BY JEN VELDHUYZEN
As heretical as it may sound, I believe that Martin Luther King Jr. would be honored, not disgusted, to share a holiday with the Civil War generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson.
Like King, Lee believed in achieving civil rights through peace, and felt that war was a violent misinterpretation of states' rights. Upon the emancipation of slaves, Lee said, "I am so fully satisfied of this that I would have cheerfully suffered all that I have suffered to have this object attained."
He fought for the South because he believed in loyalty to the state before the nation and in his state's right to run its own resources as its people chose. His fears for his state were not paranoid, either--events such as Union Gen. Sherman's "march to the sea," and the civil rights losses and retaliation between whites and blacks during Reconstruction support Lee's initial fears regarding the conflict that was thrust on him in the Civil War.
Quoting Lee's beliefs will convince no one, however, of his character--many a modern racist politician can cover up his tracks with pretty platitudes about equality.
Lee did not merely speak against racism, though--he released all his slaves 10 years before the war. Most of them stayed on at his plantation, and one even became his cook during the war.
Lee taught his family to appreciate people of other colors--like King's activists years later, Lee's daughter was arrested for violating Jim Crow laws in the South. According to the 1902 Cleveland Gazette, she reportedly "persisted in occupying a car set apart for Afro-Americans," and the mayor found her guilty of violating the law.
"Stonewall" Jackson did not speak much about slavery--he lived against it, instead.
Jackson did not understand what flaw of society placed people of color in positions of servitude--nor did he care what society said. He was known for being eccentric and forceful with his opinions, and he lived them out.
Every Sunday, while in his hometown of Lexington, Jackson quietly broke the law by teaching a class of black students to read and write. After his death, when the Union Army occupied Lexington, citizens took care to hide the Confederate flag formerly marking Jackson's grave. They were surprised later to find flowers, a note and a small Confederate flag placed at his tombstone by a boy from one of his classes.
Jackson would always be remembered by his students, not as a racist or a military man, but as a strict champion of black literacy. I do not believe that Martin Luther King Jr. would have objections to sharing a weekend with a man who supported African-American education.
The Lee-Jackson and King holidays only emphasize that we live in a nation that recognizes its mistakes and inequalities, and changes its ways. We overcame the Civil War and survived segregation. This is why I can celebrate Lee, Jackson and King as, respectively, a compassionate general, a brave teacher and, possibly, the most successful peace activist in the modern world.
Jen Veldhuyzen is a senior at Colonial Forge High School.