Latest news with #pre-CivilWarSouth
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Art Spaces to dedicate newest sculpture Thursday
Art Spaces is excited to announce the newest sculpture in its collection celebrating and honoring the Lost Creek Settlement, A View from the Porch by artist Reinaldo Correa Díaz, will be dedicated in Deming Park on Thursday. The program begins at 5:15 p.m. with remarks from Art Spaces, state and local officials, the Indiana Arts Commission, the artist and descendants of Lost Creek. It will take place at the sculpture located just past the stone bridge before the large pond. The event is free and open to the public. This sculpture will be the 22nd sculpture in the Art Spaces collection and the fourth sculpture on the Cultural Trail, which was formed in 2008 when Art Spaces and other arts and cultural organizations collaborated to honor individuals, groups and icons that have had a noteworthy impact on the community and beyond. The Lost Creek Settlement was formed beginning in the early 1800s, when a small group of free African Americans traveled from Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina to settle in what is now Vigo County to escape the racial violence and systemic oppression of the pre-Civil War South. They established a thriving farming community with churches, cemeteries, general stores, blacksmiths and schools, employing their own teachers and supplies when it was forbidden to educate African American students in Indiana public schools. This sculpture has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the CreatINg Places Program created by the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, The Larry Paul Foundation, Terre Haute Rotary Club, 100+ Women Who Care Vigo County, the Wabash Valley Community Foundation and generous donors. For more information, call 812-235-2801 or email info@
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
New sculpture honoring Lost Creek Settlement dedicated in Deming Park
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV)— Art Spaces is having their new sculpture honoring the Lost Creek Settlement dedicated in Deming Park on June 12. The piece, titled 'A View from the Porch,' was created by artist Reinaldo Correa Díaz. The dedication program will begin at the park at 5:15 p.m. and will include opening remarks from Art Spaces, state and local officials, the Indiana Arts Commission, Díaz, and descendants of the Lost Creek. The program will take place at the sculpture located past the stone bridge but before the large pond. The sculpture will be the 22nd in Art Spaces' collection and the fourth on what they call the Cultural Trail. The trail was established in 2008 and honors individuals, groups, and icons who have had a lasting impact on the community and beyond through works of art. The Lost Creek Settlement was formed in the early 1800s by a small group of free African Americans who came from Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina and settled into what is now Vigo County to escape racial violence and systemic oppression in the pre-Civil War South. For generations, these individuals owned and farmed their lands and established a community with churches, cemeteries, general stores, blacksmiths, and schools. They also employed their own teachers and gave them supplies when it was forbidden to educate African American students in Indiana public schools. For more information on the project or if you need accommodations, you can contact Art Spaces at 812-235-2801 or email them at info@ The event is free and open to the public. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Independent
28-03-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
North Carolina judge challenging outcome of race wore Confederate uniform in college photo
A judge challenging the outcome of his North Carolina Supreme Court race was photographed wearing Confederate military garb and posing before a Confederate battle flag when he was a member of a college fraternity that glorified the pre-Civil War South. The emergence of the photographs comes at a delicate time for Jefferson Griffin, a Republican appellate judge who is seeking a spot on North Carolina's highest court. Griffin, 44, is facing mounting criticism – including from some Republicans – as he seeks to invalidate over 60,000 votes cast in last November's election, a still undecided contest in which he is trailing the Democratic incumbent by over 700 votes. The photographs, which were obtained by The Associated Press, are from when Griffin was a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1999-2003 and a member of the Kappa Alpha Order, one of the oldest and largest fraternities in the U.S., with tens of thousands of alumni. Griffin said he regretted donning the Confederate uniform, which was customary during the fraternity's annual 'Old South' ball. 'I attended a college fraternity event that, in hindsight, was inappropriate and does not reflect the person I am today,' Griffin said in a statement. 'At that time, like many college students, I did not fully grasp such participation's broader historical and social implications. Since then, I have grown, learned, and dedicated myself to values that promote unity, inclusivity, and respect for all people.' One of the pictures, taken during the 2001 ball, shows Griffin and roughly two-dozen other fraternity members clad in Confederate uniforms. Another photograph from the spring of 2000 shows Griffin and other Kappa Alpha brothers in front of a large Confederate flag. He served in 2002 as his chapter's president. Controversial fraternity Kappa Alpha has proven to be a lightning rod for controversy over the decades, often due to the racist or insensitive actions of some of its members. A number of politicians have been forced to apologize for having worn Confederate costumes at the fraternity's functions or for being photographed in front of a Confederate flag. Jesse Lyons, a spokesman for the fraternity's national office in Lexington, Virginia, said use of the rebel battle flag was prohibited in 2001 and displaying other Confederate symbols had been discouraged years before. The fraternity banned the wearing of the Confederate uniforms in 2010. It's unclear if the chapter at UNC banned the uniforms before the national organization did. 'We believe in cultural humility, we respect the best parts of our organization's history, and through education we challenge our members to work for a better future. These things are not mutually exclusive,' Lyons said. The fraternity claims Robert E. Lee as its 'spiritual founder' and long championed the Southern 'Lost Cause," a revisionist view of history that romanticizes the Confederacy and portrays the Civil War as a valiant struggle for 'states' rights' unrelated to the enslavement of Black people. In decades past, some Kappa Alpha chapters referred to themselves as a 'klan,' a term that many viewed as an unsubtle wink to the Ku Klux Klan. The photographs featuring Griffin were taken at a time when many other Kappa Alpha chapters were reevaluating their celebration of the Confederacy. During Griffin's time in the fraternity, some in his chapter questioned the appropriateness of dressing up in Confederate uniforms for the ball. Griffin opposed abandoning the tradition, according to a person familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal. The uniforms stayed. Griffin said he would 'not respond to unsubstantiated comments based on memories of 20-plus years past.' In high school Griffin also expressed an affinity for Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general who led southern forces during the Civil War. In a 1998 feature on high school 'scholars of the week' in the Raleigh News & Observer newspaper, Griffin said Lee was his No. 1 choice to include on an 'ideal guest list' for a party. Clinging to traditions The Kappa Alpha Order was founded in 1865, not long after Lee surrendered to the Union Army, at a Virginia college where Lee served as president. At least one of the first members was a former rebel soldier who had served under Lee, who is revered by the fraternity as the ideal of gentlemanly Southern chivalry. For more than a century, Kappa Alpha threw 'Old South' parties. They were formal affairs where the Confederate battle flag was flown and fraternity brothers dressed in replica Confederate gray uniforms and their dates wore antebellum-style hoop skirts. Sometimes they would ride through campus on horseback. Some Kappa Alpha chapters, particularly in the South, clung to their traditions, including the wearing of blackface, even as they drew protests and public sentiment shifted. A Kappa Alpha 'Old South' parade at Alabama's Auburn University in 1992 drew supporters waving Confederate battle flags, as well as counter protesters who burned them. In 1995, a group of Kappa Alpha members at the University of Memphis hurled racial slurs while beating a Black student who caused a disturbance outside a frat party, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported at the time. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was no exception to the turmoil. Under pressure from student group's, the school's Kappa Alpha chapter in 1985 canceled its annual 'Sharecropper's Ball," which some attended in blackface. Fraternity members said blackface was worn because the event needed both Black and white attendees, but promised to discontinue the practice, according to a news story in the Daily Tar Heel student newspaper. The Kappa Alpha chapter at North Carolina's Wake Forest University stopped allowing members to wear Confederate uniform and display the Confederate flag in 1987. But other chapters held on longer. The national headquarters finally forbade confederate uniforms in 2010 after a wave of public blowback after Kappa Alpha members at the University of Alabama wore them during a parade that paused in front of the home of a black sorority. Public officials face criticism over ties to fraternity Griffin is not the first public official to draw unwanted attention for their college-age embrace of symbols drawn from the darker chapters of the South's past. Virginia's then-governor, Democrat Ralph Northam, came under intense criticism in 2019 over a racist photo that appeared on his yearbook page of his medical school. The incident led reporters to scour the college histories of other Southern leaders, forcing a number of politicians to publicly address their time as Kappa Alpha brothers. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, then the state's Republican lieutenant governor, dodged questions in 2019 about photos showing him wearing a Confederate uniform while he was a Kappa Alpha member at Millsaps College in the early 1990s. While Reeves was enrolled there in October 1994, other members of the fraternity were disciplined for wearing afro wigs and Confederate battle flags and shouting racial slurs at black students, the AP reported at the time. Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster declined to comment after yearbooks listed him as the leader of the fraternity's chapter at the University of South Carolina in 1969, along with photos of members wearing Confederate uniforms and posing with a rebel flag. And Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, also a Republican, expressed regret for participating in 'Old South' parties as a student at Auburn University in the 1970s. —- Contact AP's global investigative team at Investigative@ or
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
North Carolina judge challenging outcome of race wore Confederate uniform in college photo
WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge challenging the outcome of his North Carolina Supreme Court race was photographed wearing Confederate military garb and posing before a Confederate battle flag when he was a member of a college fraternity that glorified the pre-Civil War South. The emergence of the photographs comes at a delicate time for Jefferson Griffin, a Republican appellate judge who is seeking a spot on North Carolina's highest court. Griffin, 44, is facing mounting criticism – including from some Republicans – as he seeks to invalidate over 60,000 votes cast in last November's election, a still undecided contest in which he is trailing the Democratic incumbent by over 700 votes. The photographs, which were obtained by The Associated Press, are from when Griffin was a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1999-2003 and a member of the Kappa Alpha Order, one of the oldest and largest fraternities in the U.S., with tens of thousands of alumni. Griffin said he regretted donning the Confederate uniform, which was customary during the fraternity's annual 'Old South' ball. 'I attended a college fraternity event that, in hindsight, was inappropriate and does not reflect the person I am today,' Griffin said in a statement. 'At that time, like many college students, I did not fully grasp such participation's broader historical and social implications. Since then, I have grown, learned, and dedicated myself to values that promote unity, inclusivity, and respect for all people.' One of the pictures, taken during the 2001 ball, shows Griffin and roughly two-dozen other fraternity members clad in Confederate uniforms. Another photograph from the spring of 2000 shows Griffin and other Kappa Alpha brothers in front of a large Confederate flag. He served in 2002 as his chapter's president. Controversial fraternity Kappa Alpha has proven to be a lightning rod for controversy over the decades, often due to the racist or insensitive actions of some of its members. A number of politicians have been forced to apologize for having worn Confederate costumes at the fraternity's functions or for being photographed in front of a Confederate flag. Jesse Lyons, a spokesman for the fraternity's national office in Lexington, Virginia, said use of the rebel battle flag was prohibited in 2001 and displaying other Confederate symbols had been discouraged years before. The fraternity banned the wearing of the Confederate uniforms in 2010. It's unclear if the chapter at UNC banned the uniforms before the national organization did. 'We believe in cultural humility, we respect the best parts of our organization's history, and through education we challenge our members to work for a better future. These things are not mutually exclusive,' Lyons said. The fraternity claims Robert E. Lee as its 'spiritual founder' and long championed the Southern 'Lost Cause," a revisionist view of history that romanticizes the Confederacy and portrays the Civil War as a valiant struggle for 'states' rights' unrelated to the enslavement of Black people. In decades past, some Kappa Alpha chapters referred to themselves as a 'klan,' a term that many viewed as an unsubtle wink to the Ku Klux Klan. The photographs featuring Griffin were taken at a time when many other Kappa Alpha chapters were reevaluating their celebration of the Confederacy. During Griffin's time in the fraternity, some in his chapter questioned the appropriateness of dressing up in Confederate uniforms for the ball. Griffin opposed abandoning the tradition, according to a person familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal. The uniforms stayed. Griffin said he would 'not respond to unsubstantiated comments based on memories of 20-plus years past.' In high school Griffin also expressed an affinity for Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general who led southern forces during the Civil War. In a 1998 feature on high school 'scholars of the week' in the Raleigh News & Observer newspaper, Griffin said Lee was his No. 1 choice to include on an 'ideal guest list' for a party. Clinging to traditions The Kappa Alpha Order was founded in 1865, not long after Lee surrendered to the Union Army, at a Virginia college where Lee served as president. At least one of the first members was a former rebel soldier who had served under Lee, who is revered by the fraternity as the ideal of gentlemanly Southern chivalry. For more than a century, Kappa Alpha threw 'Old South' parties. They were formal affairs where the Confederate battle flag was flown and fraternity brothers dressed in replica Confederate gray uniforms and their dates wore antebellum-style hoop skirts. Sometimes they would ride through campus on horseback. Some Kappa Alpha chapters, particularly in the South, clung to their traditions, including the wearing of blackface, even as they drew protests and public sentiment shifted. A Kappa Alpha 'Old South' parade at Alabama's Auburn University in 1992 drew supporters waving Confederate battle flags, as well as counter protesters who burned them. In 1995, a group of Kappa Alpha members at the University of Memphis hurled racial slurs while beating a Black student who caused a disturbance outside a frat party, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported at the time. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was no exception to the turmoil. Under pressure from student group's, the school's Kappa Alpha chapter in 1985 canceled its annual 'Sharecropper's Ball," which some attended in blackface. Fraternity members said blackface was worn because the event needed both Black and white attendees, but promised to discontinue the practice, according to a news story in the Daily Tar Heel student newspaper. The Kappa Alpha chapter at North Carolina's Wake Forest University stopped allowing members to wear Confederate uniform and display the Confederate flag in 1987. But other chapters held on longer. The national headquarters finally forbade confederate uniforms in 2010 after a wave of public blowback after Kappa Alpha members at the University of Alabama wore them during a parade that paused in front of the home of a black sorority. Public officials face criticism over ties to fraternity Griffin is not the first public official to draw unwanted attention for their college-age embrace of symbols drawn from the darker chapters of the South's past. Virginia's then-governor, Democrat Ralph Northam, came under intense criticism in 2019 over a racist photo that appeared on his yearbook page of his medical school. The incident led reporters to scour the college histories of other Southern leaders, forcing a number of politicians to publicly address their time as Kappa Alpha brothers. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, then the state's Republican lieutenant governor, dodged questions in 2019 about photos showing him wearing a Confederate uniform while he was a Kappa Alpha member at Millsaps College in the early 1990s. While Reeves was enrolled there in October 1994, other members of the fraternity were disciplined for wearing afro wigs and Confederate battle flags and shouting racial slurs at black students, the AP reported at the time. Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster declined to comment after yearbooks listed him as the leader of the fraternity's chapter at the University of South Carolina in 1969, along with photos of members wearing Confederate uniforms and posing with a rebel flag. And Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, also a Republican, expressed regret for participating in 'Old South' parties as a student at Auburn University in the 1970s. —- Contact AP's global investigative team at Investigative@ or
Associated Press
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
North Carolina judge challenging outcome of race wore Confederate uniform in college photo
By and MICHAEL BIESECKER WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge challenging the outcome of his North Carolina Supreme Court race was photographed wearing Confederate military garb and posing before a Confederate battle flag when he was a member of a college fraternity that glorified the pre-Civil War South. The emergence of the photographs comes at a delicate time for Jefferson Griffin, a Republican appellate judge who is seeking a spot on North Carolina's highest court. Griffin, 44, is facing mounting criticism – including from some Republicans – as he seeks to invalidate over 60,000 votes cast in last November's election, a still undecided contest in which he is trailing the Democratic incumbent by over 700 votes. The photographs, which were obtained by The Associated Press, are from when Griffin was a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1999-2003 and a member of the Kappa Alpha Order, one of the oldest and largest fraternities in the U.S., with tens of thousands of alumni. Griffin said he regretted donning the Confederate uniform, which was customary during the fraternity's annual 'Old South' ball. 'I attended a college fraternity event that, in hindsight, was inappropriate and does not reflect the person I am today,' Griffin said in a statement. 'At that time, like many college students, I did not fully grasp such participation's broader historical and social implications. Since then, I have grown, learned, and dedicated myself to values that promote unity, inclusivity, and respect for all people.' One of the pictures, taken during the 2001 ball, shows Griffin and roughly two-dozen other fraternity members clad in Confederate uniforms. Another photograph from the spring of 2000 shows Griffin and other Kappa Alpha brothers in front of a large Confederate flag. He served in 2002 as his chapter's president. Controversial fraternity Kappa Alpha has proven to be a lightning rod for controversy over the decades, often due to the racist or insensitive actions of some of its members. A number of politicians have been forced to apologize for having worn Confederate costumes at the fraternity's functions or for being photographed in front of a Confederate flag. Jesse Lyons, a spokesman for the fraternity's national office in Lexington, Virginia, said use of the rebel battle flag was prohibited in 2001 and displaying other Confederate symbols had been discouraged years before. The fraternity banned the wearing of the Confederate uniforms in 2010. It's unclear if the chapter at UNC banned the uniforms before the national organization did. 'We believe in cultural humility, we respect the best parts of our organization's history, and through education we challenge our members to work for a better future. These things are not mutually exclusive,' Lyons said. The fraternity claims Robert E. Lee as its 'spiritual founder' and long championed the Southern 'Lost Cause,' a revisionist view of history that romanticizes the Confederacy and portrays the Civil War as a valiant struggle for 'states' rights' unrelated to the enslavement of Black people. In decades past, some Kappa Alpha chapters referred to themselves as a 'klan,' a term that many viewed as an unsubtle wink to the Ku Klux Klan. The photographs featuring Griffin were taken at a time when many other Kappa Alpha chapters were reevaluating their celebration of the Confederacy. During Griffin's time in the fraternity, some in his chapter questioned the appropriateness of dressing up in Confederate uniforms for the ball. Griffin opposed abandoning the tradition, according to a person familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal. The uniforms stayed. Griffin said he would 'not respond to unsubstantiated comments based on memories of 20-plus years past.' In high school Griffin also expressed an affinity for Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general who led southern forces during the Civil War. In a 1998 feature on high school 'scholars of the week' in the Raleigh News & Observer newspaper, Griffin said Lee was his No. 1 choice to include on an 'ideal guest list' for a party. Clinging to traditions The Kappa Alpha Order was founded in 1865, not long after Lee surrendered to the Union Army, at a Virginia college where Lee served as president. At least one of the first members was a former rebel soldier who had served under Lee, who is revered by the fraternity as the ideal of gentlemanly Southern chivalry. For more than a century, Kappa Alpha threw 'Old South' parties. They were formal affairs where the Confederate battle flag was flown and fraternity brothers dressed in replica Confederate gray uniforms and their dates wore antebellum-style hoop skirts. Sometimes they would ride through campus on horseback. Some Kappa Alpha chapters, particularly in the South, clung to their traditions, including the wearing of blackface, even as they drew protests and public sentiment shifted. A Kappa Alpha 'Old South' parade at Alabama's Auburn University in 1992 drew supporters waving Confederate battle flags, as well as counter protesters who burned them. In 1995, a group of Kappa Alpha members at the University of Memphis hurled racial slurs while beating a Black student who caused a disturbance outside a frat party, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported at the time. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was no exception to the turmoil. Under pressure from student group's, the school's Kappa Alpha chapter in 1985 canceled its annual 'Sharecropper's Ball,' which some attended in blackface. Fraternity members said blackface was worn because the event needed both Black and white attendees, but promised to discontinue the practice, according to a news story in the Daily Tar Heel student newspaper. The Kappa Alpha chapter at North Carolina's Wake Forest University stopped allowing members to wear Confederate uniform and display the Confederate flag in 1987. But other chapters held on longer. The national headquarters finally forbade confederate uniforms in 2010 after a wave of public blowback after Kappa Alpha members at the University of Alabama wore them during a parade that paused in front of the home of a black sorority. Public officials face criticism over ties to fraternity Griffin is not the first public official to draw unwanted attention for their college-age embrace of symbols drawn from the darker chapters of the South's past. Virginia's then-governor, Democrat Ralph Northam, came under intense criticism in 2019 over a racist photo that appeared on his yearbook page of his medical school. The incident led reporters to scour the college histories of other Southern leaders, forcing a number of politicians to publicly address their time as Kappa Alpha brothers. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, then the state's Republican lieutenant governor, dodged questions in 2019 about photos showing him wearing a Confederate uniform while he was a Kappa Alpha member at Millsaps College in the early 1990s. While Reeves was enrolled there in October 1994, other members of the fraternity were disciplined for wearing afro wigs and Confederate battle flags and shouting racial slurs at black students, the AP reported at the time. Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster declined to comment after yearbooks listed him as the leader of the fraternity's chapter at the University of South Carolina in 1969, along with photos of members wearing Confederate uniforms and posing with a rebel flag.
