Today, Mississippi officially recognizes Confederate Memorial Day as the anchor of Gov. Tate Reeves-proclaimed Confederate Heritage Month.
Mississippi is one of just four states to still officially recognize the state holiday, which has been granted under gubernatorial proclamations from the past five governors. Notably, one cannot find Reeves’ proclamation on his social media accounts; instead, you’d have to venture over to the Facebook page of Confederate States president Jefferson Davis’ home if you want to read it, as first reported by the Mississippi Free Press.
The actual language of the Confederate Heritage Month proclamation appears benign at first glance. It opens with a reference to the start of the American Civil War in 1861 and follows with an acknowledgment of Confederate Memorial Day in Mississippi (more on that to come).
But the final paragraph, when examined with a critical eye, offers a reason for pause and concern. It reads:
“WHEREAS, as we honor all who lost their lives in this war, it is important for all Americans to reflect upon our nation’s past, to gain insight from our mistakes and successes, and to come to a full understanding that the lessons learned yesterday and today will carry us through tomorrow if we carefully and earnestly strive to understand and appreciate our heritage and our opportunities which lie before us.”
Gov. Tate Reeves’ 2024 Confederate Heritage Month Proclamation
The “if” in that passage is doing a lot of work. We can only learn from the past IF we embrace “our heritage?” That line then begs the question, “Whose heritage, exactly?”
The answer is obvious and makes an earnest reflection of the sins of the Civil War necessary. Despite the lofty verbiage of “insight” and “lessons”, the proclamation is a prop upon which the “heritage” of the Confederacy is elevated — a heritage defined by the institution of slavery.
This Confederate Memorial Day provides us an opportunity to take a deep dive into that heritage by carefully dissecting the document that most clearly outlines and defends it.
LISTEN: A Reading of the Mississippi Declaration of Secession
The Declaration of Secession was the result of a convention of the Mississippi Legislature in January of 1861. The convention adopted a formal Ordinance of Secession written by former Congressman Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar. While the ordinance served an official purpose, the declaration laid out the grievances Mississippi’s ruling class held against the federal government under the leadership of President-elect Abraham Lincoln.
Below are a few annotated excerpts from the Mississippi Declaration of Secession.
The convention really couldn’t be any more straightforward with the title and opening graf of their declaration. There is little to no ambiguity about the intent of this document, which is to say, “we are seceeding and this is why.”
If there is any doubt, simply toss the title into the thesaurus machine and see what you get…
“An Assertion of the Direct Causes Which Create and Excuse the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union“
Don’t think there is much mystery there.
And there it is.
Despite the “states’ rights” rhetoric of the Lost Cause myth, the convention makes it undoubtedly evident that slavery is the prominent reason for secession (just like they promised to do in the previous passage).
It offers a clear and concise answer to the question, “States’ rights to do what?”
Read that passage again in your best Ron Burgundy voice. “It’s science.”
But in all seriousness, one can’t escape the blinding racism of this passage. Nor should one ignore how damaging the perpetuity of this unscientific, unrealistic understanding of the Black race and the Black body has been in the century-and-a-half since.
These lines are in reference to the federal government’s attempts to block the expansion of slavery into new territories as the United States grew.
The Ordinance of 1787 prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territory. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 prohibited slavery in territories formed from the Louisiana Purchase north of the 36°30′ parallel.
The convention doubles down on the notion that secession is not only needed to preserve the institution of slavery, but quelch any attempts to deny its existence in emerging territories
Throughout much of the convention’s list of grievances, the word “it” is used as a place-holder for the “hostility to this institution” that is mentioned in the previous excerpt. Or, to put it another way, “it” is the abolitionist movement.
Again, the racism is unavoidably clear. To the convention, advocacy for social and political equality for Black Americans is akin to promoting insurrection.
What comes after is a line that probably looks all too familiar to anyone who follows the ebbs and flows of grievance politics. The convention paints the press and schools as enlisted agents against them and their cause – the echoes of which are still heard today in regards to policies directed at systemic racism or the preservation of rights for the LGBTQ+ community. It’s not a new addition to the playbook, and politicians who invoke this language are merely channeling their secessionist forefathers.
You have to appreciate the tone deaf irony of this bit. It’s not the 435,000-plus enslaved Mississippians who are subject to degradation, but rather the wealthy, white ruling class.
This line also helps dispel the myth of the “compassionate slaveowner,” as it clearly indicates how slave-owning Mississippians viewed the enslaved — as a calculated asset in their ledgers, as a dollar figure, as potential lost property.
To top it off, the convention elevates its cause — the preservation of slavery — to a higher status than the causes for the American Revolution.
There is one thing the Declaration of Secession makes abundantly clear: slavery — the preservation and expansion of — is the prominent reason Mississippi and 10 other states seceded to form the Confederacy.
Reeves could very easily end the practice of recognizing April as Confederate Heritage Month. It’s only made possible through a proclamation of the governor. All he has to do is say “no.”
But even if Reeves remains stubborn, the legislative branch wields enormous power, too. Mississippi’s state holidays are codified, and lawmakers have the power to divorce Mississippi from a century-old practice of honoring Confederates and their cause. They can pass legislation ending Confederate Memorial Day on the last Monday in April. They can sever Robert E. Lee from the annual celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. on the third Monday of January. And they can let Memorial Day exist on its own as a federal holiday without doubly venerating Jefferson Davis on the same day.
For those keeping score, that’s three Confederate-themed state holidays in Mississippi.
These holidays are rooted in the Jim Crow era. They stand side-by-side with laws and policies meant to deprive Black Mississippians of their economic and civic vitality. Reeves and lawmakers could choose to start down a path of rectification — remedying some of the ills of policies designed to keep certain Mississippians disenfranchised and destitute.
But for now, the holidays — and the reasons for them — remain. Slavery and the subjugation of Black people is the bedrock of Confederate “heritage.”
The origins of Confederate Memorial Day in Mississippi trace back to 1906, a time of Southern Redemption and the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan.
Ignorance cannot and should no longer be an excuse — certainly not in 2024.
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