First we have some good news. As this story tells us, the idiot, fact-challenged racist whom Gov. Youngkin nominated to the Virginia Historical Resources Board resigned. “Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s nominee to the state’s board of historic resources resigned after making offensive and historically inaccurate statements about the Civil War and slavery. Ann McLean, a Richmond historian and founder of Hunter Classical Christian School, was tapped by the Republican governor last month to join the board, but comments she made in an interview last year showed her defending the continued display of Confederate monuments, reported WRIC-TV. ‘I think that the Southerners knew that their story of why they fought the Civil War was not being told correctly,’ McLean told radio host John Reid in December on WRVA radio. ‘Fake news, or false narratives, are not new, and this whole tragedy is that these statues were built to tell the true story of the American South to people 500 years from now. But we have forces right here 150 years later that want to destroy the evidence of that story, and you know, the fight for sovereignty of each state.’ McLean returned to Reid’s program following her nomination to the state board and justified Southern secession — which states explicitly stated at the time was intended to preserve slavery and white supremacy — and compared the Civil War to preserve the Union to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.” Note how she doesn’t consider African Americans to be southerners in addition to her lying about history. We know she’s lying because as we saw in her dissertation she understands what the real history is.
The article continues, beginning with more of her lies: “‘Secession was not treason,’ McLean said. ‘Everyone was allowed, each state was allowed to secede. We all had seceded from Britain, so that’s what, each state was like its own country, so Lee considered Virginia his country and, you know, invasion, just like we see, you know, Russia invading Ukraine, invading a new territory was wrong.’ ” As readers of this blog know, these are all false claims about secession and how people felt. Lee never once referred to Virginia as his country. He always referred to Virginia as his native state.
The article tells us, “The Constitution did not expressly forbid secession, and Confederate president Jefferson Davis was never tried for treason due to a variety of political and legal reasons, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1869 that secession was unconstitutional. ‘So many people want to just flatten the whole Civil War to slavery and, of course, we know slavery is not good,’ McLean added, ‘but I think the South, I think a lot of slavery would’ve been outlawed in the South within five to 10 years but they wanted to do it on their own time.’ ” That’s yet another false claim. Since in her dissertation she understands the real history, then we have to consider this to be another lie.
The article says, “McLean also told The Virginia Star that the state should preserve its ‘wonderful’ Confederate heritage, and Youngkin began to publicly distance himself from his nominee. ‘We’re having a discussion about whether she can represent us well,’ the governor said last week. By Tuesday, however, a Youngkin spokesperson confirmed that McLean had resigned from the historic resources board. ‘After discussion about our Administration’s goals and priorities and Dr. McLean’s, Dr. McLean resigned from the Board of Historic Resources effective August 1, 2022,’ said spokeswoman Macaulay Porter in a text message. ‘The Governor has made his disagreement with her prior comments clear, and the Administration is focused on ensuring that our commonwealth’s rich history and resources are preserved, the best and the worst, for future generations of Virginians and visitors.’ “
This Washington Post article on the same subject tells us, “Ann Hunter McLean, a historian who defends Confederate statues and asserts that slavery was not the primary cause of the Civil War, has resigned from the Virginia Board of Historic Resources over what a spokesman for Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) called a disagreement about priorities. … In an email Wednesday to The Washington Post in response to questions about her resignation, McLean struck a defiant tone, saying that Virginians should examine their ‘actual full and honest history — not a simplified version used for political reasons. I am excited to be completely free now to share that history with people and to speak up to stop the destruction of our shared cultural heritage.’ ” Like most of these odious liars, she accuses others of doing what she does.
We read more of her lies. “After the social justice protests of 2020, when Richmond began removing monuments to Confederate icons such as Gens. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, McLean gave numerous interviews in which she lauded Lee’s character and complained that Virginia’s heritage was ‘under attack.’ ‘This whole tragedy is that these statues were built to tell the true story of the American South to people 500 years from now,’ McLean said to a Richmond radio host on Dec. 23, 2021. ‘People want to destroy the evidence of that story,’ she continued, saying the Civil War was fought for the ‘sovereignty of each state and constitutional law.’ ” There is very little, if any, truth in those monuments, and the Civil War, on the part of the confederacy, was fought for slavery.
According to the article, “Members of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus blasted Youngkin for appointing McLean to the board, which does not have a formal role in overseeing such statues but reviews historic landmark designations and the language on historical markers. Youngkin also appointed Aimee Jorjani, who served under President Donald Trump as chair of the federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. Youngkin initially declined to respond directly to concerns about McLean, with Porter releasing a statement July 15 that ‘the governor supports preserving the history of Virginia and believes that the referenced statues should be preserved in a museum or other facility.’ But McLean continued making provocative public statements. In a July 18 interview with WRVA radio host John Reid, McLean said that ‘secession is not treason’ and that the U.S. Constitution was broken not when the South seceded, but ‘when Lincoln called up 75,000 troops to fight against secession.’ She compared Lincoln’s action to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and said that ‘so many people want to just flatten the whole Civil War to slavery. And of course we know slavery is not good, but I think … slavery would have been outlawed in the South within five or 10years but they wanted to do it on their own time.’ Youngkin was asked about McLean’s remarks by the news media at a public event on July 25. ‘I disagree with her comments, and she and I have discussed that. And so we’re having a discussion about whether she can represent us well,’ Youngkin said, according to a transcript provided by his office. He praised McLean as ‘incredibly well-qualified,’ according to the transcript, but repeated that ‘I don’t support’ her comments.”
The article continues to conclusion: “Del. Lamont Bagby (D-Henrico), head of the Black Caucus, said that despite the resignation, he is concerned that Youngkin ‘continues to appoint people with toxic views on race and the Black community.’ He cited former state LGBTQ+ Advisory Board member Casey Flores, who came under fire for vulgar and offensive tweets before recently leaving the state to take a job in Florida, and State Health Commissioner Colin Greene, who faced calls for his resignation after urging his staff not to talk about racism for fear of alienating White people and after suggesting that genetics might explain disparities in Black maternal mortality. Youngkin’s administration had asked Flores to tone down his tweets before he left the board, and Greene expressed ‘regret’ over alienating staff members after Youngkin issued a statement expressing disappointment over Greene’s communication skills. ‘I’d like to give [Youngkin] the benefit of the doubt,’ Bagby said, ‘but we see a pattern in which he is perfectly fine condoning those who hold hate in their hearts working for him. I pray he finds the courage to stand up for what’s right.’ “
This article from Ohio tells us, “Ohio By the Numbers:
– Total number of Confederate symbols: 6
– City with the most Confederate symbols: Milford (3 symbols)
– Number of symbols removed since 1880: 1″
The article also tells us, “Ohio lawmakers in June 2020 refused to ban Confederate flags and other symbols at county fairs, but Gov. Mike DeWine on June 23 said he wasn’t opposed to removing Confederate statues and memorials throughout the state. The Robert E. Lee Dixie Highway Monument was removed in 2017 after standing for almost a century; several roads named for Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas Jonathan ‘Stonewall’ Jackson remain in the Southwest corner of the state. The first half-dozen Confederate monuments went up as soon as the Civil War ended in 1865. From then until 1900, most years saw between two and six monuments go up. Then, installations surged: In 1911 alone, 49 Confederate monuments were erected around the country, according to the SPLC. 1911 also coincides with the peak of Jim Crow laws designed to disadvantage Blacks and perpetuate segregation. Other surges appear throughout the first half of the 20th century, with pronounced increases in Confederate monuments going up throughout the civil rights movement and smaller increases at the turn of the 21st century and immediately following the election of President Barack Obama in 2008. Various groups stand by claims that these memorials serve as important historical markers; others argue the memorials glorify white supremacists and ignore those who were hurt, enslaved, and killed by the scourge of racism in this country. Some historians suggest looking at how post-war Germany has handled its past: Concentration camps serve as museums that detail the horrors that occurred therein so people never forget what happened; with nary a Hitler or SS statue to be found. Instead, statues and monuments memorialize victims who were lost as well as those who survived.”
Today, in this post, Kevin Levin broke the news that, “the Congressional Commission, charged with all ‘Department of Defense items that commemorate the Confederate States of America,’ will recommend the removal of the Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery.” Kevin tells us, “The plan is to remove all the bronze, including the statue at the top, state shields, the frieze reliefs around the center, and the inscriptions. At the end of the process, it will be unidentifiable as a Confederate memorial.”
Student of the American Civil War 