WEATHER ALERT
Biden bestows Medal of Honor on Union soldiers who helped hijack train in Confederate territory
Read full article: Biden bestows Medal of Honor on Union soldiers who helped hijack train in Confederate territoryA descendent of a Union soldier getting the Medal of Honor from President Joe Biden for conspicuous gallantry during the Civil War says it’s an opportunity for his ancestor to be remembered as “a brave soldier who did what he thought was right.”.
'Civil War' might be the year's most explosive movie. Alex Garland thinks it's just reporting
Read full article: 'Civil War' might be the year's most explosive movie. Alex Garland thinks it's just reportingThe new film “Civil War” is an ominous attempt to turn widely held American anxieties into a violent, unsettling big-screen reality.
Take Em Down Jax hosts party to celebrate ‘sweet victory’ of Confederate monument removals
Read full article: Take Em Down Jax hosts party to celebrate ‘sweet victory’ of Confederate monument removalsTake ‘Em Down Jax held a party Friday to celebrate the removal of Confederate monuments and the change of school names connected to the Civil War around Jacksonville.
'Civil War,' an election-year provocation, premieres at SXSW film festival
Read full article: 'Civil War,' an election-year provocation, premieres at SXSW film festival"Civil War,” Alex Garland’s election-year provocation, debuted at the SXSW Film and TV Festival, unveiling a violent vision of a near-future America at war with itself.
Nikki Haley doesn't mention slavery when asked what caused the Civil War. She later walks that back
Read full article: Nikki Haley doesn't mention slavery when asked what caused the Civil War. She later walks that backRepublican presidential candidate Nikki Haley is walking back an answer she gave to a voter about the reason for the Civil War that didn’t include a mention of slavery.
County-by-county: Honoring service and sacrifice this Memorial Day around Northeast Florida
Read full article: County-by-county: Honoring service and sacrifice this Memorial Day around Northeast FloridaNews4JAX offers a county-by-county look at events around Northeast Florida commemorating Memorial Day.
Marjorie Taylor Greene hostile in testimony over eligibility
Read full article: Marjorie Taylor Greene hostile in testimony over eligibilityU.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was hostile during testimony in a hearing on her eligibility to run for reelection, saying she did not remember liking and making various social media posts surrounding the attack on the U.S. Capitol last year.
Treasure hunters sue for records on FBI's Civil War gold dig
Read full article: Treasure hunters sue for records on FBI's Civil War gold digTreasure hunters who believe they found a huge cache of fabled Civil War-era gold in Pennsylvania are now on the prowl for something as elusive as the buried booty itself: government records of the FBI’s excavation.
Award-winning Civil War historian Stephen Oates dies at 85
Read full article: Award-winning Civil War historian Stephen Oates dies at 85Stephen Oates has died after a life that saw him become an award-winning Civil War historian who wrote biographies of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Clara Barton, William Faulkner and others.
Affidavit: FBI feared Pennsylvania would seize fabled gold
Read full article: Affidavit: FBI feared Pennsylvania would seize fabled goldAn FBI agent applied for a federal warrant in 2018 to seize a cache of gold that he said had been “stolen during the Civil War” while en route to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, and was “now concealed in an underground cave” in northwestern Pennsylvania.
Group wants name changed at Robert E. Lee High School
Read full article: Group wants name changed at Robert E. Lee High SchoolSome people in Duval County want the name of Robert E. Lee High School to change, calling it oppressive because the school is named after a confederate general in the Civil War. Others say the name is about of history and should not change.
Women’s History: Jacksonville mother helped keep peace during Civil War
Read full article: Women’s History: Jacksonville mother helped keep peace during Civil WarJACKSONVILLE, Fla. – As part of Women’s History Month, News4Jax is highlighting several history-makers with ties to the River City. Eliza Hudnall was a woman who played a pivotal role in keeping the peace in Jacksonville during the Civil War. This is the hotel Hudnall owned. During the Civil War, she supplied Union troops with meals in return for supplies. Hudnall giving supplies to Union troops during the Civil War was pivotal to keeping her and her family safe.
Emails: FBI was looking for gold at Pennsylvania dig site
Read full article: Emails: FBI was looking for gold at Pennsylvania dig siteFILE-This Sept. 20, 2018 file photo, Dennis Parada, right, and his son Kem Parada stand at the site of the FBI's dig for Civil War-era gold in Dents Run, Pennsylvania. Government emails released under court order show that FBI agents were looking for gold when they excavated Dent's Run in 2018, though the FBI says that nothing was found. FBI agents were looking for an extremely valuable cache of fabled Civil War-era gold — possibly tons of it — when they excavated a remote woodland site in Pennsylvania three years ago this month, according to government emails and other recently released documents in the case. The legal maneuvering generated emails between Newton and Audrey Miner, chief lawyer for the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. It's indicative, it's suggestive, but it can’t prove it.”To prove it, the FBI needed to dig.
Lincolnville Museum highlights the rich history of the Black experience in St. Augustine
Read full article: Lincolnville Museum highlights the rich history of the Black experience in St. AugustineJACKSONVILLE, Fla. – “The Road to Black History Runs Through Lincolnville” -- that’s the first thing you’ll see on the webpage for the Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center. The African American history museum is in St. Augustine and boasts a mission of preserving and promoting more than 450 years of the Black experience in America’s oldest city. The museum radiates life, and the stories you may or may not have heard about this corner of St. Augustine. The Lincolnville Museum starts with school history and has a room dedicated to the military. I mean, it still goes on to this day.”AdLINK: Lincolnville Museum & Cultural Center
Unmarked cemetery on Jacksonville University campus highlights lost Black history
Read full article: Unmarked cemetery on Jacksonville University campus highlights lost Black historyJACKSONVILLE, Fla. – If you’ve ever been on the Jacksonville University’s campus, there’s one piece of history you’re almost guaranteed to overlook, an African-American cemetery from a time period shortly after the Civil War. The old cemetery no longer has any headstones. “This is an African-American cemetery that dates back to around 1873. Jacksonville University published a story on the cemetery in 2019 in its University Magazine. Memorial Cemetery Assessment/Restoration - $3,005,900Sunset Cemetery Assessment/Restoration - $1,550,000Old City Cemetery Assessment/Restoration - $1,150,000Hillside Cemetery Assessment/Restoration - $230,000Mt.
Confederate statue a step closer to returning to Hemming family
Read full article: Confederate statue a step closer to returning to Hemming familyA statue and plaque that honored fallen Confederate soldiers at a downtown park is one step closer to being returned to the family that originally donated it. The statue once stood in what was long known as Hemming Park, until last year, when it was renamed James Weldon Johnson Park. During Tuesday night’s City Council meting, Elwood Hemming, a descendant of the Hemming family, which donated the statue, appeared via Zoom. He said the family is grateful City Council listened to their plea to have the statue returned. “Hopefully the administration works in good faith and with the Hemming family in getting the statue back to the family,” Dennis said.
Some in the GOP parrot far-right talk of a coming civil war
Read full article: Some in the GOP parrot far-right talk of a coming civil warSome leftists have used similar language, which Republicans have likened to advocating a new civil war. “At the time of the Civil War, this took the form of Southern white men angry at the idea that the federal government would interfere with their right to own Black slaves. “The favorite son of this city was murdered because of a civil war as he was president. She resigned after she was barraged by calls from Trump supporters, some of whom demanded a military coup to keep Trump in office “no matter what it takes." Silber, the Civil War historian, said she is worried the attack on the Capitol wasn't the last stand for enraged Trump supporters.
Civil War reenactment in Florida ends after 40 years
Read full article: Civil War reenactment in Florida ends after 40 yearsBROOKSVILLE, Fla. Each January, Hernando County scrambled to put out the welcome mat for what has been called the largest Civil War reenactment in Florida the Brooksville Raid. Organizers have announced that there will be no Brooksville Raid in 2021, and unless a new site is found, perhaps none in the future. On their Facebook page, Brooksville Raid organizers cited the pandemic and declining profitability as factors. But it has always been about something apart from the realities of the Civil War, Levin said. By moving past the sanitized war play, Levin said, were creating room to talk about the real war.
Lee descendant urges official removal of Confederate statues
Read full article: Lee descendant urges official removal of Confederate statues(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)Democratic lawmakers and others urged official removal of Confederate monuments at the center of a politically fraught national debate, saying Tuesday that slow action was leading protesters to try to topple statues of defenders of slavery themselves. A descendant of Confederate military commander Robert E. Lee was among those joining Black historians at a hearing of the House subcommittee on national parks, forests and public lands to urge passage of legislation addressing Confederate statues at national parks and other federal sites. One of the bills would remove a statue of Lee erected this century at the battlefield of Antietam, the site of the deadliest day of fighting in the Civil War. Robert W. Lee IV, a descendant of the Souths military leader in the Civil War, cited his forebears testimony before Congress after the Civil War as evidence of the Confederate leader's unfitness for commemorative monuments. Trump increasingly has come out in defense of the Confederate statues and other historical tributes to the Civil Wars defeated side.
Confederate statue being moved at University of Mississippi
Read full article: Confederate statue being moved at University of MississippiFILE - In this Feb. 23, 2019 file photo a Confederate soldier monument stands at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss. A Confederate monument thats been a divisive symbol at the University of Mississippi was being removed Tuesday from a prominent spot on the Oxford campus. Its not going to create a shrine to the Confederacy, University of Mississippi Chancellor Glenn Boyce told The Associated Press on June 24 at the state Capitol. Since 2016, the university has installed plaques to provide historical context about the Confederate monument and about slaves who built some campus buildings before the Civil War. A plaque installed at the base of the Confederate statue says such monuments were built across the South decades after the Civil War, at a time that aging Confederate veterans were dying.
AP Explains: Confederate flags draw differing responses
Read full article: AP Explains: Confederate flags draw differing responsesFILE - In this Friday, July 3, 2020, file photo, Civil War reenactors marching with Confederate battle flags during their reenactment of Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg National Military Park in Gettysburg, Pa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)Public pressure amid protests over racial inequality forced Mississippi to furl its Confederate-inspired state flag for good, yet Georgias flag is based on another Confederate design and lives on. The Confederate States of America had three different national flags during its brief existence from 1861 through 1865, and multiple other flags were used by individual states, army and naval groups. CONFEDERATE NATIONAL FLAGS LARGELY FORGOTTENWhile the battle flag is recognized almost universally as the Confederate flag, its association with hate and white supremacy has taken a toll. Meanwhile, Confederate national flags like the Stainless Banner and the Blood-Stained Banner" or the unofficial Bonnie Blue Flag are virtually unknown to many.
Race relations in Wisconsin capital are a tale of 2 cities
Read full article: Race relations in Wisconsin capital are a tale of 2 cities(Emily Hamer/Wisconsin State Journal via AP File)MADISON, Wis. In this college town that considers itself a bastion of progressive politics and inclusion, race relations are really a tale of two cities. Madison is a wonderful place, but it is a tale of two cities, said former Madison Police Chief Noble Wray, who is Black. Heg was an Norwegian immigrant who became an anti-slavery activist and a colonel in the 15th Wisconsin Regiment. The Forward statue represented Wisconsin at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He called toppling the statues a setback for the Black rights movement but said there's no denying racial inequities in Madison.
5 years after church massacre, S Carolina protects monuments
Read full article: 5 years after church massacre, S Carolina protects monumentsHe also left behind pictures of himself holding the gun used in the killings, posing at historic Civil War and African American sites and holding the Confederate flag. Outraged political leaders came together and overwhelmingly voted to take down a Confederate flag that flew near a monument to Confederate soldiers on the Statehouse lawn. The law protects all historical monuments and names of buildings, requiring a two-thirds vote from the state General Assembly to make any changes. The president of the University of South Carolina wants lawmakers to let the school remove the name of J. Marion Sims from a women's dorm. The time has come to take down the monuments that honor the evil that was done in the name of Charleston, in the name of South Carolina," Rivers said Tuesday at the foot of Calhoun's statue.
A dozen Confederates are honored with US Capitol statues
Read full article: A dozen Confederates are honored with US Capitol statuesHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is calling to have the statues of Confederates removed from the Capitol, though she cannot do so unilaterally. Each of the 50 states is allowed by law to place two statues in the collection. LOUISIANAEdward Douglass White (1955) -- He was a teenager when he enlisted in the Confederate army, only to be captured a short time later. SOUTH CAROLINAWade Hampton (1929) -- A state lawmaker before the war, he rose to the rank of lieutenant general in the Confederate army. WEST VIRGINIAJohn Kenna (1901) -- He was wounded at 16 while serving in the Confederate army and would later become a congressman and senator.
NFL plans to observe Juneteenth as league holiday
Read full article: NFL plans to observe Juneteenth as league holidayThe NFL plans to recognize Juneteenth as a league holiday. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made the announcement to league employees on Friday in an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press. Juneteenth is considered the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. Colin Kaepernick began raising awareness for these problems by kneeling during the national anthem in 2016. Juneteenth not only marks the end of slavery in the United States, but it also symbolizes freedom a freedom that was delayed, and brutally resisted; and though decades of progress followed, a freedom for which we must continue to fight.___More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
HBO Max removes 'Gone With the Wind,' will add context
Read full article: HBO Max removes 'Gone With the Wind,' will add contextNEW YORK HBO Max has temporarily removed Gone With the Wind from its streaming library in order to add historical context to the 1939 film long criticized for romanticizing slavery and the Civil War-era South. Protests in the wake of George Floyd's death have forced entertainment companies to grapple with the appropriateness of both current and past productions. The BBC also removed episodes of Little Britain," a comedy series that featured a character in blackface, from its streaming service. "These racist depictions were wrong then and are wrong today, and we felt that to keep this title up without an explanation and a denouncement of those depictions would be irresponsible, said an HBO Max spokesman in a statement. Gone With the Wind has long been denounced for featuring slave characters who remain loyal to their former owners after the abolition of slavery.
Confederate statue removed from Jacksonville Park by city crews overnight
Read full article: Confederate statue removed from Jacksonville Park by city crews overnightAnna Lopez Brosche, president of Jacksonville City Hall at the time, called for an inventory of all monuments on city-owned property, with the intention of asking for them to be removed. The Parks and Recreation Department found there are three Civil War-related monuments and eight historic markers on city property. Critics have questioned how the memorials would be removed and put in places such as museums or universities. "Some of them crossed the line a little bit, in terms of wishing me bodily harm, things like that," Brosche said. Broche asked the citys general counsel to determine what the laws are regarding the removal of monuments or perhaps put in others that tell the whole history of Jacksonville.
Cannonball From Civil War Found Lodged in Missouri Tree
Read full article: Cannonball From Civil War Found Lodged in Missouri TreeRemnants of a Civil War battle in Independence, Missouri, were uncovered earlier this week by a local tree service that deemed an old tree needed to be taken apart for safety purposes. Jeff Eastham of Jeffs Tree Services said he was sent to the home because he was told the tree posed a danger to the rest of the local landscape. In fact, homeowner Randall Pratt said this isnt the first time a cannonball was found on the property. During another renovation in 1980, the family found a cannonball lodged inside the structure of the house. It was a part of the tree for at least 157 years and it will stay with the house, he said.
Jefferson Davis' name removed from arch at Va. fort
Read full article: Jefferson Davis' name removed from arch at Va. fortThe letters on the double-arched gate to Jefferson Davis Memorial Park at Fort Monroe were removed Friday. The name of Confederate President Jefferson Davis has been removed from an arch at the Fort Monroe historic site in Hampton, Virginia. "Fort Monroe is where the first enslaved Africans arrived on our shores in 1619," Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam tweeted on Friday -- the same day letters spelling out "Jefferson Davis Memorial Park" were taken down by workers. Oder told WAVY-TV the letters will be preserved as part of a Jefferson Davis exhibit at the Casement Museum on the site.
Bomb squad called after live cannonballs spotted at museum
Read full article: Bomb squad called after live cannonballs spotted at museumFERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. – Police and fire crews were called Tuesday to the Amelia Island Museum of History after a park ranger and historian with Fort Clinch spotted that two Civil War era cannonballs were "live." The fire department was called after Frank Ofeldt raised concerns that the cannonballs might be filled with gunpowder, making them dangerous. The Fernandina Beach police said the museum was evacuated as a precaution as the cannonballs were removed by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office bomb squad. One of the cannonballs had been a part of the Civil War exhibit at the museum for years, and the other was recently acquired. The museum had called Ofeldt in to look at the donated cannonball, and he alerted them that both might be dangerous.