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March Across Florida / An Open Report
Not all the ancestors of Southern Blacks who now inhabit the great State of Florida were runaway slaves or sided with the Seminole Indians in the Indian Wars of Florida, or wore the Yankee Blue. The actions of far too many supposed Black leaders along with their Northern White antagonists who now preside in Florida, and far too many unsuspecting Southern Whites in the State with an old agenda of exclusion have contributed to the attacks upon the Southern Cross from a populous who earned a place of honor and dignity under this great banner. There is another story that needs to be told.
The recent dedication of the Confederate Memorial Park in Tampa and the hoisting of the Southern Cross over Highway 75 may be seen to many as a great victory for those who seek vindication for our Southern family. However, that victory is hollow if it carries no ownership for a man whose ancestors were slaves. Just like the period of so called Reconstruction and right up to this very day, the honor and dignity earned by the African alongside his White family during the War for Southern Independence and those who remained loyal during the 12 years of Northern military occupation has been cast asunder, his voice silenced, and his great exploits and deeds never told as daily all across Florida his ancestors are being used as pawns in the quest for Southern social and cultural genocide and revisionist historians finally give credence that he was as his ancestors have become: “at best traitors to the Southland of America, a place that he dares to call home”.
On January 23, 2010, I shall deliver the keynote speech for the Lee/Jackson event for the 16th Volunteer Regiment in Greenville, South Carolina, and exactly seven years for the day that I marched the last leg of the historic March Across Dixie into Austin, Texas, I shall begin the March Across Florida, donned in the uniform of the Southern soldier, carrying the Southern Cross and a message of the place of honor and dignity earned by a man alongside a man that he not only called Master, but also family and friend.