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January 15, 2021 Edward H. Sebesta XXXXXXXXXXX Dallas, TX XXXXX edwardsebesta@gmal.com Jasmine Crockett Texas State Representative Room E1 412 P.O. Box 2910 Austin, Texas 78768 Dear Hon. Crockett: I am writing you asking that you help get the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), a racist neo-Confederate group out of our high schools. They get into Texas high schools by handing out Confederate awards to students in the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) program. (See enclosed documentation that they get into Texas schools and that this is still a current practice in JROTC programs across the nation. I have a guide to these documentations following my signature in this letter.) Don’t presume that since the examples provided aren’t in the DFW area, but in other parts of Texas that it isn’t happening locally. I am only able to uncover a fraction of these occurrences. I enclose a short academic resume. I am published by two university presses, multiple peer-reviewed academic journals, and I was awarded the Spirit of Freedom medal by the African American Civil War Museum in Washington, D.C. I enclose with this letter an article by A.C. Wilson III, National Chairman of the H.L. Hunley Award, in the January/February 2014 issue of the Confederate Veteran, the official publication of the SCV, about their purpose in giving out the H.L. Hunley awards to JROTC cadets (pp. 62-64). It is about using the awards ceremony and the prestige of the U.S. Military to advance their ideological program to gain respectability and to gain influence both with other community organizations and with the high school which has a JROTC program. You will note on page 63 how pleased they are with getting young African Americans students to become supporters of the Confederacy. Additionally, I enclose, an article from the November/December 2009 Confederate which explains that the program was launched in March 2009 (pp. 52-53). They like to showcase giving African American young people the H.L. Hunley Award. I enclose a copy of the November/December 2013 Confederate Veteran (pp. 56-57) article
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about the Hunley Award. When local SCV camps give out the award they like to have a photo published in the Confederate Veteran and there usually is in each issue one or two photos, often with non-white students, being shown being given the H.L. Hunley Award. There is also a United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) award being given out to JROTC cadets, but I can’t get much information besides that it is a program and it is currently ongoing. I would like their program be stopped in the Texas schools. Lest you think that the SCV is just another heritage organization I wish to point out that the Head and Deputy Head of the SCV Heritage Committee are Walter Donald Kennedy and James Ronald Kennedy. They have a web page to sell their books and promote their ideology. http://www.kennedytwins.com/ The book “The South Was Right!” has a vitriolic denunciation of the Voting Rights Act. The “Myths of American Slavery,” angrily denounces the Southern Baptist apology for slavery, and argues that if a slave ran away the slave is violating the Golden Rule. I can supply copies. However, the book which would make most people gasp, is the book, “Punished With Poverty,” in which the poverty of the South is blamed on the fact slaveowners weren’t compensated for their slaves. They demand reparations for slavery, BUT IN THIS INSTANCE, IT IS REPARATIONS FOR THE SLAVEOWNERS, and they do calculate what they think the former Confederate states are owed and they have a plan on how to use this money. Note the books, “Rekilling Lincoln,” and “Lincoln’s Marxists,” in which the Lincoln administration is supposed to be some type of communist conspiracy. At this point in describing the SCV I get usually get some explanation, excuse, of a few rogue characters but the SCV as a whole is about sentimental nostalgia. I enclose an article I had published at Black Commentator in 2013 http://blackcommentator.com/526/526_confederacy_sebesta_guest_share.html . There is anti-Semitism, religious extreme, pro-slavery ideology and theology, and of course white supremacy. There is even an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory about race and Intelligence Quotients. If someone wants to assert that the SCV is no longer extremist, I have written up a review of articles published in 2018 and 2019 in the Confederate Veteran and the direction of the SCV leading up to these articles showing that they were extremist all along. I have it online at http://templeofdemocracy.com/information-resources-aboutthe-sons-of-confederate-veterans.html. These JROTC cadets are young adults in our high schools and they trust the adults in the school system. The U.S. military allowed neo-Confederate groups to exploit them. Now these students will have to think what their explanations they will have to give to friends, co-workers, relatives, and their children and grandchildren as to why they accepted this award. From the SCV articles and website there has been at least 500 of these awards given out and that was reported in the past. Probably over a thousand
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JROTC cadets have been allowed to be victimized by the U.S. military by the end of 2020. I ask you to take decisive steps to get neo-Confederates out of Texas high schools. In particular the following: 1. Request that the Texas Educational Agency look into this practice and send a directive to schools not to have neo-Confederates organizations involved with school activities and handing out Confederate awards to students. 2. Ask the Texas Educational Agency to ask that the various JROTC divisions of the U.S. Military not to facilitate neo-Confederate organizations entry into the schools and also why has this practice has even been tolerated unto 2020. Basically, the neo-Confederates need to be kept out of our Texas schools. If my above two requests don’t accomplish that goal, then what is necessary to prevent this pernicious practice needs to be determined and implemented. Further, don’t reply on the JROTC program officials to be accurate in what they report. I had written to the U.S. Military about this and I only got one response from a Col. Stephen T. Sanders, Director of the Air Force JROTC. He claimed that my information was “dated” and that there were no H.L. Hunley awards being given to Air Force JROTC cadets. However, I photocopied two different articles form the July/August 2020 Confederate Veteran of Air Force JROTC cadets getting H.L. Hunley awards and mailed them to him. I got a response dated Dec. 10, 2020 that they are going to make an increased effort. I applaud increased effort, but what I want is that the practice to be halted. Col. Sanders didn’t make that commitment. The Nov./Dec. 2020 Confederate Veteran has an article of an Air Force JROTC cadet getting an H.L. Hunley award as well JROTC cadets in other branches. Documentation enclosed. I have not gotten responses from the other branches of the U.S. Military regarding their JROTC programs. There are JROTC cadets in all branches of the U.S. Military still getting these awards. I hope you can stop this pernicious practice from happening in the Texas school. Sincerely Yours,
Edward H. Sebesta
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CC: Texas Senator Royce West, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson. The guide to the documentation of the SCV practice of using JROTC to give awards to cadets follows: This documentation shows two things. 1. This is a current ongoing practice. 2. This is happening at Texas schools. A) Two documents for the two latest issues of the Confederate Veteran, Nov./Dec. 2020, Jan./Feb. 2021, showing the short photo-articles in which the H.L. Hunley award is given to JROTC cadets. B) A document for May/June 2020 & another for Sept./Oct. 2020 issues of Confederate Veteran, each having a short photo article in which the H.L. Hunley award is being given to cadets in a Texas school. In the Sept./Oct. 2020 issue four different Confederate awards are given out at the Granbury, Texas high school. Again, not all cases of an H.L. Hunley award are likely to have been published in the Confederate Veteran. Very likely there are other awards that have been given out in Texas schools during 2020 that weren’t reported on in the Confederate Veteran. Additionally, where the SCV could expect negative reaction, such as major urban DFW districts, they would be unlikely to publish it in their magazine for fear that it would become known and there would be a reaction in the school district against it.