PROCLAMATION REWRITTEN
GILMORE ALTERS CONFEDERATE MONTH IDEAWednesday, March 21, 2001
By MICHAEL HARDY
Times-Dispatch Staff WriterGov. Jim Gilmore unsuccessfully sought yesterday to appease all sides in the continuing struggles over remembrance of the Civil War, proclaiming April a month to honor the sacrifices of all Virginians in the fratricidal conflict.
Gilmore, who last year faced a threatened NAACP boycott of the state's tourism industry, rewrote the offending proclamation, recounting the bravery and sufferings of Virginians - blacks and whites, slaves and free men - who fought for the Confederacy and Union.
Even the renamed title of the proclamation, "In Remembrance of the Sacrifices and Honor of All Virginians Who Served in the Civil War," underscored the governor's attempt to walk a racial and political tightrope.
It muted praise of the Confederacy, instead emphasizing that "remembrance of the profound sacrifices and honorable service of the men and women of Virginia who served both Confederacy and Union shall unite Virginians of all regions, races and creeds forever more."
Besides a recitation of the valor of some Confederate leaders, Gilmore's proclamation also emphasized that "had there been no slavery there would have been no war."
"The practice of slavery was an affront to man's natural dignity, deprived African-Americans of their God-given inalienable rights, degraded the human spirit and is abhorred and condemned by Virginians," the proclamation said.
He singled out the heroics of Sgt. William H. Carney of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteers, a former slave from Norfolk who was the first black soldier to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor."
Gilmore, who met with civil rights and Confederate history groups during the last year, told reporters that the rewritten proclamation should be a source of unity, not continued loud discord and rancor.
"It denigrates no one and honors everyone; this is the right approach," Gilmore said. "As governor, I have an obligation to draw people together."
After the annual flaps over previous Confederate History Month proclamations, Gilmore said he considered dropping the idea. But he decided that would falsify Virginia's history, however painful the war was to some living Virginians, especially blacks.
Asked if he buckled under pressure from civil rights groups, Gilmore declared, "I would hope people not see this as a situation of caving in to the NAACP or not caving. I'm not a caver . . . I want this state to go together into the 21st century."
Officials of the state National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which had retreated from threats of a boycott, did not return several phone requests for comment yesterday.
Former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, the nation's first elected black governor who consulted with Gilmore, supported the new proclamation as "a step in the right direction."
"It removes the celebratory nature of the cause for any groups," Wilder told The Associated Press, " and it recognizes the great American tragedy and says, in essence, while much was lost, we need to move our state forward and our nation forward."
But Gilmore's actions didn't play well with state Civil War heritage groups, who called it a "cop-out."
"It's an affront to honorable Virginia citizens" who fought for the state and Confederacy against northern aggression, said Brag Bowling, 1st lieutenant commander of the Virginia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
"Governor Gilmore is doing the bidding of the NAACP," Bowling said. "The more you give in to the NAACP, the more they want. This is a sellout."
"He doesn't seem to care about our rights," Bowling said, branding Gilmore as an unprincipled politician governed by expediency and a need to further his career.
Gilmore has held meetings with NAACP leaders over the year to discuss a wide range of the group's concerns. He wanted to avoid a repeat in Virginia of the group's one-time boycott, in South Carolina, of tourist attractions because of that state's flying of the Confederate flag over its capitol.