Black historian plans to join Confederate heritage group

RICHMOND, Va. -- When Nessa B. Johnson attended her first United Daughters of the Confederacy meeting in January, she said chapter members welcomed her like family even though she is black.

Born and raised in Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy, Johnson said she learned through genealogical research that she had two great-uncles who were white Confederate soldiers. She also believes some of her white ancestors arrived in Virginia in 1608, the year after the first English settlers landed at Jamestown.

"If they are my ancestors, I am part of what caused slavery," the 61-year-old author and black history activist said Tuesday. "What can I do about it now?"

Love all people

For one thing, she said, she can love all people regardless of race. "Once you love them, they aren't enemies anymore."

Johnson said she received an invitation to join the Stonewall Jackson chapter in Richmond around Christmas.

"For them to offer a gesture, they were reaching out a hand to me. Who was I to say, 'No thank you,"' she said.

The UDC, which is headquartered in Richmond, said it does not know if any of its members are black because race is not mentioned in membership records.

The UDC describes itself as a historical educational, patriotic and benevolent organization with about 22,000 members nationwide.

Any female at least 16 years old can join if she is a blood descendant of "men and women who served honorably in the Army, Navy or Civil Service of the Confederate States of America, or gave Material Aid to the Cause," according to the group's Web site.

President General Suzanne Silek did not immediately return a call.

Lynda Moreau, director of marketing and media relations for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said the Sons of Confederate Veterans has black members.

Salim Khalfani, state executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said he "can't fathom how anybody in good conscience of African history could join that organization."

Johnson is well known in Richmond as an author and producer of a television documentary in the 1970s called "Black History, It Ain't in the Textbook." She has also worked on projects such as the Richmond Slave Trail and was part of a group that held ceremonies last April to recall the city's surrender to Union forces in 1865.

Gasps and snickers

Last Sunday, Johnson said she heard gasps and snickers when she told the congregation at a black church that she was going to accept the UDC's invitation.

"I told them I didn't ask anybody black for their opinion, nor did I ask anybody white, but I went to my Scripture," Johnson said. "It talked of Jesus saying love your neighbors as yourself. And I had to realize that these people are my neighbors, and more than being neighbors, they are family."

The UDC received attention in January when the Virginia House of Delegates began to recite the Salute to the Virginia Flag to open its daily sessions. The 30-word salute was written by a UDC member in the 1940s.

Some black delegates found the salute offensive because of its connection to Virginia's segregationist past. The House narrowly defeated a proposal to drop the salute.