KING & LEE WERE BOTH SUPPORTERS OF CIVIL RIGHTS

It has become fashionable these days to criticize the Confederacy for its alleged support of slavery. This is so even though the Yankee U.S. Congress passed in 1861, after the War of Northern Aggression had began, the Crittenden Resolution which said that "war was being waged for the reunion of the states, and not to abolish the south's "peculiar institution" of slavery". The vast majority of the Confederate soldiers were fighting the War (called the Civil War by the victorious North) to repel the Northern invasion of their homeland and thousands of Black soldiers also fought for the Confederacy.

Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi all celebrate Lee/King Day as one state holiday, but on the surface, the Confederate general doesn't seem like the type of candidate to be immortalized in a holiday, especially one shared by a civil rights hero. (See: "Confederate, civil rights heroes share holiday in 3 states").  Russell Chism said that, "…General Lee commanded the South to put a stop to the abolition of slavery plain and simple". id.

"While this might be the reaction of some people unaware that King/Lee Day even existed, they might also be unaware that the two men have much in common." id. "Lee was actually held in "…high esteem, even revered, by black and white people from the North and South," according to Neely Young, editor-in-chief of Georgia Trend, in his article "Robert E. Lee and Equal Rights." id.

Take this story as just one example:

"During the Civil War, people were fiercely devoted to their states as the country wasn't very old. Lee was offered a position in the Union army, but chose to stay loyal to Virginia, where his family lived and he was raised. After the war, Lee and his family were attending a church in Virginia that was divided into black parishioners in the back and whites at the front of the building, which was common then. When it was time for Holy Communion a black man came forward, shocking the congregation as it was customary for whites to receive communion first, according to Neely. "After a moment, a tall white man got up and knelt beside the black man to take the Lord's supper. Watching the scene, others both white and black followed," Neely wrote. "The white man who joined his black brother was Robert E. Lee." id.

"Martin Luther King was one of the greatest Americans on the scale of Lincoln and Roosevelt," and "He was a great man and Robert E. Lee would be very pleased [his holiday is] celebrated if he was alive." id.

See Also:

THE CONFEDERATE FLAG STILL FLIES IN BRAZIL

FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR IN NEW ORLEANS and the posts linked thereunder

NAACP PROTESTS KID ROCK'S USE OF THE CONFEDERATE FLAG and the posts linked thereunder

&

IGNORANCE LEADS TO PROTEST OVER S.C. SECESSION BALL and the posts linked thereunder