Seven states celebrate
Confederate Heritage Month each April. From the first secessionist shots
fired at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, to Confederate Gen. Robert E.
Lee’s surrender on April 9, 1865, Confederates fought for slavery and
white supremacy. That is Confederate heritage. It is not Southern
heritage.
Those who glorify the Confederacy as “Southern heritage” obscure a
rich Southern history that is not about white supremacy but is something
that all Southerners can be proud of. This month, instead of
celebrating Confederate heritage, let’s celebrate the anniversaries of
these Southern contributions to justice and culture in the U.S.
April 1, 1891
The Coal Creek War begins in Tennessee.
A rebellion by coal miners in 1891 helped
to end the practice of leasing of incarcerated people to work in mines
in Tennessee. (Credit: Wikicommons)
In the 1890s, on the eastern fringe of the Cumberland Mountains in
Tennessee, mine owners began to replace wage-earning miners with
incarcerated people leased from the state prisons. Wage laborers and the
incarcerated workers rebelled against this unjust system. After a year
of struggle, which sadly erupted into deadly armed violence, Tennessee
became one of the first states to end the leasing of incarcerated
people. Folk songs like “Coal Creek March” and “Buddy Won’t You Roll Down the Line?” commemorate the Coal Creek War.
April 3, 1963
The Birmingham Campaign begins in Alabama.
A group of women join the Birmingham
Campaign, which included protests, sit-ins and a boycott of local
businesses in Birmingham, Alabama. (Credit: Marion S. Trikosko, U.S.
News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection, Library of
Congress)
Led by Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders in Birmingham, Alabama, the Birmingham Campaign
used boycotts and sit-ins to demand desegregation. Eugene “Bull”
Connor, the public safety commissioner, ordered police to turn fire
hoses and dogs on demonstrators. The city arrested activists in droves,
including King, whose “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”
became an important document for social justice and civil disobedience.
As a result of the campaign, President John F. Kennedy declared, “The
events in Birmingham and elsewhere have so increased the cries for
equality that no city or state or legislative body can prudently choose
to ignore them.”
Musician Muddy Waters influenced countless rock and blues artists. (Credit: Wikicommons)
April 4, 1913 or 1915
Blues musician Muddy Waters is born in Mississippi.
Born McKinley Morganfield, blues musician Muddy Waters
was a child of the Mississippi Delta who became one of the greatest
influences in rock and blues history. In 1941, folklorist Alan Lomax
recorded Waters at his home in Mississippi for the Library of Congress.
In 1943, Waters headed up U.S. Highway 61, “the blues highway,” and
moved to Chicago where he helped create the Chicago blues sound. Waters
influenced countless rock and blues stars like Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan
and Jimi Hendrix. The Rolling Stones took their name from his song “Rollin’ Stone.”
April 5, 1939
Civil rights activist Bob Zellner is born in Florida.
Bob Zellner
was born in the Florida Panhandle town of Jay and grew up in Alabama.
Zellner, whose paternal grandfather was a Klansman and whose father
eventually left the Klan, joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee during the Civil Rights Movement, becoming the first white
Southerner to be a field organizer. Zellner traveled across the South
demonstrating against racial injustice and training activists in
nonviolent action. He was arrested nearly 20 times and was beaten on
several occasions. Zellner helped found Grass Roots Organizing Work, a white antiracist coalition. His memoir, Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement, documents his life fighting for racial justice.
April 9, 1865
The Civil War ends with Union victory in Virginia.
An oil painting by Thomas Nast depicts
Confederate Army Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendering to Union Lt. Gen.
Ulysses S. Grant, marking the end of the Civil War. (Credit:
Wikicommons)
All Southerners should be proud of the Black and white Southerners
who fought for the Union in the Civil War. It’s believed that 100,000 white Southerners and at least that many
Black Southerners fought for the Union in defense of liberty. Their
service helped secure what President Abraham Lincoln described as a “new
birth of freedom” for the U.S. When Southerners commemorate the Civil
War, they should honor these brave soldiers, who are largely ignored
when it comes to Civil War memorials in the South.
April 10, 1926
Welfare rights activist Johnnie Tillmon is born in Arkansas.
The daughter of sharecroppers, Johnnie Tillmon
founded in 1963 what would eventually become the National Welfare
Rights Organization (NWRO), which advocated on behalf of people,
particularly women and children, to ensure a sufficient income, justice,
dignity and participation in the democratic process. Tillmon, a native
of Scott, Arkansas, partnered with labor and civil rights groups like
the United Farm Workers and the Congress of Racial Equality to fight for
dignity, social welfare and economic determination for people in
poverty. The NWRO played an important role in organizing the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Poor People’s Campaign.
A. Philip Randolph helped organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Justice in 1963. (Credit: Wikicommons)
April 15, 1889
Labor and civil rights activist A. Philip Randolph is born in Florida.
A. Philip Randolph established the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1925, the first
Black labor union to receive an American Federation of Labor charter. A
native of Crescent City, Florida, he led organizing efforts that forced
President Franklin Roosevelt to ban employment discrimination in
defense industries during World War II. Randoph’s continued efforts
pressured President Harry Truman to ban discrimination in federal hiring
practices and to integrate the U.S. military. Randolph, along with
Bayard Rustin, organized the March on Washington for Jobs and Justice in
1963. President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded Randolph the Presidential
Medal of Freedom in 1964.
April 16, 1968
The Memphis sanitation workers strike ends in Tennessee.
Standing in front of the former Lorraine
Motel, the site of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination on April 4,
1968, Memphis sanitation workers Elmore Nickelberry, 76, center, and his
son, Terence, left, hold replicas of the placard used by strikers in
Memphis, Tennessee. (Credit: Alamy Photos)
After two sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, were crushed to
death by defective equipment in early 1968, their fellow workers went on strike
to demand safer working conditions and better wages. The strike drew
support from national civil rights and labor leaders, including King and
Walter Reuther. On April 4, King was assassinated while advocating economic equality and social justice
in solidarity with striking workers in Memphis. The workers won union
recognition and promise of a wage increase less than two weeks later.
Musician Willie Nelson was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1993. (Credit: Wikicommons)
April 29, 1933
Country musician Willie Nelson is born in Texas.
Hailing from the Texas Hill Country,
Willie Nelson, in his long musical career, has been a key figure in one
of the best aspects of Southern heritage – country music. This music
draws on Celtic folk music, Tejano and Mexican music, and African
American music – especially when it uses the banjo, an instrument
enslaved people brought from Africa. Nelson was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1993.
April 30, 1972
The Mississippi poultry workers’ strike ends.
Mississippi poultry workers went on strike in 1972 seeking better wages. (Credit: Library of Congress)
Black and white poultry packers making $1.60 an hour walked off the
job in Forest, Mississippi, demanding a 25-cent raise, collective
bargaining and two weeks of paid vacation. The strike built a foundation
for later success
by showing that workers could organize against tremendous odds. The
poultry workers stood up for their rights despite violence and
retaliation from bosses, and they responded with solidarity when bosses
attempted to pit Black and white co-workers against each other.
Rivka Maizlish is a senior research analyst for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project.
Illustration at top: Although some states choose to glorify the
Confederacy’s fight for slavery and white supremacy, several
anniversaries in April exemplify the South’s contributions to justice
and culture in the U.S. (SPLC)
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