It is a foregone conclusion that whenever slavery or Jim Crow are mentioned, most people take a negative view of the ancestors of black folks who lived in those eras. 

The truth of the matter is, they don’t give the credit due to some of the most intelligent and grand people who ever lived, especially those who came to the Southland of America... as slaves. 

That man called a “slave” could — and would — do extraordinary things, beginning with developing the ability to articulate one of the most difficult languages worldwide that left him with the ability to communicate with no formal training. 

And let’s never to forget the skills that he developed and improved on while working alongside the Southern white man. 

And I want to pay particular attention to Zebulon Baird Vance, who has taken a beating for expressing his thoughts on non-emancipation of the Áfrican. 

However, as he told them later on, that after it was legal (after the slaves were freed), he would — and did — obey the law that championed it. 

He was also responsible for the higher-education schools that produced some of the most brilliant Jim Crow-era teachers who dispensed with the Down syndrome placed upon them... and the students of which I am proudly one of!  

The only difference between us and the white students was that we got their hand-me-down books, but we got the books. 

And, with the help of our brilliant Jim Crow-era teachers, we learned the Pythagorean Theorem (a2+b2=c2), the rhyme scheme of poetry, what lay behind the preposition “at,” reading, writing — and the building of highways, houses and fancy things.

Scientists and warriors we became — and the teachers of the Word of God...

So, I thank (former) Governor Zebulon Baird Vance for finding a path for me, my brothers and sisters — a path through slavery and Jim Crow, that led us to a path of social vertical mobility during a very tough time when a man was born black in the “World of God.”

Shame on (Asheville Mayor)  Esther Manheimer, who led to the betrayal of the citizens of Asheville and the Jewish people — with the complicity of the Democratic Party, who also connived to throw the vice mayor (Sandra Kilgore) under the bus. The vice mayor was the lone voice who said “No” to the destruction of the Vance Monument.... 

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All this week (early April) on the radio in Ashville, my so-called “friend” Oralene Simmons has been dogging out and complaining about Governor Zebulon Vance, our hometown hero.

I don’t care if the Honorable General Robert E. Lee and the Honorable Governor Zebulon Baird Vance each owned one million slaves — and my family was in the lot!

The way these men lived their lives, and their whole character showed they were following the teachings of Jesus Christ in his prayer to His Father…the Lord’s Prayer....”Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”

In my assessment, no two men on earth have ever carried out that will to a better degree than these two men (Lee and Vance) — and they deserve any accolades afforded to them by mortal man.

“Complainin’ Oralene” should find something useful to do — and stop putting on display for the world to see her hate-filled heart.

And I can only hope that the following women who presided over the march for destruction of the history of my Southern family can find some solace and grace from the Almighty God for the wrongs they heaped upon his two soldiers as they (the six women) make their way on the bus trip to Hell:

• Mimi Elrod, former mayor of Lexington, Ky.

• Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina

• Esther Manheimer, mayor of Asheville

• Elizabeth Warren, United States senator for Massachusetts

• Ginger Rudiger, former United Daughters of the Confederacy president for Florida

• Oralene Simmons, former director of the (Asheville-based) YMI Cultural Center from Madison County....

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What is left standing (as of May 18) of the Vance cenotaph in the City of Asheville now faces a curtain call that disparages the salute to the memory of a great man who was called by the citizens of the state of North Carolina its No. 1 citizen, which was warranted, in part, because he was its most-decorated man. 

In his famous lecture, “The Scattered Nation,” he (Vance) was decreed a champion of the Jewish people. 

No other non-Jew has written or spoken of the Jewish people in such a glorious depiction as did Vance — only to have a Jewish woman mayor of Asheville (Esther Manheimer) lead her fellow council members to an illegal and unwarranted destruction of Asheville’s “crown jewel” (the Vance Monument) of the city... in exchange for a grant from the Mellon Foundation. 

To justify its removal, the city: 

(1) Claimed it (the Vance Monument) had become a “public safety threat”.... The only threat was its need of repairs, which the 26th North Carolina effectuated by securing donations ($2.5 million) from the public, including those who are red, yellow, black and white... and various religious entities).

(2) Noted that Vance was a Confederate colonel and owned six slaves. 

(2b) But so was Asheville’s namesake (former Gov. Samuel Asheville), who was a Confederate colonel AND a large slave-owner. 

(In 1797, Morristown was renamed “Asheville” in honor of Ashe, who lived from 1725 to 1813.)

So was the Buncombe County’s namesake a Confederate colonel AND a large slave-owner. 

(Union County was renamed “Buncombe County” in 1791 for Colonel Edward Buncombe, a Revolutionary War hero who lived from 1742 to 1778.)  

Will Esther (Manheimer, Asheville’s mayor) now move to change the names of the city AND county? 

Since the mayor has disdain for the North Carolina Monument Protection Act because it appears to have no enforcement, I shall ask he Southern Legal Resource Center to examine the Preservation of American Antiquities Act 43CFR3 and the 106 Process for the taking of federal monies in a “historic district” and then for illegal removals of entities within... without the so-named (Monument Protection Act) approval. 

God bless you!

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