State Rep. Praises KKK, Wants New Holiday To Honor Confederacy

lamontbdc wrote: »

Folks gotta hit the polls and get this lame outta office

The_Jackal wrote: »

The really funny thing is when people today say civil war wasn't over slavery but state rights (true in a very very narrow stance) and that the union was the aggressor when the CSA fired the first shots.

Yea whitey was cashing in down south with the invention of the cotton gin. They wasn't about losing that free slave labor. They were gonna fight for them slaves

Rep. Benton’s ? remarks draw criticism from Senate, House

While Rep. Tommy Benton‘s remarks about the Ku Klux ? have yet to draw any official rebuke, two legislators made public comments Monday directed at five-term Republican.

Last week, Benton, R-Jefferson, called attempts to bring down or alter Confederate memorials “cultural terrorism” and said the Ku Klux ? “made a lot of people straighten up.”

The ? “was not so much a racist thing but a vigilante thing to keep law and order,” he said. “I’m not saying what they did was right. It’s just the way things were.”

Benton also described legislation introduced by Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta,that would prohibit the state from formally recognizing Confederate heroes with state holidays as “no better than what ISIS is doing, destroying museums and monuments.”

McKoon called on Benton to apologize.

“The comments made are contemptible and wrong and deserve the strongest possible condemnation,” said Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus. “In 2016 one would hope we would not have to even have this discussion.”

McKoon referred to the ? as “the original domestic terrorist organization.”

“There is simply no excusing the murderous terroristic campaign they waged against Americans. I hope that the author of these comments will reconsider them and apologize for them,” he said. “It has been my experience that almost all of my colleagues do not feel same as that member.”

McKoon referred to Benton’s remarks about Fort as “grotesque and beyond the pale.”

“(Fort) should not be stripped of his humanity and demonized because a member disagrees with him,” he said. “Such rhetoric is beneath the dignity of this body.”

Over the in House, no one directly upbraided Benton for his comments. But when Rep. Dar’shun Kendrick, D-Lithonia, took to the well of the House to commemorate the beginning of Black History Month, she shaped her comments around the controversy, beginning with the 1911 mob lynching in Lawrenceville of Charlie Hale, a black man accused of assaulting a white woman.

“I wanted to remind everybody that our American history has not always been the best,” she said. Kendrick noted Hale had been lynched outside of the Gwinnett County Courthouse, which had been rebuilt following an 1871 fire set by ? members seeking to destroy evidence of bootlegging.

Kendrick said she tailored her remarks as an answer to Benton.

“Usually I just try to highlight all the good work and contributions to society that black Americans have made,” she said. “We don’t come from a flowery past and we have to recognize the misdeeds in this country and the role organizations and individuals played in that.”

Benton’s comments were originally made to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an interview about legislation he’s introduced that would require the state to formally recognize Confederate Memorial Day and Robert E. Lee’s birthday and seek an amendment to the state constitution further protecting Stone Mountain as a Confederate memorial.

Democratic and progressive groups have called on House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, to personally condemn Benton. On Monday, the Georgia chapter of the NAACP criticized Gov. Nathan Deal, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and Ralston for not issuing public statements.

Benton’s comments have been carried by publications around the nation. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

Rep. Benton withdraws legislation following ‘negative perception’

In a brief statement, Rep. Tommy Benton, R-Jefferson, said he has pulled his name from three pieces of controversial legislation after his comments about slavery, the Ku Klux ? and the Civil War drew national attention.

At the same time, Benton did not apologize or retract his statements and he will apparently retain his chairmanship of the House Committee on Human Relations and Aging.

“It was not my intention to create a situation whereby my comments would create a negative perception,” Benton said in a brief statement issued Monday afternoon. “Therefore, today I am withdrawing my sponsorship of HB 854, HB 855 and HR 1179 to allow the business of the House to move forward in an orderly manner.”

House Speaker David Ralston, who had been called upon to remove Benton’s chairmanship, issued a simultaneous statement rebuking Benton for his remarks but allowing the five-term Republican to retain his committee position.

“I condemn commentary that would seek to reverse the progress that we have made in the last century and a half,” Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, said. “While we are mindful of our history, the business of the General Assembly isn’t in rewriting or reinterpreting the past, but rather to focus on improving Georgia’s future.”

Benton introduced the bills last week. House Bill 855 would force the state to formally recognize Confederate Memorial Day and Robert E. Lee’s birthday as public holidays. House Resolution 1179 calls for a constitutional amendment protecting Stone Mountain as a Confederate memorial.

Both of those bills have co-sponsors, but a House staffer said those members intended to pull their names from the measures, effectively killing them. House Ethics Chairman Joe Wilkinson, R-Sandy Springs, asked his name to be removed from the last week following Benton’s remarks.

House Bill 854 would require street names changed since 1968 to revert back to their former names if their prior name had honored a veteran. Although the bill does not mention Martin Luther King, the civil right leader was assassinated in 1968 and the bill would rename a portion of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Atlanta Gordon Road, in honor of Confederate Gen. John B. Gordon, an early leader of the Georgia ? .

That bill has no co-sponsor, so Benton’s action is all that is needed to ? it.

In speaking to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week about the bills, Benton called attempts to bring down or alter Confederate memorials “cultural terrorism” and said the Ku Klux ? “made a lot of people straighten up.”

The ? “was not so much a racist thing but a vigilante thing to keep law and order,” he said. “I’m not saying what they did was right. It’s just the way things were.”