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Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) is an organization of male descendants of soldiers who served the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. The SCV has ongoing programs at the local, state, and national levels which offer members a wide range of activities, including marking Confederate soldier's graves, historical re-enactments, scholarly publications, and regular meetings to discuss the military and political history of the American Civil War. Local units of the SCV are called camps. The SCV also publishes books and other media, including the magazine Confederate Veteran. In recent years, the SCV has taken actions in furtherance of what it describes as "heritage defense" regarding references to the Confederacy and "the South" in U.S. history.

History

In 1889, the United Confederate Veterans (UCV) were formed in New Orleans in part as an outgrowth of the campaign to preserve what would become Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. The UCV was formed along the order of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) which was established in the 1880s for Union Veterans. The Sons of Confederate Veterans is the direct heir of the United Confederate Veterans. The SCV was organized at Richmond, Virginia in June of 1896.

Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have tendered letters of commendation to the SCV and affiliates, as have other members of the United States Congress.

Mission

The Sons of Confederate Veterans describes its mission as "preserving the history and legacy of heroes, so future generations can understand the motives that animated the Southern Cause."

Stephen D. Lee's 1906 charge to the SCV is widely cited by the organization as one of its organizing principles:

"To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we will submit the vindication of the cause for which we fought. To your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate soldier's good name, the guardianship of his history, the emulation of his virtues, and the perpetuation of those principles he loved. Remember, it is your duty to see that the true history of the South is presented to future generations."

Perhaps the SCV's most well-known activies involve the organization's campaigns to keep parks commemorating the Confederacy from being renamed or rededicated to non-Confederate themes. The organization uses Confederate parks for rallies. The SCV has protested against Ku Klux Klan rallies in the same parks, however, arguing that the KKK should not be identified with the Confederacy.

SCV Headquarters

The SCV's home office remained at Richmond for many years, but was in recent times relocated to Columbia, Tennessee, where it is housed in an historic antebellum mansion, Elm Springs.

Elm Springs served as the office for the SCV and the Military Order of the Stars and Bars (MOSB) until 2005. The two organizations are independent, but historically have been close. Both have are similar in mission and goals but have different membership requirements. The MOSB draws its members from the descendants of government officials and Confederate officers. Traditionally the MOSB required SCV membership to join; however, MOSB changed their bylaws to allow non-SCV members to join. The MOSB Headquarters are presently located in Alabama while seeking a permanent home.

License plates

In Georgia , North Carolina , Alabama , Maryland , Mississippi , Louisiana , South Carolina , Tennessee , and Virginia vehicle owners can request a license plate from the state featuring the Sons of Confederate Veterans logo, which incorporates the square Confederate Battle Flag.

There was significant opposition in a number of these states to putting the Confederate flag on state license plates, given the popular association of the flag with racist causes. The North Carolina appellate court upheld the issuance of such license plates in SONS OF CONFEDERATE v. DMV (1998) and noted: "We are aware of the sensitivity of many of our citizens to the display of the Confederate flag. Whether the display of the Confederate flag on state-issued license plates represents sound public policy is not an issue presented to this Court in this case. That is an issue for our General Assembly."

SCV members consider these license plates to be "a tremendous recruiting tool."

Factionalization

In the 1990s, disagreements over the purpose of the organization emerged within the SCV. At issue was an alleged shift in the SCV’s mission from "maintaining gravestones, erecting monuments and studying Civil War history" to more overtly political concerns, such as "fight for the right to display Confederate symbols everywhere from schools to statehouses."

In 2002, resistance to the SCV leadership appeared, resulting in the formation of a new organization: Save the Sons of Confederate Veterans, comprised of members and former members of SCV.. In 2002, SSCV alleged that scores of SCV members had left the organization in protest of its recent transformation, and that current SCV president Dennis Sweeney had purged the SCV’s ranks of additional moderates. In 2002, the SSCV dissidents complained that the SCV was neglecting to dissasociate itself from racism, and they threatened to form an alternate organization, the United Sons of Confederate Veterans (USCV).

The Southern Mercury, a publication of an educational foundation of the SCV, responded by asserting that most of the dissension had come to an end by 2003 and that the majority of the members of the SCV were agreeing with the heritage preservation activities espoused by the new SCV leadership.

In early 2005, the SCV council sued to expel SCV president Dennis Sweeney from office. The court initially granted the council temporary control of the organization. The court's final decision returned power to Sweeney. The traditionalists were ejected from the council shortly thereafter.

Criticism

In 2002, the SCV was criticized by left-of-center publications and a group of SCV dissenters for the SCV's views of Civil War history and alleged association with neo-confederate individuals and organizations. Joe Conason, writing in Salon, and Jason Zengerle, writing in The New Republic, have argued that the SCV has morphed from an apolitical organization dedicated to Civil War history to a politicized organization dedicated to preserving the "Lost Cause" version of the history of the Civil War and the 1861-1865 era. The Lost Cause narrative claims that States' rights, moreso than slavery, was the main motivating factor in the secession. The SCV states that "he preservation of liberty and freedom was the motivating factor in the South's decision to fight the Second American Revolution".

Tom Steadman of the Greensboro, North Carolina News & Record wrote in an article that was picked up by Associated Press, CNN and Newsday that the SCV's internal politics have in recent years shifted the organization into a more overt alliance with the neo-Confederate movement and ideology. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group often described as a "controversial liberal organization," "at least 10 men who hold key national leadership positions are also active or recent members of hate groups, principally two neo-Confederate groups, the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) and the League of the South."

Civil War historian James M. McPherson has associated the SCV with the neo-confederate movement and described board members of the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia as "undoubtedly neo-Confederate." He further said that the SCV and their equivalent for female descendants, the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), have "white supremacy" as their "thinly veiled agendas." The incident made McPherson a controversial figure among Confederate history groups and prompted a UDC boycott call and letter-writing campaign against him.

Notable members

• Ellis Arnall
• Milledge Lipscomb Bonham, chief justice of South Carolina state supreme court
• Patrick J. Buchanan
• Robert Gregg Cherry
• Charles R. Farnsley
• Orval Eugene Faubus
• MacDonald Gallion, Alabama state attorney general
• Richard T. Hines, lobbyist
• Trent Lott
• Creighton Lovelace, Baptist Pastor
• Kirk Lyons
• Daniel Grove Moler, member of West Virginia state senate
• Rick Perry
• William P. C. Perry, member of West Virginia state senate
• Charley Reese
• John Warwick Rust, member of Virginia state senate,
• Floyd Spence
• Jack Taylor, II
• William Munford Tuck
• Alexander Wilbourne Weddell, Ambassador to Argentina & Spain
• Guinn Williams, U.S. Representative from Texas
• Addison G. Wilson
• Ron Wilson

References

1. ^ http://www.scv.org/whatis.php Cite error: The named reference "scv" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
2. http://www.scv.org/heritageDefenseFund.php; http://www.scv.org/pdf/heritagecolumn_issue3_2004.pdf
3. Clinton, Bill. "Letter of June 21, 1994 from Bill Clinton." UDC Magazine, Sept. 1994: p. 9.
4. Bush, George W. "Letter of Commendation." Confederate Veteran, June, 1996: p.6.
5. http://www.texas-scv.org/scvHistory.php
6. http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/local/article/0,2845,MCA_25340_4332265,00.html
7. http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=f6e31a4d-260c-4048-81ac-3e3051ac5dcb&k=41747
8. http://www.scv.org/pdf/heritagecolumn_issue1_2004_revised.pdf
9. Dan Gearino, "A Thin Gray Line, The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), August 28, 2002; Tracy Rose, “The War Between the Sons: Members fight for control of Confederate group.” Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC), Feb 5, 2003 / vol 9 iss 26, http://www.mountainx.com/news/2003/0205sons.php; Jon Elliston, “Between heritage and hate: The Sons of Confederate Veterans' internal battle rages on.” Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC), Aug 18, 2004 / vol 11 iss 3, http://www.mountainx.com/news/2004/0818scv.php; “The battle over flag's meaning: Arguing over the Confederacy's essence,” Daily Record/Sunday News, (York, PA) Sept. 3, 2006, http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:R3lAcU4qqukJ:www.ydr.com/newsfull/ci_4281822+%22sons+of+confederate+veterans%22+factions&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=11
10. http://www.savethescv.org/Introduction.htm
11. TRANSCRIPT FROM CBS EVENING NEWS WITH DAN RATHER July 26, 2002, http://www.main.nc.us/wncceib/lyCBS72602.htm; http://www.savethescv.org/Sweeney-Style.htm
12. Cathey, Dr. Boyd D., "Principles and Priorities: The Sons of Confederate Veterans and the Battle for Southern Culture," Southern Mercury, Vol.3, No.1, pp. 30-31
13. Cameron McWhirter. "Gray vs. Gray: Factions in Sons of Confederate Veterans exchange salvos in latest Civil War battleground," Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 2, 2005
14. Jason Zengerle, "THE CONFEDERACY'S NEW FACE. Lost Cause, The New Republic, 07.25.04 , http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040802&s=zengerle080204; Joe Conason, "Lott's involvement with the neo-Confederate movement, racists and extreme rightists goes way back," Salon Maazine, December 12, 2002, http://dir.salon.com/story/politics/conason/2002/12/12/lott/print.html; Cameron McWhirter. "Gray vs. Gray: Factions in Sons of Confederate Veterans exchange salvos in latest Civil War battleground," Atlanta Constitution Journal, Sunday, October 2, 2005; Jonathan Leib and Gerald Webster, "THE CROSS THEY BEAR: WHITENESS, RELIGION, AND THE CONFEDERATE BATTLE FLAG IN THE AMERICAN SOUTH," paper presented at “Flying the Flag: Critical Perspectives on Symbolism and Identity,” University of Oslo, November 2005, http://www.culcom.uio.no/aktivitet/flagg-konferanse/graphics/leib%20and%20webster%20university%20of%20oslo%20conference.pdf#search=%22scv%20%22neo-confederate%22%22
15. ibid.
16. Tom Steadman, "Traditions on the line," News & Record/July 21, 2002, http://www.rickross.com/reference/hate_groups/hategroups342.html
17. Edsall, Thomas B. “Conservative Group Accused Of Ties to White Supremacists.” Washington Post, December 19, 1998, p. A08 ("The Southern Poverty Law Center a controversial, liberal organization that tracks conservative militia and "patriotic" organizations");
    Silverstein, Ken. “The Church of Morris Dees: How the Southern Poverty Law Center profits from intolerance.” Harper's Magazine, November 2000. p._.
18. http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/07/0412226&mode=thread&tid=5
19. http://users.erols.com/va-udc/mcpherson.html

See also

• Confederate States of America memorials and cemeteries
• League of the South

• Southern Poverty Law Center

External links

• Official website
• Save the SCV
• The Political Graveyard website list of SCV members

• Confederate States of America
• Genealogical societies
• Southern United States
• American Civil War veterans and descendants organizations
• Veterans' organizations