically correct” Mr. McPherson approved of the MoC and its present “orientation”. Thus, the actions of Director Reed and Curator Collier, among others I’m sure, had won over McPherson and perhaps some of his fellow travelers. But one has to wonder if in doing so, their actions compensated for the abandonment of the original mission of the MoC as stated in writing by its founders and their betrayal of most of the present contributors to the Museum of whom one must doubt that either Mr. McPherson or Mr. Sebasta in fact, are.
