Video of Mattie Clyburn Rice Memorial Service

Below is video coverage of the memorial service for Ms. Mattie Clyburn Rice and her father, Weary Clyburn, which took place this past weekend. The opening speaker references Clyburn as a soldier in the 12th South Carolina Infantry, which is patently false given the evidence. The next speaker uses Lincoln’s Second Inaugural to suggest that Weary and Frank Clyburn experienced the same war. They “drank from the same streams and felt the same heat and cold and they witnessed the same ugliness that is a part of war.” What is completely overlooked is that one experienced the war as a slave and the other as a free man. Teresea Roane, formerly an archivist with the Museum of the Confederacy and now with the UDC, suggests that thousands of black men served as soldiers in the Confederate army.

Not once is it mentioned that Weary Clyburn was enslaved to Captain Frank Clyburn. What we see in this video, with the exception of Roane, is one white person heritage group after another using this occasion to reinforce a collective lie. It was the defeat of the Confederate army that made Weary Clyburn and future generations of his family free. Anything else is a disservice to the memory of Ms. Rice and her father.

[Uploaded to YouTube on October 22, 2014]

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2 comments… add one
  • Spelunker Oct 23, 2014 @ 4:29

    “Weary Clyburn, who is accepted by many as a black Confederate soldier”
    Connie Chastain

    Someone correct me if I am wrong, but based on that statement, it sounds to me like Connie agrees with Kevin? Clyburn is “accepted by many”, isn’t that precisely the point you are trying to make? I’m sure there are some people who “accept” the sky to be red, doesn’t make it so.

    • Kevin Levin Oct 23, 2014 @ 4:31

      There is absolutely no reason to believe that CS has ever consulted the documentation associated with Weary Clyburn. I am sure she would disagree with your interpretation of her own words, but it doesn’t really matter what CS believes. Let’s move on.

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