Hyde-Smith pushed the resolution praising the efforts of the Confederate soldier to "defend his homeland"



[ad_1]

Hyde-Smith, a Republican, faces Mike Espy, a former Congressman and Secretary of Agriculture, during Tuesday's second round in Mississippi – the last Senate race to be decided in 2018. This measure , discovered by CNN's KFile during the review of Hyde's – Smith's Legislative History is the latest in a series of problems that have surfaced during his campaign, many of which have evoked the dark history of racism and slavery of Mississippi.

As a state senator in 2007, Hyde-Smith co-sponsored a resolution that paid tribute to 92-year-old Effie Lucille Nicholson Pharr, nicknamed her the "last" Real Girl "of the Living Confederation. in Mississippi ". Pharr's father was a Confederate soldier of Robert E. Lee's army during the Civil War.

The resolution calls for civil war "war between states". His father "was beaten to defend his homeland and helped rebuild the country". He says that, "with great pride," the Mississippi legislators "join the Sons of Confederate Veterans" to honor Pharr.

The measure "rests on a strange combination of perpetuating both the Confederate legacy and the idea that it does not really contradict the fact of being a good citizen of the nation. "said Nina Silber, president of the Society of Civil War Historians and a Bostonian. History teacher at the university.

"I also think it's curious that this resolution – which apparently aims to honor the" girl "- really seems to be an excuse to glorify the Confederate cause," Silber said.

A Mississippi GOP Senator makes his donation to a businessman sued for anti-Muslim discrimination
According to the group's website, the Vons of Confederate Sons is a "historical, patriotic and non-political organization dedicated to preserving a true history of the 1861-1865 period". The group says on its website that "the preservation of freedom and freedom was the factor that motivated the decision of the South to fight against the second American revolution".

The concurrent resolution was approved by the Mississippi House and Senate. Hyde-Smith was a senator from 2000 to 2012. She was a Democrat before changing party in 2010, citing her conservative beliefs. The Hyde-Smith campaign did not respond Saturday to a request for comment on the resolution.

The announcement of the 2007 measure comes as the past of Hyde-Smith is undergoing a thorough review after the publication of a series of recordings in which it was doing comments on his participation in a "public hanging" and the repression of student voting in that state.

Hyde-Smith was recorded to tell her fans in Tupelo earlier this month that she would be "in the forefront" if one of her supporters "invited me to a public hanging" – a phrase that his campaign described as "an exaggerated manifestation of respect." The same progressive blogger who posted the video later released a video in which she told a small group of Mississippi State University that the removal of Voting students from other colleges was "a great thing". His campaign said it was a joke.
On Friday, the Jackson Free Press reported that Hyde-Smith had attended a private high school founded in 1970 so white parents avoided any attempt at school integration by sending their children to schools without black students. Hyde-Smith's daughter then attended a similar private school established around the same time, according to the Free Press.

Hyde-Smith campaign spokeswoman Melissa Scallan, who was questioned about the report, attacked the "liberal media," saying in a statement: "They collapsed, attacked their entire family and tried to destroy her personally. instead of focusing on the sharp differences between Cindy Hyde-Smith and her far left opponent ".

The 2007 resolution was not the only legislation supported by Hyde-Smith that would elevate the Confederate history of Mississippi. The Washington Post reported that "in 2001, Hyde-Smith had introduced a bill as a senator to rename a stretch of highway as it had been called in the 1930s: the Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway , after the president of the Confederation.
And on the photos posted on her Facebook account in 2014, Hyde-Smith was photographed posing with Confederate artifacts during a visit to Beauvoir, the Davis House and Library. The article's caption read: "The Mississippi Story at Its Best!"

The Mississippi still displays the Confederate battle flag in its state flag. But more critical attention has been paid to Confederate monuments, symbols and icons in recent years, particularly after Charleston, South Carolina, a church shootout and the march of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Hyde-Smith and Espy debated Tuesday night. But otherwise, the Hyde-Smith campaign kept it largely out of public view and out of the press – avoiding the sprint event after usual event for polling day – while the controversy over the insensitive remarks to the race that she had made at the beginning of the month turned. .

Several companies that donated to the Hyde-Smith campaign, including Walmart, have publicly withdrawn their support for the senator's comment on "public hanging".
In her debate with Espy, Hyde-Smith said that she would certainly apologize to anyone who would offend her remark about attending a "public hanging". But she quickly swung into attack mode.

"I also admit that this comment was twisted and that it was turned into a weapon to use against me," she said.

[ad_2]
Source link