Remembering the Old Days from Dixie

As a reporter who traced the history of the KKK in Indiana through its nasty days in Dixie, its racist fear-mongering in the border states when it threatened and actually carried out lynchings to non-believers, it's difficult to imagine how history still eludes the remaining Klanners who dared to raise their voices in Columbia, South Carolina, in an ugly manner to protest the removal of the Confederate flag.

Hasn't the election of an African-American president, the emergence of educated countless men and women of color, and the dramatic political change in the Southern states awakened all of these old racists to the past who want to hang on to the embarrassing reminder of the Stars and Bars? Well, I've got news for them, having traced some grim events from the ugliness of Selma, and having made the march on behalf of the Voting Rights Act from there to Montgomery with Dr. Martin Luther King. It's time to erase the memories of the past and instead welcome the dramatic changes throughout the glorious South that make us proud to show the remainder of the world that the United States today has a truly democratic society.