[Kevin]

My grandmother married into what I believe is the Johnston family, which produced two Confederate generals, Joseph E. Johnston and Albert Sidney Johnston. Step-grandfather's last name was Johnson (without the t) so I'm not quite sure how they were related, but in 1963 (or thereabouts), they went on a tour of the South with stepdad.

One of the stops along the way included a visit to see "Uncle Al" at the Johnston Plantation. I assume he was a descendant of General Albert Sidney Johnston. The Plantation was spared from Sherman's army as General Joseph E. Johnston fortified the Plantation with the Army of the Tennessee. Sherman simply left that Army alone and went about his destruction of the South. The Plantation was still in full operation. The Slave Quarters were occupied by whom you'd probably safely assume were the direct descendants of the former slaves of the Plantation. They were compensated only in company script which was only redeemable at the Company Store.

They met "Uncle Al" who was at the time wheelchair bound. He descended to greet them on an automatic chair lift. Across his lap was draped a Confederate Battle Flag. He lectured them regarding the black race (using the most pejorative term), that they were subhuman, needed to be governed by white men, etc. His wife challenged him on that point because she observed he required them to bow down and accept Jesus into their hearts when in his presence (he was a former travelling evangelist) and that his views were inconsistent if he believed blacks to be less than human.. my father reports that even despite his upbringing in then very segregated Enid, Oklahoma, this was all pretty terrifying stuff.

I thought that anecdote to be fairly instructive as to the views of the southerners who erected these statues as Uncle Al would have been around the right age to have had a hand in those statues erection. Someone from the midwest may simply lack the context to be able to understand why many southerners are eager to distance themselves from the views held by their forebears. Locally, Oklahoma has sort have been a wanna be Southern State. The KKK was such a force to be reckoned with locally that in the 1920s, following the Tulsa Race Riots, the Governor at the time declared marshal law in two counties and suspended habeas corpus. The KKK had such power that they were able to shut down the legislature and impeach said Governor within the year. Around that same time period many schools bearing the names of Confederate Generals were founded, all of our monuments were built between 1910 and 1917 with the notable exception of a monument in Wynnewood built in 2004. If you've been to Wynnewood, you'd understand.