Bulletins

SCV CiC Ron G. Wilson's Confederate Southern American National Origin Affidavit

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA

RICHMOND DIVISION §

CIVIL ACTION NO. 3:03 CV 469 §

KEVIN LAMBERT CHAPLIN, JAMES §
PHILIP JONES, ROBERT COLEMAN §
LEWIS, MARVIN L. OLIVER, LYNN §
EUGENE RITENOUR, DAVID EUGENE§
ROWLETTE, STEPHEN JACKSON §
TURLEY §

Plaintiffs §

vs.

DU PONT ADVANCE FIBER SYSTEMS, §
DU PONT SPRUANCE, DU PONT §
TEXTILE & INTERIORS, INC. §

Defendant §

AFFIDAVIT OF RON G. WILSON

My name is Ron G. Wilson, of Easley, Anderson County, South Carolina, am over the age of eighteen years and am in all ways competent to give this affidavit. I am Commander-in Chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (“SCV”), a non-profit tax exempt, non-racial charity made up of over 32,000 men world wide with Confederate ancestry. The SCV was formed in 1896 by the Confederate Veterans themselves who saw the need for their sons to carry on the mantle of defending the Confederate soldier’s good name and the cause for which the Confederate soldier fought.

I consider myself to be a Confederate Southern American. The Confederate Battle flag is a venerated symbol of my ancestry. I am a Bible believing Christian (Presbyterian) who sees Christian symbolism in the Confederate Battle flag. One of my Confederate ancestors, James Christopher Wilson, my great Grandfather, served proudly in the Confederate Army as a private in Company D, 46th Tennessee Infantry Regiment. Another great great Uncle, A. C. Gardner, was a Captain in Company G of the 9th Tennessee Infantry Regiment

I have several other lineal (direct) and collateral ancestors who served the Confederacy during the War Between the States.

I myself served 8 years in the Tennessee National Guard (1967-1975) in the 230th Engineer Battalion.

I joined the Sons of Confederate Veterans in 1991. I was Commander of the Jefferson Davis Camp # 7 in Easley, South Carolina from 1994-1996, Chief of Staff for South Carolina Division, SCV from 1996-1998, Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia (A department of the SCV made up of Maryland, Virginia, North & South Carolina, West

Virginia and Pennsylvania) from 1996 to 1998, Lt. Commander-in-chief of the SCV from 1998-2000 and was elected Commander-in-Chief of the SCV at our recent Reunion in Memphis, TN in August 2002.

Being a Confederate Southern American in no way intrudes on my patriotism as a citizen of the United States. Based on family tradition and my own research, I believe that the Southern States had the constitutional right to secede from the Union. As such I believe that the Confederate States of America was a sovereign independent nation for four years. The Confederacy had a bicameral legislature, a judiciary, a postal system, a currency and an army and navy. After enduring a horrible modern war, the Confederate people endured military occupation and reconstruction before being “re-admitted” to the Union. I believe that the right of secession still exists in the Constitution today, but I am not in any way an advocate of modern secession.

As Commander-in-Chief of the SCV I cannot avoid the overwhelming conclusion that there is an all-out societal/cultural war being waged against all things Confederate. The Chief of Heritage Defense Committee of the SCV has reviewed and investigated 100’s of heritage violations since I first sat on the SCV’s General Executive Council in 1996. These violations have been increasing in number and involve events such as: employees fired for displaying the Confederate flag, students suspended for wearing Confederate flags on their t-shirts and attempts to prevent the SCV and other legitimate heritage groups from public display of the Confederate flag in public forums. Throughout the South, Confederate monuments are being attacked by local and county governments for removal, or new Confederate monuments are thwarted. If history has taught me anything it is this: when the culture is destroyed, the people are next. If the court permits this case to go forward, I am prepared to submit a report cataloguing this ongoing onslaught against Confederate symbols.

Most of my compatriots in the Sons of Confederate Veterans would agree with the facts and sentiments I have expressed here. If asked I believe these same compatriots would agree that they are Confederate Southern Americans.

Remember that most of our ancestors believed themselves Englishmen until Patriots like Samuel Adams, John Hancock and Richard Henry Lee convinced them that they were in fact Americans. No one today doubts that “American” is a legitimate nationality.

Over the last 50 years, a rapidly changing South has created a special, distinct and unique group that is a remnant people: Confederate Southern Americans. Confederate Southern Americans are predominately of Scots Irish or British descent, but include significant numbers of Native Americans, Hispanic, African Americans and descent from other parts of Europe.

Confederate Southern Americans share the regional accent of their fellow Southerners, but our cultural characteristics have significantly changed from that of the majority of Southerners.

A good example is the playing of Dixie. Almost eradicated from the public consciousness throughout the South, Dixie is still revered by Confederate Southern Americans. We stand when it is played and remove our hats. When Dixie is concluded we give a stirring “rebel yell.” I could go on and on. We have folk heroes, holidays and memorial days of our own, folk songs and dances and many of us (though not reenactors) venerate our Confederate ancestors by wearing reproductions of the Confederate uniform with our ladies wearing antebellum gowns.

I have read the Complaint filed by Richard Smith in the above styled case. I have also read a petition for Writ of Certiorari to the Supreme Court of the United States styled DON CURTIS TERRILL, Petitioner v. ELAINE L. CHAO, SECRETARY OF LABOR, UNITED STATES SEPARTMENT OF LABOR, RESPONDENT, Case No 01-1814 which is attached. Although I am not a lawyer, I believe that the petitioner in that case makes a very common sense argument that Confederate Americans (which I call Confederate Southern Americans) should receive the protections of federal law. In that regard this honorable court should allow the Plaintiff in the above styled case to put on evidence of the reality of Confederate Southern Americans.

Irrespective of this court’s determination, Confederate Southern Americans are a separate and distinct people. As a people Confederate Southern Americans are tired of being the “whipping boy” for the rest of the country’s racial problems. As a people we are tired of being told that diversity means that every group is allowed into the tent but us. We sense the injustice of practicing tolerance to others while tolerance is denied to us. We are keenly aware of the “warts” we bear as a people, but it is time our society noticed that every other people in this country also has “warts.” As a people suffering persecution and discrimination and as citizens of the United States, we are deserving of the protection of the law.

I request that that judicial recognition and legal protection be extended to Confederate Southern Americans as the surest way to protect the civil and constitutional rights of all Americans.

If the Plaintiff in the above styled case is allowed to present evidence of his national origin status, it would be my pleasure to assist the court in any way possible.

The foregoing is true to the best of my information and belief.

Sworn to under the penalties of perjury this __________day of _______________2003

__________________________________________

Ron G. Wilson