H. K. Edgerton

H. K. Edgerton (born February 18, 1948) is an African-American activist for Southern heritage and an African-American member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. He is often given a prominent place at rallies for the Confederate flag. A former president of the Asheville, North Carolina, chapter of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), he is on the board of the Southern Legal Resource Center.

H.K. Edgerton reciting a passionate Civil War poem during a Sons of Confederate Veterans and United Daughters of the Confederacy dinner in Tampa, Florida.

Early life and education

Edgerton was born in North Carolina on February 18, 1948 .

Political activist

Edgerton worked for improving racial issues through the Asheville chapter of the NAACP, where he was elected as president. Before becoming a president of NAACP, he had been an activist in support of Confederate heritage and had attended rallies supporting display of the Confederate flag. He was suspended from the NAACP in 1998 for non-compliance with the organization's rules after his Asheville branch fell into debt.[1] He has been accused by some groups of "Neo-confederate revisionism", after meeting with Kirk Lyons, a lawyer who has taken to defending the neo-Confederate cause of late.[1]

By 2000, Edgerton was appointed the chairman of the board of directors of the Southern Legal Resource Center, headed by Kirk Lyons, who has defended Confederates in court.[2] In a 2000 interview, Skip Alston, Executive Director of the North Carolina NAACP had questions about Edgerton's stand. Alston said that he had been considered "a true activist standing for what is right. I've often wondered what could cause him to do such things."

In 2009, Edgerton threatened a lawsuit regarding newly elected Asheville City Council Member Cecil Bothwell, on the basis that Bothwell's atheism rendered him ineligible to serve in North Carolina public office.[3] The Supreme Court has already held invalid religious affirmations required for public office, and the United States Constitution states in the last clause of Article VI that "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

In events to publicize his positions, Edgerton has made solo walks: in 2002 from North Carolina to Texas to build awareness of Southern heritage;[4] and in January 2009, when he walked from North Carolina to Washington, DC seeking "official U.S. government recognition of the Confederate battle flag as a symbol of Southern heritage" from the new administration.[5] He is perceived by some as being heroic as an African-American member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which features him at events.[5]

He has had a number of failed political campaigns for Asheville mayor and councilman.[6]

Media appearances

In May 2006 Edgerton advanced his theories about reparations on Penn and Teller's show Bullshit!.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 SPLC
  2. ↑ "Confederates in Black", Intelligence Report, Summer 2000: Issue 99, Southern Poverty Law Center, accessed 19 January 2012
  3. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-08-11. Retrieved 2014-08-08.
  4. ↑ "The Real Price of Forgetting the Past", Civil War Memory blog, 15 September 2006
  5. 1 2 Andrew Shurtleff, "Sons of Confederate Veterans: Black Southerner marching to D.C., seeks respect for Confederate flag", The Daily Progress, January 2009, posted at Sons of Confederate Veterans blog
  6. ↑ H.K. EDGERTON
  7. ↑ Penn And Teller: Bullshit!@Everything2.com
  • SouthernHeritage411.com
  • Asheville NAACP Requests Assistance, Southern Legal Resource Center
  • Madsen-Brooks, Leslie (2012). Dougherty, Jack; Nawrotzki, Kristen, eds. "'I nevertheless am a historian': Digital Historical Practice and Malpractice Around Black Confederate Soldiers". Writing History in the Digital Age. University of Michigan Press.
  • Ramsey, William M. (2005). "Knowing Their Place: Three Black Writers and the Postmodern South". The Southern Literary Journal. 37 (2): 119–39. doi:10.1353/slj.2005.0023. JSTOR 20078416.
  • Hale, G. E. (2013). "The Lost Cause and the Meaning of History". OAH Magazine of History. 27 (1): 13–7. doi:10.1093/oahmag/oas047.
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