Admitting Rebel Shame - and Saluting Southern Pride

Dallas has at Least Covered up its Rebel Shame - November, 2019

It has now been over two years since I posted about the shameful rewrite of history that the City of Dallas maintains on its property while patting itself on the back for possible removal of a Robert E Lee statue in Lee Park.

Well, since then, they removed the Lee statue from Lee Park. At auction, it fetched more than the high estimate for the winning bid. I note, that now, the "formerly Lee and Oak Lawn before and after that" Park will henceforth be known as "Turtle Creek Park." This happened earlier this year. A story on the renaming is here. Since it appears that no Council action is required, this name change might stick. The Lee statue itself seems to have wound up on a golf course near the Mexican Border. That story is here. At least it no longer resides on public land.

Enough about Lee/Turtle Creek Park. In the meantime, the monument in my "Rebel Shame" post is still in the Dallas Pioneer Cemetery, within sight of Dallas City Hall. Even in Dallas, however, there are signs that Rebel Shame might be starting to be recognized. I was in Dallas earlier today and the statue has been redecorated by Dallas. There're no signs about what might happen in the future, but at least the "brazen lips of Southern cannon thundered an unanswered.." nonsense is not there for descendants of Rebel victims (such as the Gainesville Great Hanging) to read with no mention that things were not quite so romantic as all that for THEIR ancestors.

The picture at the top of the page shows the Rebel Memorial as it is now. To their credit, the Dallas City Council voted to have it pulled down, but not everyone agreed, the story of "what happened next" may be found here, and it is still going on, though the only site I could find within the last month wanted me to take a survey about whether or not Adam Schiff should be charged with treason. You'll have to find that one on your own, but basically, it recounts how lawsuits are continuing over the memorial.

OTOH, we should offer a salute for Southerners that did not betray their country. Among these was Sam Houston, and Lilburn Colley, for whom Colleyville was named. In the 2017 post, I recited Houston's feelings about the United States. Old Doctor Colley remains in North Texas. His grave is in the next town over from the one named after him. If you go to "Findagrave," here, you can see he was born in Missouri, though there's no mention there that he fought for the preservation of the Union.

Headstone of Old Doctor Colley, from Findagrave

In closing, I will add another quote from Sam Houston (one his last while Governor of Texas, immediately after secession), one that none of the Rebel Memorials include:

Fellow citizens, in the name of your rights and liberties, which I believe have been trampled upon, I refuse to take this oath. In the name of the nationality of Texas, which has been betrayed by the Convention, I refuse to take this oath. In the name of the Constitution of Texas, I refuse to take this oath. In the name of my own conscience and manhood, which this Convention would degrade by dragging me before it, to pander to the malice of my enemies, I refuse to take this oath. I deny the power of this Convention to speak for Texas....I protest....against all the acts and doings of this convention and I declare them null and void.

Southern Pride, indeed. Two veterans who helped make the United States united again. I salute their service.