Anthony Hervey was born in Water Valley, Mississippi in 1965. He grew up in Oxford, served in the military for a short period, then went on to the University of Mississippi, where he studied sociology and Afro Studies. He then traveled to London, England where he studied Race & Ethnicity at the University of London and served as an intern in Parliament. Hervey loved to debate and was often seen in London debating on economic, political and social issues, which drew large crowds.
In 2006, Hervey wrote a book titled “Why I Wave the Confederate Flag, Written by a Black Man.” He had been an outspoken supporter of Confederate symbols for many years, argued against the changing the Mississippi’s state flag, and often protested poverty at the base of the Confederate Soldiers Monument in Oxford.
On July 19, 2015, Hervey was heading home from a rally in support of a Confederate monument in Birmingham when another vehicle with four or five young black men began chasing him on the highway. The two parties exchanged some heated words through their car windows while driving. Allegedly, Hervey’s car swerved off the road and flipped several times, killing him. After the “accident,” many people were claiming that Anthony was not killed as a result of the wreck, but had been intentionally murdered.
There is good reason to conclude Hervey was murdered. Hervey was a nightmare for the politically correct, social justice warriors we are seeing in the media right now. He believed that America’s racial problems were not a result of the white race alone, but were instead caused by constructs within our society. White people, he argued, are being forced to feel guilty for events of the past, while black people are being forced to live in a kind of mental bondage. These factors, in Hervey’s opinion, keep us apart and are being perpetuated through things like affirmative action, lowering of college admission standards, and mass media that only serves to divide us.
In Anthony Hervey’s mind, standing up for Confederate symbols meant standing up for his heritage and home. He wanted to honor black Confederate soldiers and also dispel the myth that the “Civil War” was fought over slavery alone. Many people want to automatically dismiss the idea of black Confederates, but the reality is that the deniers are suffering from a clear case of cognitive dissonance. Simply put, cognitive dissonance is a condition that causes the mind to reject any information contrary to what one was raised to believe.
Historical revisionists capitalize on this condition by continuing to deny the truth even though there are photos, newspaper accounts, pension applications, letters, and speeches all indicating that black soldiers served the south. Currently in South Carolina, there is a bill being proposed to erect a statue for black Confederate soldiers and “historians” like Walter Edgar are still trying to deny the truth.
Hervey was not the first black man to be killed for associating with the Confederate flag. In 1969, Fred Hampton (chairman of the Black Panther Party’s Illinois chapter) was killed by the police in a gangland style assassination after nearly 100 rounds were fired into his apartment. Hampton had been working with white groups like the Young Patriots to fight poverty and racism around inner-city Chicago.
The Young Patriots were white, southern migrants from Appalachia that waved the Confederate flag to protest the crime and substandard living conditions in Chicago. Fred Hampton and the Young Patriots worked together to provide food and medical care for the impoverished.These groups blurred the color line in an attempt to show that the problems facing America go well beyond race and are more due to class distinctions. Both Anthony Hervey and Fred Hampton, it can be argued, were killed because they tried to bring black and white people together.
At this point, Americans need to re-evaluate the controversy surrounding Confederate symbols. Why is it okay for childish protestors to tear down historic monuments, fight police, and agitate people–but it’s not okay for a good ol’ boy to have a Confederate flag sticker?
The groups of people that want to remove southern history are also being selective in their moral outrage. Where was “Black Lives Matter” when Anthony Hervey was run off the road and killed in a fit of road rage? The sad truth is that his life did not matter to them because he shattered their flaccid narrative.
Hatred for Confederate symbols goes much deeper than racial issues. Up until the 1970s there were no protests or controversies over these symbols. Many of the monuments we see today were put up in the spirit of uniting the sections of the country and were celebrated by people north, south, black, and white–anyone doubting this can watch a free documentary on YouTube titled “Echoes of the Blue and Gray,” which documented the raising of many monuments.
This movement to remove symbols is very psychological in nature. It is a genocide of one culture, which will be used as a precedent to remove further history and delegitimize America. We are entering a nightmare world where, as George Orwell predicted in 1984: “every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered.”
If action is not taken soon, the memory of Anthony Hervey will be erased from history. His book is no longer available on Amazon or anywhere else online, I’m guessing because it features his face in front of a large Confederate battle flag. I contacted his publishing company and they say his book was discontinued. The media will not report his story. It is up to us to share it.
