Update to It's Not Just Faux News We Should Be Worried About
The Selma Times Journal failed miserably if they believe today's update provided any more information or insight to this story. Yes, Cecil Williamson is on the record admitting that he attended this rally honoring Nathan Bedford Forest - the founder of the KKK. That should have been the headline as that's the real issue and not what was said at a city council meeting. Basing this entire story around a city council meeting is analogous to writing a story about a Jerry Springer Episode.
Williamson in his response also admits that he belonged to the League of the South, a hate group still monitored by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Williamson said he will retire when this term ends although he will serve out his term as Council President.
Williamson said he was a member when the group organized about two decades ago.
"It was organized more as an academic exercise by people who were professors, primarily," Williamson said. "They were men who taught at The University of Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, and at first it seemed to be academic exercise about Southern independence, and they wrote a series of articles about Southern independence now, not about the 1860s. I was a member of the League of the South for about eight years, and then when I started law school in 2001, there were some things I had to give up because of the time constraints, and that was one of the things. I have not belonged to the League of the South since 2001. And, of course, there was a split in the League of the South between those who wanted to make it more political, those who seemed to want to make it more radical, certainly more than I wanted it to be. Because as I have said, I have not been associated with it since 2001."
The Selma Fox Times Journal should have gone further. A simple google internet search raises some red flags about Williamson's claim he abandoned the League of the South in 2001.
In 2005, Dr. Cecil Williamson was listed as a speaker at the Alabama Secession Day Celebration on the Free Alabama Website which is the Tuscaloosa League of the South website
Saturday, January 8, 2005
Alabama Secession Day Celebration, State Capitol, Montgomery, AL. 10:00 AM-Noon. Speakers: Rev. John Killian, Dr. Cecil Williamson, & Philip Davis. (Bring lawn chairs as seating will not be provided.
For Williamson to say he was not associated with the League of the South since 2001 is completely inaccurate. Furthermore, there is no evidence that Williamson has denounced the group and it's more radical development since 2001.
Regardless of when Williamson claims he left this group, he has not denounced his far from mainstream views such as those in this newsletter
The statement of purpose of the League of the South is that "we seek to advance the cultural, social, economic, and political well-being and independence of the Southern people by all honourable means."
Williamson also glosses over the not so pretty history of Nathan Bedford Forrest. Forrest was a former slave trader and by many accounts a very violent man even with his own troops. There is no doubt that Forrest led the Klan. Here's an account of Nathan Bedford Forrest by the Southern Poverty Law center
Although he repeatedly denied membership — even lying to Congress — Forrest in fact led the Klan through one of its most violent and successful periods, when robed terrorists succeeded in rolling back Reconstruction. He even told one newspaper reporter that while he was no member, he "intend[ed]" to kill radical Republicans. He added that he could raise 40,000 men in four days.
Forrest sympathizers have long claimed that he disbanded the Klan when it became violent. In fact, it had been extremely violent for years under Forrest, and was only disbanded when its work was essentially done — blacks and Republicans had been terrified into not voting — and when it came under intense criticism.
Nathan Bedford Forrest was certainly one of the most intriguing and colorful characters of the Civil War, and Hurst does him justice in his wide-ranging and well-written biography. But Forrest was no Robert E. Lee, and the fact that this often brutal and thuggish man has come to be lionized by today's neo-Confederate right is remarkable indeed.
Where nostalgia for the Lost Cause was once presented in the rosy light of Lee's personality, today it is a man who was a slave trader, an apparent party to war crimes and a brutal Klan boss who represents that movement.
The STJ also fails to address or at least conveniently avoids discussing Williamson's The Real Reason Our Heritage is Attacked writing where Williamson has this rosey account of the former institution known as slavery
The antebellum South was a family oriented culture. Most families did not live in cities, but lived apart from one another. The South was an agrarian society where less than 10% of the families owned slaves. Because the South was an agricultural society, families found it necessary to work and live together. The extended family was the foundation of Southern agrarianism.
Stonewall Jackson had slaves. To him, they were a part of his family. Jackson and his family had family worship every morning and every afternoon. He required every one of his servants to attend these times of worship with his immediate family.
In the last thirty years it is the traditional family of husband, wife, children, living with and loving one another, that has come under attack.
Our media fails us when they tell only a small portion of the story. Williamson has a long history of belonging to groups that want to revert back to the ways of the Old South. He also still has a lot of public writings available on the intertubes that promote his extremist views on culture and race. We certainly respect the rights of free speech and the freedom to attend historical events, however misguided. Yet, we also should expect more from elected officials especially one holding the title of City Council President in a City with a unique modern-day history of racial strife and tensions. If we are going to move forward and progress we need to be willing to be honest with each other about the past. The Selma Times Journal abets Williamson in his failure to be forthcoming with their so called "fair and balanced" journalism. If anything this account is another attempt to side-step and avoid discussing the real issues which undermines our trust of one another.