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LEXINGTON, VIRGINA.
The day after meeting black amateur historian Clarence Shaw in Washington, I went to Lexington, Virginia.
Shaw spoke of the shock of seeing the mob storming the Capitol, of seeing a rebel with the red-blue southern flag, the flag of the slave states, in the United States Legislature.
In the small town of Lexington, men parade with that flag.
They walk down Storgatan in the snow and hold the flags high and many of them are dressed in the uniforms of the southern states from the civil war and the women mourn in memory of the soldiers who fell in the war that ended 156 ago years.
Photo: Peter Wixtröm
Buck Smith wears a musket and a uniform. He says he wants to defend the ideals of his ancestors.
Photo: Peter Wixtröm
The group parades through Storgatan.
They know how they can be seen by a stranger and they are cautious in their statements. They say: We just want to honor the memory of General Stonewall Jackson, who is buried in the cemetery. We want to honor the memory of those killed in war. We want to nurture the graves and cultivate the culture of the south.
Before the parade began, they stood in a circle around the Jackson statue in the cemetery. They chanted: We are here! We are here!
There were shouts of anger and defiance, it reminded me of the protesters this spring when the police killed young black Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky: Say her name, say her name!
They want to be seen. Recognized. Respected.
Many of the men that Storgatan comes down with their flags and uniforms and the occasional old musket belongs to the Children of Confederate Veterans. The Confederacy was the southern states with plantations and slaves. Women are in Daughters of the Confederacy.
– I am here to honor my ancestors and General Jackson and General Lee. They fought for freedom, says one of the men, Buck Smith, retired. We want to defend the ideals of our ancestors.
And the slaves?
– Not everyone was treated badly. Many wanted to stay on the plantations.
Leading the parade, Luke McDonald plays the bagpipes. He is a carpenter by profession. The men behind him struggle to march properly and he on the left sometimes says softly, a two, three, and then takes small steps to keep up. Generals Jackson and Lee are Luke McDonald’s greatest heroes. They defended the south against the invasion of the north.
Photo: Peter Wixtröm
Fine carpenter Luke McDonald plays bagpipes in the parade.
Photo: Peter Wixtröm
Many in the group are dressed in the uniforms of the southern states of the civil war. Women mourn in memory of the fallen soldiers.
The parade passes red brick villas and bright yellow wooden villas with terraces. Stop by the Presbyterian Church and the Real Estate and Baptist Church and Nikos Grill and the Methodist Church.
Yanks come home! Yanks come home! shouts a girl in the parade. The men stop howling, maybe it should look like a wolf howling. They howl and some laugh.
The uniforms are brown and gray and blue-gray. The most elegant color is cadet gray and was worn by officers. Brandon Dorsey, a surveyor by trade, wears that uniform. He also has light yellow collar gloves and a green hat with a red ribbon and a black bow tie around his neck.
– We do not want to know the socialist nonsense of hating our past. We are for freedom. Freedom from the tyranny of the government. Politicians in Washington legislate twenty-four hours a day. That was not what America stood for.
Photo: Peter Wixtröm
Brandon Dorsey wears the cadet gray officer uniform.
The parade goes one go around the center and go back to the cemetery. The participants gather again at the statue of General Jackson.
The ber.
A man points to the ground: Our ancestors rest there!
Another responds: Our flesh and blood! They can’t take that away from us!
During the Yugoslav civil wars of the 1990s, Serbs and Croats were said to have been poisoned by history. They couldn’t leave the past behind. The starters, real and imaginary.
The ghosts ruled them.
What about these people on a snowy winter’s day in Virginia?
They sing Land of dixie, the informal national anthem of the south. When it has rung, they take a while. An old man is sworn in Confederate Mechanical CavalryThey ride motorcycles and have leather vests.
Photo: Peter Wixtröm
A man riding with a southern state flag.
Photo: Peter Wixtröm
Brandon Dorsey at the statue of General Jackson. Dorsey does not rule out a new civil war in the coming years.
One of the men who stormed the Capitol was carrying a Southern flag. Everyone I talk to says it was a provocation. Some add that it was the Antifa socialists who set the storm on fire. Surveyor Brandon Dorsey adds that the presidential election was rigged. Joe Biden won by cheating. Therefore, the government is illegal.
– Then we have the right to overthrow him and form a new one. That is what these gentlemen did.
Point to the statue of General Jackson.
Dorsey says the United States is in a similar situation as before the Civil War. The contradictions are so deep, the country divided, the elections a life and death struggle.
– I can imagine that we will have a new civil war in ten years.
So the parade of the year is over.
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