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It takes a historian who's studied the "issue/topic" of Black Confederates to insightfully examine this particular case. Liars of the Lost Cause invented the myth, and in Macon were apparently trying to perpetuate it.

So, the mayor put the ki-bosh on this? I'd certainly like to have seen the NAACP's input!

("Macon’s mayor Lester Miller rejected the proposal claiming that he needed to see additional information from the local NAACP and United Daughters of the Confederacy, who are behind the project.") Otherwise, I'm glad.

Nearly 50 years ago, I was a civil rights officer (civilian) at the Presidio of San Francisco. That was in its closing days as an Army base before it underwent its slow transformation into a National Park. From time to time, I sat on promotion panels for civilian jobs; my role was to ensure there was no bias in the deliberations. I recall a particular one.

The panel was evaluating candidate quals for an administrative-level vacancy. The panel, besides me, included about four, officers and employees. Uniformed military officers worked in an up-or-out system; as the Army was drawing down from its Vietnam involvement, the "out" portion (you got promoted or you were probably going to be forced out of the service) was dominant. One of the panelists was a self-confident junior officer who commented that one particular candidate could certainly NOT be very qualified: he'd been a "cabin boy" for 20 years so what kind of sharp, go-getter could he possibly be?

This woke me up. The candidate was Pilipino and served when foreign nationals were relegated to the menial jobs. He was performing the only job he was allowed to perform, all those 20 years. Sound familiar?

I explained that this is the reason: that candidate was in a no-advancement job. This was a major surprise to everyone. Had I not been an Asian American civil rights officer, I most certainly would not have known of this military personnel law. I don't know who was chosen by the selecting supervisor, but the Pinoy was unanimously included in the final group of best-qualified applicants.

Likewise, KML's intensive scholarship made him fairly unique to know the fallacious lie invented, of the many loyal Black Confederate soldiers.

(Ironically, much later, I learned that my Japanese grandfather had been a cabin boy on the USS Kearsarge in New York harbor in 1904. He got promoted to mess cook, so Naval regs were a bit different than those the Pinoy of my panel experience.)

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As always, thanks for this thoughtful comment.

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My friend, you continue to fight the good fight on this issue, for which we should all be grateful.

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I appreciate that, Jim. I hate that I have to wade into these discussions, but in this particular case I may have the opportunity to lend my expertise directly to the community. Stay tuned.

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