Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
H.K. Edgerton is nothing if not tireless.
Five years ago, the former head of the Ashvegas chapter of the NAACP, donned a Civil War uniform, picked up a Confederate battle flag and walked from Asheville to Texas. All this to bring attention to the fact that he’s a black man who loves that Confederate flag.
Five years later, he’s doing it again.
This past Saturday morning at 8 a.m. sharp, Edgerton and a small band of supporters, including Roger McCredie and Kirk Lyons of the Southern Legal Resource Center in Black Mountain, gathered around the Vance Monument for a few words, a prayer and a send-of for Edgerton. Edgerton’s “March Across Dixie” will take him all the way to Austin, Texas, by December. (He’s not walking the entire way – rather, it’s 5-mile stints.)
On his tours, Edgerton takes on the cadence of a preacher at times to talk about his controversial view of the Confederate flag, a symbol that many see as offensive and divisive. Edgerton has said that many blacks and whites got along well, and that it was the Northern reconstructionists who pitted blacks and whites against one another after the Civil War.
Edgerton’s connections with the Southern Legal Resource Center also make him a target for criticism. Lyons has described himself as “an un-reconstructed Southerner.” He’s the chief attorney for the Black Mountain SLRC, which has made a name for itself by taking up the legal defense of those who want to display the Confederate flag in various ways. The center has been critized by groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center as a white separatist organization, and it notes that before working for the SLRC, he had a hand in the defense of right-wingers such as Tom Metzger.
No matter what your views, Edgerton carries on. He engages people all along his route and isn’t afraid to speak up. Here’s his route, if you’d like to see him.
Still Learning: The C-T has reported on this, last time was in July, but only after reading it first on Ashvegas (http://ashvegas.squarespace.com/journal/2007/7/26/has-hk-edgerton-folded-up-his-confederate-flag-for-good.html).
Here’s what the C-T had, once again by John Boyle:
H.K.’s flag still flies…
All’s not so well with our old friend H.K. Edgerton, the African-American Asheville resident who makes appearances around the South wearing a Confederate uniform and waving a Confederate battle flag.
For more than a decade, Edgerton has made a name for himself preaching about the great love that existed between whites and blacks in the South before the Civil War. He’s also buddies with Kirk Lyons at the Southern Legal Resource Center in Black Mountain, which is often involved in Southern heritage causes.
In its summer online issue (www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport), the Southern Poverty Law Center details a spat between Edgerton and members of the Georgia chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The article says that Elijah Coleman, “a prominent activist in the Georgia SCV, wrote a widely distributed e-mail in early March accusing Edgerton of selling hundreds of SCV-provided battle flags at a NASCAR event and pocketing the funds.”
The article also said Edgerton was giving up the cause and had furled his flag.
Edgerton told me Friday the story was mostly hogwash, although he acknowledged a tiff with Coleman over the flags and Coleman’s accusations.
“I lost my composure,” Edgerton said. “I told him I wasn’t his ‘boy’ and that I was going to put my foot in his (rear end).”
Edgerton says he wasn’t selling flags but did accept donations totaling $96, money he needed for gas to get home.
The fiery, articulate activist acknowledged that he gave a speech afterward in which he talked up how tired he was — “Even my clothes were tired,” he told me — and that he was hanging it up.
But Edgerton now says he can’t leave behind “his babies” — all the teens in the South who are persecuted for wearing Confederate flag clothing or jewelry. If anything, he’s going to be doing more events and speeches — with his uniform and flag.
“Don’t believe everything you read, John,” he said.
It always amazes me how many Confederate flags I see around NC, considering that during the war the state (and a majority of it’s inhabitants) had to be dragged into the Confederacy kicking and screaming by threats of violence and supply blockades.
Until I saw Melissa’s response, I was beginning to think that Asheville’s commenters on public affairs are neutral about the confederate flag, slavery and the violent racist history of the south. I had forgotten Boyle’s excellent column — thanks for reminding us!
But I do believe that the weird neutrality of today’s Ashvegas piece says something about Asheville’s general approach to race:
"the Confederate flag, a symbol that many see as offensive and divisive. Edgerton has said that many blacks and whites got along well, and that it was the Northern reconstructionists who pitted blacks and whites against one another after the Civil War."
Come on now, Ashvegas, a symbol that "many" see as offensive and divisive?
The question is, do you see it as offensive and divisive?
You are not a Republican candidate for public office or a corporate spokesperson. In Asheville, NC in the year 2007, you can have an opinion on the confederate flag. And, as you are linking us to Edgerton’s itinerary, you may feel some responsibility to convince us that you are not promoting him, but instead are leading us to him for some edifying purpose.
One obvious question about Edgerton that I’ve never seen the local media ask:
Is he paid for his work for the Kirk Klan (Southern Legal Resource Center) and if so, how much?
If H.K. is effectively just a hired sandwich board for this group, wouldn’t that suggest that his itinerary and claims about southern history deserve somewhat less promotion than they receive?
And then there is this: "Edgerton has said that many blacks and whites got along well, and that it was the Northern reconstructionists who pitted blacks and whites against one another after the Civil War."
Are we neutral on this claim as well? We’re talking about 250 years of slavery and another 140 years of KKK and related racist violence.
I’ll be looking for the next Ashvegas report on a gang murder or rape: "This crime, which many see as wrong �."
The analogy is not such a far stretch. Of course waving a flag is not rape or murder, but it certainly celebrates a history that includes both.
If you look at the Southern Poverty Law Center’s research (which you do mention) on the Southern Legal Resource Center, I hope you will see that Kirk’s Klan is defending something more than southern "heritage" and pride.
I wish that you would say so, as you link us to his itinerary with this bizarrely neutral, even promotional ending to your piece:
"No matter what your views, Edgerton carries on. He engages people all along his route and isn’t afraid to speak up. Here’s his route, if you’d like to see him."
OK. This classic column from Johnny Boyle says all I would EVER need to say about HK:
There is no honor or dignity in slavery
John Boyle, columnist
Published 01/20/01
So there he was again, the Black man dressed in his Confederate uniform, cheerfully waving a Confederate flag.
This time H.K. Edgerton was on the corner of College Street near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, waiting for a crowd of several hundred people honoring the slain civil rights leader to file by.
"I think Martin Luther King would’ve wanted me to be here," Edgerton said, his forceful cadence reminding me of a preacher. "He knew that African-Americans achieved a place of honor and respect under this flag."
As usual, he went on and on about the dignity and love Blacks and Whites shared as slave and owner. He wore a sign declaring, "Heritage not hate."
For two and a half years now he’s been waving the Confederate flag and spouting the same old dreck. Man, I wish this guy would give it a rest and quit embarrassing himself and Asheville.
"I don’t think any Black feels dignity or pride toward that flag except H.K.," said Gail Smith, an Asheville native and MLK Day marcher.
"I don’t think there was any honor or dignity in slavery," said another marcher and Asheville native Larry Fair. "There was humiliation."
I don’t believe in ignoring the past or painting all Confederates as hate-mongers and slavemasters. As did Union soldiers, many Confederates fought with dignity and honor.
And yes, the war was partly about states’ rights, but one of those was the right to own slaves. It’s even in the Confederate Constitution adopted March 11, 1861 in a section about acquiring new territory. Negro slavery, it says, "shall be recognized and protected by Congress and by the Territorial government…"
In a speech in Savannah, Ga., on March 21, 1861, Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens spoke about the new Confederate Constitution. The document, he said, "put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution – African slavery as it exists amongst us – the proper status of the Negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution."
He went on to state that the Confederacy’s "foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests upon the great truth, that the Negro is not equal to the White man; that slavery – subordination to the superior race – is his natural and normal condition."
So I hope that settles that. Now, about how wonderful life was as a slave. I’ve got an idea: If you think slavery was so great, H.K., how about being my slave?
Here’s the deal: you get to live in my unheated garage with the cat, you’ll eat the cheapest food I can find, I get to violate your wife and daughters whenever I want, and if you give me any lip I’ll whip you till your back is raw. Complain about my treatment of your family and I’ll sell them down river and you’ll never see them again. Of course, you’ll work at least 12 hours a day, unpaid. And you get to call me only "Massuh Boyle."
Oh, and you can wave that Confederate flag all you want.