By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
Saturday, July 18, hundreds of protestors waving Confederate flags and wearing pro-confederate apparel came to rally for their Southern heritage and the Confederate Veterans monument in Linn Park that the Birmingham Parks and Recreation Board wants to remove from the heart of Birmingham’s largest city. Black pro-Confederate flag activist and author Anthony Hervey from Oxford, Mississippi, spoke at the event for his love of Southern culture. On Sunday, Hervey was killed in a traffic accident in Mississippi. The accident is still under investigation.
Anthony Hervey addressed the gathered crowd for the “Monumental Dixie Rally”. Hervey told the people present there were no millionaire lawyers and businessmen standing with them today; because they are embarrassed to associate with working class Whites but when they need southern boys, White southern boys and Black Southern boys, to fight their wars they come to us. Then when we come back home they limit our Freedom of speech and perpetuate an erosion of our gun rights.
Hervey said, “You know a Southerner by the look in their eyes! You look around, you don’t see the rich people among you. This is an assault, today, on working class people. I can get up here with my Ivy League Education and give you big ol’ words, but I’m a country boy, and if you’re breath stinks, I’m gonna tell you. Liberals! Your Breath STINKS!”
Hervey, who is a veteran himself, described himself as a “Black redneck” and said that he, “Loved my White redneck brothers.”
Hervey is among a small group of Black activists who have come out in support of Confederate history. Hervey said that an ancestor of his died for the Confederate States of America at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862.
Karl Andreas Bodenheimer warned the crowd that political correctness is what is going to kill us. “Why can’t we say all lives matter?” Those people in Washington want to split and divide us so they can conquer us. There are three reasons for us holding rallies like us: They think by attacking our heritage they can divide us. We need to come together. There are two sides to this fight protect our heritage and move forward. The second is to educate. Those that are stealing our flags from our homes there is no hope for them. They have been lost to our educational system. There are others who will listen and them we can educate that this is what our ancestors were fighting for 150 years ago: our freedoms. Finally we need people to step forward and run for office. I am broke and I can’t afford a campaign and I am not going to be beholden to somebody who will front me the money. But I am going to run anyway. Y’all need to quit being Facebook warriors and step up and run for office too.
Bodenheimer said there are two differences between me and Obama: He don’t know where he came from. He thinks it is Hawaii. I know where I come from. I come from Alabama. He tells so many lies he can’t remember what he told. I tell the truth.
Bodenheimer said I have ancestors who were buried in mass unmarked graves by the federal government. These are our monuments. These are our memorials.
Economics Professor and former Libertarian candidate for Governor John Sophocleus quoted Irish born Confederate Major General Patrick Ronayne Cleburne: “Every man should endeavor to understand the meaning of subjugation before it is too late… It means the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy; that our youth will be trained by Northern schoolteachers; will learn from Northern school books their version of the war; will be impressed by the influences of history and education to regard our gallant dead as traitors, and our maimed veterans as fit objects for derision… It is said slavery is all we are fighting for, and if we give it up we give up all. Even if this were true, which we deny, slavery is not all our enemies are fighting for. It is merely the pretense to establish sectional superiority and a more centralized form of government, and to deprive us of our rights and liberties.”
Sophocleus said that we just celebrated the anniversary of the Magna Carta. The rebel barons made the king sign that there would be no taxation without common consent. That is what gave us the House of Commons. Today’s students aren’t taught this. Why did the South fire on Fort Sumter? Because that is where the customs officials collected the tariffs. When I first started teaching college four or five students in a class would already know this. Now none of them do. Why did Sam Adams charge the customs house? Because that is where the money was. Students today just now that Sam Adams brewed beer. Who passed the first income tax? Lincoln and the Republicans.
Professor Sophocleus said, you are fighting against subjugation. Stand together for freedom. They are trying to take down a flags and monuments for brave soldiers who died standing up against an invasion. There is nothing more honorable than defending your homeland against an invading army.
The longtime Auburn Professor said that under the Articles of Confederation, 99.2% of federal government revenues came from tariffs. The rest of that came in from gifts to the treasury. If people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet think they are undertaxed fine they can give gifts to the treasury if they want. At the Battle of Marathon the Greeks defeated the giant Persian Empire who wanted to subjugate them. The Olympics are a celebration of that victory. In the beginning of the Civil War the 6th Massachusetts came into Maryland and attacked mass demonstrations of the people of Maryland. Massachusetts committed an act of war against another state. They don’t teach that anymore. Do you think it is going to end?
Dr. Sophocleus asked, Can you imagine how better our economy would be without the income tax? All the cost of doing business in the states is embedding in our exports and we wonder why we struggle to sell our exports?
Sophocleus said that in 1828 tariffs more than tripled to 28 percent. Southern states threatened to secede. Civil War was threatened; but cooler heads prevailed and they backed off. Slavery was just a pretense. Lincoln and the Republicans wanted to raise the tariff from 20 percent to 28 percent. Therein lies the cause of the war. Schools don’t teach that to our kids anymore.
Sophocleus said that the 16th amendment allowed the federal government to start collecting income taxes. The South was just starting to recover from the Civil War and Reconstruction, then the combination of tariffs and income taxes created the Great Depression. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected and liberals like to tell you he saved the world; but FDR did nothing to give you tariff relief.
Arlene Barnum came and announced that she was quitting her job with the NAACP over their Confederate flag position. Barnum delighted the crowd by burning her NAACP lifetime membership card. Barnum said, “They are the real racists.”
Hk Edgerton, NAACP Chapter President turned pro-Confederate flag activist also spoke to the crowd about his life experience and about being Black and pro-Confederate flag.
The Birmingham Park and Recreation Board is demanding that Southern Heritage supporters pay for the cost of moving the historic memorial to Alabama’s Confederate Veterans or they will destroy it.
State Senator Gerald Allen (R-Tuscaloosa) has introduced legislation to prevent government entities from punishing monuments that they don’t find politically correct any more. It is not known at this time if the legislation will pass in the Special Session of the Alabama Legislature or not and if it does pass will it pass in time to save the monument in Linn Park.
Afterwards, Bodenheimer wrote: I want to thank everyone who came out and supported us today in Birmingham. I really want to thank Deanna, Julie, Robin, Amanda, and Sherri for all your hard work. I want to thank John Sophocles, Calvin Wright, Arlene Barnum, Hk Edgerton, and Anthony Hervey plus the many others who spoke: William Flowers, Rayn Owens, Justin Burton, Bill, Shannon Fontaine, and many others. Pat thank y’all for the extra security and being eyes and ears. Robert Snapp thank you for your help and your music! Curt Brewer and Jonathan Barbee thank you for the sound, the organization, and other things. Thank you Wendy Osborne for the Graphics this past week! The list is long folks but thank you everyone!”
Then things turned tragic on Sunday, July 19: Save Our South and the Alabama Constitutional Patriots held a joint press conference to announce that Anthony Hervey never made it back home. He died in an automobile crash in Mississippi. Arlene Barnum was with him at the time. Barnum who suffered injuries herself claimed that they were being chased by four or five Black men in a car at the time when Hervey lost control of Barnum’s 2005 Ford Explorer. The Mississippi State Highway Patrol is still investigating the SUV roll over.
Karl Andreas Bodenheimer wrote to Anthony Hervey on Facebook: “Thank you Brother for sharing your life with me Friday Night and Saturday. I invited you to Birmingham because I knew you could help us change the world with Ms Arlene Barnum, Mr Calvin Wright, Mr John Sophocleus, and Mr Hk Edgerton, and guess what, You did. I never once in a million lifetimes could have imagined meeting such a BRAVE and PASSIONATE Confederate anymore than I, but you proved me wrong. I do hope you’re sitting next to God and watching over us. I pray for your wife and your family. You were loved by many and will be missed with the utmost love and respect. Thank you Anthony for making MY life a lot brighter in the short time I knew you.”
Deanna Frankowski with the Alabama Constitutional Conservatives said that Hervey’s wife who was in London to attend her Mother’s funeral found out about her husband’s death on her Facebook feed. Frankowski said that she met Mr. Hervey for the first time yesterday; but was impressed by his knowledge and his willingness to reach across racial lines, “Because we have got to come together.”
Hervey studied Black Studies and Sociology at Ole Miss. He also studied Political Science and Sociology at the University of London. He was enrolled in graduate courses at Harvard and has a book that he was working on about he became a “Black Redneck.” Hervey is also the author of the 2006 book: ‘Why I Wave the Confederate Flag: Written by a Black Man.’ He also co-wrote, ‘Dawning of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.’
Hervey’s last words to the group were, “I wanna thank you for having this ol’ black redneck from Mississippi…I love you and I would Die for you.”
