HK
On 1/27/10, "tribune editor" - tribuneeditor@bellsouth.net wrote:
Dear Mary Mac,
Thanks for your e-mail.
You need to know that this commentary from your student that you sent me that was worked up primarily by the WNCCEIB is largely slanted and spun information. The 'organzation' is really a one man show run by Monroe Gilmore, who has been hanging around for ages and who is a nice guy but certainly works on the fringes. He doesn't work, but his wife does. He tried to get the Cross taken down at Ridgecrest, he tried to get the McDonald sign lowered in Black Mountain, he picketed against the Asheville debutante ball, he fought to get the Indian mascot names removed from Erwin High School, and he pretends to have this big organization when it is only a one man show of his.
If your students are relying on him as a source of information, they have serious problems!! Surely you demand more than that.
Also, HK spoke to us about this very stuff over the lunch that you couldn't make...it is a fascinating story...you should listen to it.
Takes about an hour to go thru the whole thing in detail. As a matter of fact, I just called HK and asked him if he had been asked about it at the meeting as I was sure he would have done so if asked.
He told me he was NOT asked about it, that he certainly would have gone into it if he had been, and that he would be more than happy to do so if he were extended another invitation.
I also understand you have a student form Conn who really did not want to believe anything he was saying. I wonder why she comes to class if she already knows it all?
I suggest you ask her to read a book called "Complicity - How the North promoted, prolonged, and profited from Slavery." It was written by Anne Farrow, Joel Lang, and Jennifer Frank who work for the Hartford Courant newspaper in Conn. Should be a credible enough resource even for her narrow mind. (I will let you borrow it to read first if you would like).
Anyhow, I thought I would just try to set a little of the record straight.
Best,
David
*************************************************
MEMORANDUM: December 23, 1998
UPDATED MAY 2, 1999 and OCTOBER 20, 1999
SUBJECT: Kirk Lyons, H.K. Edgerton, and the "Asheville Fair Housing Alliance"
Kirk Lyons and Suspended NAACP Officer Collaborate Kirk Lyons wrote a December 16, 1998 letter to various organizations in the Asheville, NC area (including WNCCEIB) asking them to join with him and "Chairman" H.K. Edgerton in forming the "Asheville Fair Housing Alliance." Lyons indicated that the Board of his other new organization, the Southern Legal Resource Center(SLRC), http://www.cheta.net/SLRC/, approved this action. Lyons is an incorporator and the "Chief Trial Counsel" for the SLRC.
The Asheville Citizen-Times reported on December 19 that Edgerton, who describes himself as President of the local NAACP Branch, is working with Lyons because he does not have money to challenge the City of Asheville's housing practices. One of Edgerton's own vice presidents said in the article that he knew nothing about it. The State NAACP Executive Director based in Greensboro said in the article that the State office must approve any suit and that they too had heard nothing about it. Another local NAACP Vice President said in the article, "The big question is why does he (Edgerton) keep associating himself with these people?...We don't have to go to the Klan to get lawyers. We have lawyers that fight the Klan. I'm really tired of him misusing this organization."
The legitimacy of Edgerton using the title of President is questionable since WNCCEIB has learned that the fall election that should have taken place has not been held and members may be withholding payment of dues. Moreover, according to the State office, the officers of the Asheville NAACP Branch are suspended "until further notice" for non-payment of branch dues.
Edgerton and Lyons created controversy on March 28, 1998 when the Asheville Citizen-Times printed a picture of Lyons, Lyons' assistant Neil Payne and Edgerton wearing hood-mimicking napkins on their heads and joking about the KKK. The Citizen-Times editorialized that Edgerton was discrediting himself, the NAACP, and everyone who had been a victim of the KKK. The paper, which has a Black publisher, called for Edgerton to step down but he refused.
Lyons does not have a license to practice law in North Carolina but does have a license for Texas. No local lawyer has been identified as being associated with Lyons at this writing.
UPDATE:
In January 1999, the State Office of the NAACP held a re-organization meeting of the Asheville Branch. New elections resulted in H.K. Edgerton being defeated for President. By April of 1999, the new President and new Board of the revitalized Branch had gotten out of debt and regained much community support and credibility. Lyons and Edgerton were last reported traveling together to Maryville, Tennesee on March 23 to support keeping the Confederate flag at a local high school after a Black doctor complained to the US Department of Education.
UPDATE:
On October 19, 1999, H.K. Edgerton picketed the Asheville Branch of the NAACP carrying a Confederate flag and a sign saying "Heritage Not Hate." Edgerton has continued appearing with Lyons to promote the Confederate flag. See photo from October 20, 1999 Asheville Citizen-Times "advisor", H.K. Edgerton, http://www.main.nc.us/wncceib/edgertonNAACP.html
Irony of Kirk Lyons Working On Housing Issues For Minorities
Given Kirk Lyons' past statements and his not renouncing his past views and associations with white supremacists, his working on minority housing issues in Asheville, NC is raising eyebrows.
In an April 19, 1992 interview with the Raleigh News & Observer, Lyons said that he wanted to be the President of the Republic of Texas and, the paper continues, Texas would be a predominantly white state with European institutions, he says, but he might "permit a small minority population to live within its borders. 'I like other culture,' he explains. 'I don't want to have to go to China to eat Chinese food."
Moreover, on the March 18, 1993 Sally Jesse Raphael Show entitled "White Collar Racists", Lyons proposed divvying up the country among the races and defended his white separatists views. He also offered to leave the country is someone would give him $300,000.
In a letter to the Asheville Citizen-Times on March 13, 1993, Lyons wrote that Black History month "frankly touts a great deal of white-bashing and Afro-centric nonsense.'
Lyons was married by the head of the Christian Identity church in the Aryan Nations compound in Hayden Lake Idaho. That distorted form of Christianity sees whites as the chosen people of God and all others as less than human "mud people."; Lyons' best man was Lois Beam, former Grand Dragon of the Texas KKK.
Lyons' also raised money for White Aryan Resistance leader Tom Metzger's legal defense in a civil suit arising out of the murder ofan Ethiopian student in Oregon;
Lyons was named organizer for a demonstration at the dedication of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. and has spoken at Holocaust-denial type conferences in Europe and this country.
Lyon's was named one of ten national leaders in the white supremacy movement by the Southern Poverty Law Center in 1991 in its special report, The KKK: History of Racism and Violence.
Lyons says in the December 19,1998 Asheville Citizen-Times article that his new organization, the Southern Legal Resource Center (SLRC),is "absolutely mainstream. We have no race agenda We're not a white separatist group. We are a civil rights law firm."
Money/Search For Credibility May Be Behind Kirk Lyons' Collaboration With Suspended NAACP Officer
In a December 19, 1998 Asheville Citizen-Times article, Asheville NAACP President, H.K. Edgerton, whose title has been suspended by the NC NAACP, said the reason he turned to Lyons is, "Money. Everything is about money."
Lyons may have similar concerns. In July 1998, he moth-balled the CAUSE Foundation and wrote a somewhat bitter letter to supporters saying that it was costing him more to mail out the newsletter than it raised. Also, in the SLRC letter to Edgerton, as reported in the same December 19, 1998 article, Lyons expects the local NAACP Branch to help the SLRC raise funds to cover costs arising from the suit. In a December letter copied to WNCCEIB, Lyons asked the Black Mountain Dr. Martin Luther King breakfast organization for a $2500 grant and an opportunity to speak at the King breakfast. (UPDATE The Black Mountain King Breakfast Committee politely declined Lyons' requests pointing to his own background and Edgerton's controversial tenure as President of the NAACP.)
Beyond money, Lyons appears concerned about the credibility of his new organization, the Southern Legal Resource Center(SLRC). Because of Lyons' white supremacy associations, some members of the Georgia branch of the Sons of Confederate Veterans(SCV) are trying to get their organization to disassociate itself from Lyons. A $1000 contribution to the SLRC approved at the Georgia SCV state convention in June 1998 was later rescinded according to SCV officials. The SCV's internal controversy over Lyons is documented in an AP story that appeared in the Charlotte Observer September 13, 1998 headlined, "Large heritage group's membership split over N.C. lawyer's links to hate"
Lyons says in that article that protecting Southern heritage is a cause "closer to my heart," and promised to fight "to protect his practice."
Unfortunately, for Lyons, until he convincingly renounces his past associations and statements, he is unlikely to persuade the wider public that his interest in "Southern Heritage" is simply historical.
Just as he has used his association with a Black man's suit against the Hendersonville (NC) police for brutality to demonstrate his broad-minded approach, Lyons is likely to tout this association with the NAACP (as unrepresentative of the entire chapter as Edgerton's actions may be) as an indication of his middle-of-the-road, civil rights agenda. WNCCEIB concludes that given Lyons' past statements about the value of working underground, the evidence suggests that H. K. Edgerton and the NAACP's name are being used. And, concerning the Asheville Fair Housing Alliance, WNCCEIB concludes "buyer beware."
Click here, http://www.main.nc.us/wncceib/98CAUSE.htm, for additional information on the moth-balling of CAUSE and the emergence of the Southern Legal Resource Center (SLRC)
BACK TO OTHER ISSUES http://www.main.nc.us/wncceib/OtherIssues.htm
For suggestions on how you can be involved in your community, please contact us.
WNCCEIB thanks all the volunteers who have helped put this memorandum together.
Please contact us if you have questions or want more information.
(WNCCEIB)
PO Box 18640
Asheville, NC 28814
Tel: 828-669-6677
Fax 828-669-8862
e-mail: wncceib@buncombe.main.nc.us
* * * * * * * * *
WNCCEIB is a non-profit, tax-exempt project of the Western Carolina Coalition For Social Concerns. WNCCEIB expresses its appreciation to the Greensboro Justice Fund, the Robert J. and Eunice J. Wagner Foundation, and other generous donors for their support.
*************************************************
From: Mary Mac Motley
To: tribune editor
Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2010
She is from Connecticut and was the object of attention during much of his presentation. She was prepared with questions, had read his website, Googled him, etc... This class is older and educated. They are very open-minded but demand explanantions. HK was a hard sell, because he did not get his message across and tended to focus on his opinion of the war rather than his message and why it is relevant. My student was put off that he did not answer her questions, which were directly addressing (most of the time) statements- many controversial- he made. Instead of answering, he would joke she was from CT and call her dear, etc.--- not well received if you can imagine.
Overall, I think the students walked away with lots to think about. HK, I hope, will filter his presentation by talking less about the Civil War as Yankee v Southland (that sort of language...)and more about the reason he carries the flag. I believe his message about the flag is important and will be more potent without embellishing it- or even losing it- in his opinions and dramatics about the Yankees and slaves. His point is often lost in his passionate presentation method... Many of the students never understood why he carries the flag--- they learned his views about the war, the NAACP and his belief that people should be able to wear the flag on t-shirts, but he was not clear about his mission as a flag-carrying-confederate-ex-NAACP officer. One student even stated HK was as divisive as a politician who uses groups and identity politics as pawns in power games (whew!). Another was disappointed that he takes his message to people who already get it, rather than to the black community where he could advocate reclaiming the flag as an act of historical awareness. He may already do this, but he did not get that across last night.
HK tends to say so much, so fast and with such passion that you miss the message he is promoting. This is the general feedback from the class, but they did enjoy his visit. He is not a scholar but an activist, hence the expectations are and should be different. Most of the students, unfortunately, were left wondering what he does and if he is real or simply a celebrity capitalizing on the publicity his actions receive. Some statements he made, like the slave narratives are about love, were unnecessary and took him off on a tangent that was a slippery slope. My goal was to focus on him and his work, message, and discuss the reasons why the flag is so controversial, especially to black people. The answers to those questions got lost in his fiery rhetoric about Yankees and their role in profiting from slavery, etc.
Quite an evening and a teachable moment! He was very nice to come, and I am glad my students were able to talk with him. I contributed to his organization! It’s not everyday you get to hang with someone who has had their picture taken more times than ELVIS! (he shared that with us!)
Thanks for calling him for me, connecting us, and I appreciate the feedback. I will pass it along to my student. Get ready for the snow- hope we do not have anymore trees fall! MM
*************************************************
From: tribune editor - tribuneeditor@bellsouth.net
Date: Wed, Jan 27, 2010
To: Mary Mac Motley - marymotley@charter.net
Cc: HK Edgerton - hk.edgerton@gmail.com
Dear Mary Mac,
Thanks for the reply. I understand what you are saying and I think what you are trying to do is great. HK is indeed passionate about what he does. If he were not, he wouldn't be doing it. It is necessary for students to note that HK is in fact making history rather than teaching it. Big difference. It is his doing that is his teaching; the correct way for students to learn from HK is to focus on his doing.
If you want to learn from the great musicians and great athletes, you will learn more by focusing on what they do and trying to watch them do it than by probing them as to exactly why how or why they did what they did. Simply watch them or talk to them about what they do.
He does, in fact, carry his message to thousands of blacks all across trhe country, especially on his walks. I find it really strange that that point was not made. He walked all the way from Asheville to Austin Tex carrying the flag and thousands of blacks walked and talked with him along the way. Maybe it was made, but not understood.
That was a crucial part of what that march was all about. Any student who missed that did not ask the right questions. There were dozens of great examples of his interaction with blacks along the way. Thousands of blacks understand and relate to his message. The students should have gotten insights into that.
Let me make a few specific questions and suggestions:
1. HK said that the girl did not want to read the Un-Civil War book. I don't know if that is accurate or not. That is why I suggested she read Complicity, so that she can get some sort of insight into the real truths of what went on. If you read it, you will see that it is not just fiery rhetoric. I will be happy to see that she gets both of them to read and to gain some insights she never had before.
2. Was HK in fact asked the question that she said that he never answered? If not, you need to hear him talk about it. Fascinating
3. His expectations are to help create a dialogue whereby people will begin to explore the real history and truths of what occurred. Remember, the truth will set you free...but first it will piss you off! Sounds like some of that at least got started. I guarantee Monroe Gilmor is not where the truth lies!
Anyhow you are great for helping the dialogue begin! There is a long way to go.
D
PS Are you going to be here for the snow?
Home
Black Confederates
