Sons of Confederate Veterans to gather this week in Raleigh. Protesters want to stop them.
A group of protesters will try to disrupt a Sons of Confederate Veterans symposium this weekend in Raleigh that is billed by organizers as an educational event and condemned by opponents as racist.
The national Sons of Confederate Veterans has staged the Stephen D. Lee Institute annually in different cities around the South since 2003, inviting members to come listen as teachers, writers and researchers lecture about the Civil War, the Confederacy and Southern history.
This year’s event, to be held Friday and Saturday at the Embassy Suites Brier Creek, a Hilton hotel, is expected to draw 50 to 60 SCV members, spouses and friends, organizer Chris Sullivan said.
“It’s just an opportunity to get together and have some conversations and dialogue about the War Between the States and that aspect of American history,” Sullivan said in a phone interview with The News & Observer from South Carolina, where he lives. The theme of this year’s institute, he said, is the question, “Is the South American?”
Scheduled speakers include Samuel W. Mitcham Jr., described on the event’s web page as a visiting professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, though a spokesman for West Point said Friday the Academy was unable to find a record of Mitcham serving in that capacity any time in the past 25 years. Another speaker on the agenda is Carey Roberts, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va..
Sullivan, a third-generation SCV member who says two of his ancestors fought for the Confederacy, helped found the institute 17 years ago to help fulfill the part of the SCV’s mission of education.
Last year’s institute was held in Birmingham, Ala. Others have been in Dallas and St. Augustine, Fla.. The institute is named for the keynote speaker at the SCV’s inaugural meeting, whose words were later used to craft the group’s mission statement.
Opposition to the symposium
Sullivan said this is the first one of the events he’s aware of that has met opposition.
That’s coming from Smash Racism Raleigh, described by founding member Skye McCollum as a way to push for the removal or contextualization of Confederate monuments on the North Carolina Capitol grounds after protesters took down Silent Sam on the UNC campus in 2018.
McCollum, an N.C. State University junior from Apex studying political science and French, said the group decided to rally its energy against the SCV’s institute after studying some of the writings of its featured speakers.
The SCV was founded in 1896 as an offshoot of the United Confederate Veterans, whose members had actually served in the Confederate military. The SCV’s members are male descendants of Confederates.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks U.S. extremist groups, does not classify the SCV as a hate group. It says the nonprofit is a neo-Confederate heritage group that actively promotes “Lost Cause mythology,” glossing over the legacy of slavery in the South.
The SCV was opposed to the removal of UNC’s Silent Sam Confederate monument and secretly negotiated with lawyers for the UNC Board of Governors to take custody of the downed statue through a legal settlement in December. The judge who approved the settlement reversed his decision in February and ordered the statue returned to UNC’s possession.
UNC has not said what it will do with the statue.
McCollum said in a phone interview that when Smash Racism Raleigh learned of the SCV’s institute coming to town, members tried to contact the management of the host hotel and its parent company, Winwood Hospitality, to ask them to bar the gathering. She said she and other members of the group bombarded the hotel with phone calls, but got no response from management.
Hotel asked to stop event
McCollum said she and others also put fliers on cars parked at the hotel, telling customers about the SCV event in the hopes they would press hotel management to cancel it.
By renting space for the institute, McCollum said, Embassy Suites is supporting white supremacy.
Winwood did not respond to requests for comment from The News & Observer.
“Our community, which opposes racism and bigotry, wishes to make sure they know that their hate is not welcome in our state,” McCollum said.
She said she expects more than 50 protesters, including some residents from the area near the hotel, to gather with signs and noise-makers to try to disrupt the SCV meeting. They plan to protest from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
McCollum said the institute and its speakers’ arguments that the Civil War was about states’ rights and was the result of unconstitutional acts by an overreaching federal government are attempts to rewrite history.
Sullivan said actions by Smash Racism Raleigh and other groups to remove historical monuments and stifle discussions like the SCV’s institute are attempts to erase history.
Sullivan said racist ideology is not allowed within the SCV. McCollum said, “Racism is rooted in their very cause.”
This story was originally published February 27, 2020 at 8:00 AM.
