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Wilder called it “mind-boggling to say the least” that McDonnell did not reference slavery or Vir- ginia’s struggle with civil rights in his proclamation. Though a Democrat, Wilder has been sup- portive of McDonnell and boost- ed his election efforts when he declined to endorse the Repub- lican’s opponent, R. Creigh Deeds.

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KLMNO

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7, 2010

Confederate History Month proclamation angers civil rights leaders

“Confederate history is full of

many things that unfortunately are not put forth in a proclama- tion of this kind nor are they things that anyone wants to cel- ebrate,” he said. “It’s one thing to sound a cause of rallying a base. But it’s quite another to distort history.” The seven-paragraph declara-

tion calls for Virginians to “un- derstand the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers

and citizens during the period of the Civil War.” McDonnell had quietly made the proclamation Friday by plac- ing it on his Web site, but it did not attract attention in the state capital until Tuesday. April also honors child abuse prevention, organ donations, financial litera- cy and crime victims. After a fall campaign spent fo-

cusing almost exclusively on jobs and the economy, McDonnell

had been seen in recent weeks as largely ceding conservative ground to the state’s activist at- torney general, Ken Cuccinelli II. The proclamation could change that view among Republicans who believe appropriate respect for the state’s Confederate past has been erased by an over- allegiance to political correct- ness, observers said. “It helps him with his base,” said Mark Rozell, a political sci-

entist at George Mason Univer- sity. “These are people who sup- port state’s rights and oppose federal intrusion.” Said Patrick M. McSweeney, a former state GOP chairman: “I applaud McDonnell for doing it. I think it takes a certain amount of courage.” The Virginia NAACP and the

state’s legislative black caucus called the proclamation an insult to a large segment of the state’s

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population, particularly because it never acknowledges slavery. “Governor McDonnell’s proc-

lamation was offensive and of- fered a disturbing revision of the Civil War and the brutal era that followed,” said Del. Kenneth Cooper Alexander (D-Norfolk), chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus. “Virginia has worked hard to move beyond the very things for which Governor McDonnell seems nostalgic.” King Salim Khalfani, execu- tive director of the Virginia State Conference of the NAACP, said his group will hold an emergen- cy meeting Saturday to discuss a series of problems it has had with McDonnell since he was sworn into office in January. Virginia has had a long, com-

plicated history on racial rela- tions — long before Richmond served as the capital of the Con- federacy during the Civil War. Many of its most prominent ear- ly residents, including future presidents, owned slaves, and the state openly fought desegre- gation, even closing schools in- stead of integrating them. But in 1989, the state made Wilder the first African American governor in the nation since Reconstruc- tion. McDonnell said Tuesday that

people’s thinking about civil rights and the role of the Confed- eracy in Virginia history have ad- vanced to the point where “peo- ple can talk about and discuss and . . . begin to understand the history a little better.” “I felt just as I’ve issued doz- ens and dozens of other com- memorations, that it was some- thing that was worthy of doing so people can at least study and understand that period of Vir- ginia history and how it impacts us today,” he said. The state’s new governor cam- paigned relentlessly on improv- ing the economy and creating jobs and received the strong backing of the business commu- nity. But the attention that Vir- ginia will receive from the proc- lamation might take away from that focus.

Rozell said the proclamation

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is a “distraction” from McDon- nell’s desire to attract companies to Virginia. Businesses might be- gin to perceive McDonnell’s lat- est decision — combined with Cuccinelli’s decision to sue the federal government over health- care reform legislation and his advice to state colleges and uni- versities that they remove sex- ual-orientation language from their anti-discrimination poli- cies — as a pattern of behavior not conducive to relocating in the state.

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Allen caused a national uproar when he signed a proclamation drafted by the Sons of Confeder- ate Veterans. It called the Civil War “a four-year struggle for [Southern] independence and sovereign rights” and made no mention of slavery. Gilmore modified the decree in 1998 by adding a condemna- tion of slavery, but it failed to sat- isfy either defenders of Confed- erate heritage or civil rights lead- ers. He later changed the proclamation by dropping refer- ences to Confederate History Month and instead designated April as “Virginia’s Month for Remembrance of the Sacrifices and Honor of All Virginians Who Served in the Civil War.” But in 2002, Mark R. Warner, Gilmore’s successor, broke with their actions, calling such proc- lamations a “lightning rod” that did not help bridge divisions be- tween whites and blacks in Vir- ginia. Four years later, Timothy M. Kaine was asked but did not issue a proclamation. This year’s proclamation was requested by the Sons of Confed- erate Veterans. A representative of the group said it has known since it interviewed McDonnell when he was running for attor- ney general in 2005 that he was likely to respond differently than Warner or Kaine. “We’ve known for quite some time we had a good opportunity should he ascend the governor- ship,” said Brandon Dorsey of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Sen. Emmett W. Hanger Jr. (R- Augusta), who has spoken from the floor of the General Assem- bly about honoring Virginia’s Confederate past with appropri- ate acknowledgments to its diffi- cult racial past, said he believed Warner and Kaine “avoided” the issue by failing to issue similar documents. “It would be totally inappro-

priate to do one that would just poke a stick to stir up old wounds. But it is appropriate to recognize the historical signifi- cance of Virginia in that era,” he said. “I think it’s appropriate as long as it’s not fiery.” McDonnell’s proclamation comes just before the April 17, 1861, anniversary of the day Vir- ginia seceded from the union.

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