Sons of Confederate Veterans - Flags in Tampa and a new Statue for Richmond
SCV unveils the flag in Tampa
TAMPA — The Sons of Confederate Veterans say they will permanently install a giant Confederate flag near the junction of Interstates 4 and 75 to counter what they consider increasing slights to Southern heritage.(LINK)
What a flag! It measures 30' by 60'. In Richmond, the SCV is wanting a full statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis at Tredegar Iron Works.
By WILL JONES
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
A life-size statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis could stand with the one of Abraham Lincoln at Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans is offering to donate a bronze statue of Davis for placement at the National Historic Landmark site to mark this year as the bicentennial of his birth.
The $100,000-plus statue by Lexington sculptor Gary Casteel would help educate the public about the Confederate president and how his family took in a mixed-race orphan and serve as a counter to the Lincoln statue that was dedicated in 2003, said Brag Bowling, a Richmond resident and a board member with the national Southern-heritage group.
"There were two sides of the war," he said.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans fought the Lincoln statue, which depicts him with his son Tad on his visit to the burned-out Confederate capital in 1865. Bowling said the group isn't trying to cause an uproar but sees a need for historic balance at Tredegar.
"The acceptance of that statue would soothe some feelings of Southerners from a few years ago," he said.
Representatives of the Sons of Confederate Veterans are expected to meet next Tuesday with officials from the American Civil War Center, which controls the Tredegar site through an agreement with its owner, NewMarket Corp.
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A very fitting place for the statue.
posted by Carl Kilo at 2:12:00 PM
Comments on "Sons of Confederate Veterans - Flags in Tampa and a new Statue for Richmond"
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Anonymous said ... (9:04 PM) :
post a commentThat Lincoln statue has no business at Tredegar; no more than that tennis player statue belongs on Monument Avenue.
However, adding a statue of Jefferson Davis to Tredegar, as Mr. Bowling so eloquently said, could help add some historic balance to the Tredegar site.
Now that we have entered the Twenty-First Century, it is well past time for elements of Richmond and Virginia society to end their denial of our Confederate history, and pave the way for the sons and daughters of the South, of all races and creeds, to start making money off of Confederate era tourism. Richmond sits on a gold mine for international tourism related to the Confederate era and it is only mindless political correctness run amok that is standing in the way of Richmond and the rest of Virginia profiting through the promotion of tourism in the Capital of the Confederacy (Richmond) and related battle sites, such as Petersburg and Fredericksburg.
Just this past weekend (June 14-15) Hanover celebrated Dixie Days where thousands of people were drawn to see Confederate battle re-enactments, crafts, artifacts and living history presentations.
If Virginia really promoted Confederate era tourism, our citizens of today (of all racial backgrounds) could unite in a hearty, Rebel yell, as they took those Confederate era tourism dollars to their local banks.
As for Battle Flags, such as the one in Florida, the flag is on private property and was fully permitted in accord with local laws. In short, it is a legal, privately funded monument. With more displays such as the Tampa site, our society will again gain a proper appreciation for the true history of that hallowed banner and the brave soldiers who fought against what they viewed as the invading Northern Army. The more Battle Flag monuments the better.
The SCV promotes the proper display of the Battle Flag; not the use of the Battle Flag for clothing, towels, bed spreads or in any fashion that denigrates the honor of those who served under the Battle Flag.