Ga.’s Confederate Heritage Month — and a civil rights museum?
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
Imagine that. Somewhere in the legislative process, a piece of chest-thumping Dixieland legislation about the Civil War morphed into — a bill about Civil Rights?
Last week, Gov. Sonny Perdue signed a bill sponsored by state Sen. John Bulloch, R-Ochlochknee, that designates April as “Confederate Heritage and History Month” — a 30-day tribute to one of the country’s darkest periods and the first holiday of its kind in the country. I know, you’re shaking your head, saying “Oh, dear God, those mouth-breathing lawmakers are at it again.” Quite understandable if you just look at the name of the monthlong holiday.
But the actual language of the bill that ultimately passed might surprise you. And for all the negative publicity the bill had the potential to attract (and oddly enough didn’t), you wonder why lawmakers decided not to point out an olive branch — designating a Savannah museum as an “official Georgia historical civil rights museum” — that was inserted into the bill.
First, let’s take a look at the bill when it was first introduced:
