Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, would mark — to the day — the 22-year anniversary held at the “landmark crown jewel” of the City of Asheville — “the Zebulon Baird Vance cenotaph” — that a gathering of citizens, organizations, Anna Stanley (a professor of black history at the University of Minnesota), Jim Holbrook (commander of the honorable Sons of Confederate Veterans Zebulon Baird Vance Camp 19), and a host of visitors and tourists provided the memorial gala send-off of the “Historical March Across Dixie.” 

The master of ceremonies, the honorable Roger McCredie, who is the national chief of heritage defense for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, would present a proclamation from the honorable Ron Wilson, who is the national commander in chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans

Mr. Wilson’s proclamation presented greetings to all present, while defining the possible perils that would see me don the uniform of the Southern soldier, carrying and posting his colors as I marched 20 miles a day, six days a week through North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana — and on to the Capitol Courthouse in Austin,Texas.

There, I would ask the acting governor, Jim Perry, to put back the Proclamation Plaques on the wall of the county courthouse.  

These plaques were presented to the Republic of Texas by the honorable General Robert E. Lee in memoriam to the men of Texas for the stand they  took, alongside the armies of the Confederate States of America, in the War for Southern Independence. 

I have visited this site every year on this anniversary. However, Asheville’s rogue Jewish mayor, Esther Manheimer, and fellow council members — at her persuasion — betrayed the citizens of Asheville, disregarded the North Carolina Monument Protection Law and illegally removed both the Vance and Lee cenotaphs after making a deal with the Mellon Foundation for a grant to do so, while giving the impresion that Asheville’s black community was complict.

I was very proud that the current black vice mayor (Sandra Kilgore, who was a councilwoman at the time of the decision) voted “no” to the removal.

It is also with great regret that, on this day, I would learn from a decent Northern friend that he asked a so-called history organization why it did not sell the “Historic March Across Dixie Photo Journal.” (about Edgerton’s march). And my friend said the reply given to him was that it was too controversal — and that the proceeds would go to a right-wing organization.

This was yet another lie, like the many we had dispelled on the journey to Texas.