Has H.K. Edgerton Gone off the Deep End?

H.K. Edgerton is known for irrational outbursts, but never before has he managed to string together so many back-to-back. You decide.

According to Edgerton, a school official on Wednesday tried to get him to leave, but he refused. Ultimately, though, Edgerton said he could not stay in Florida through Monday’s deciding school board vote. Edgerton sent TPM a copy of an open letter he wrote, containing what he had hoped to say at Monday’s meeting.

The letter begins (perhaps sarcastically?) by arguing that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — because he “broke the sacred vows of a minister,” “consorted” with Communists, and “staged the so called bus debacle” with Rosa Parks — should not have streets or monuments named after him. The letter accuses “United States Colored troops and their White Yankee Officers” of committing “many heinous crimes against the Southern people.” And it defends Forrest as a “friend to the African people.”

“The Honorable General Nathan Bedford Forrest would be called a nigger lover, but never to his face, because of the oft spoken love and affection that he showed in his actions to the African people and especially to those men who rode with him during the war and who would attest to his courage, compassion, and the many lies spoken about him after the war to a man would deny,” Edgerton wrote. “Delight in this madness against a friend to the African people if you must, but heed my warning for very soon you will not be in the drivers seat as your time of sacrifice will come. And you will have to say goodbye to those you hold sacred as those of us who are loyal to the memory of those Southern men and women, be they freed or indentured, Red, Yellow, Black and White who made an honorable Stand against a man who would breach the contract that they forged together.”

First, what does Martin Luther King have to do with this issue? What exactly is he referring to as a “bus debacle”? There is something so disturbing about this that I don’t even know where to start. I am actually beginning to feel sorry for this man. Somebody close to H.K. needs to step in on his behalf.

I would love to read this letter in its entirety. Come to think of it…

Update: Click here for H.K.’s letter in its entirety.

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36 comments… add one
  • Mike Musick Jan 30, 2014 @ 13:42

    If there are ancestors of Confederate soldiers living all over America they must be very, very old. People need to know about these ancient souls so that they can tell their stories, which must be fascinating indeed. [I apologize – I just couldn’t resist].

    • Sasha Jan 30, 2014 @ 13:54

      Oops…That made me laugh Mike….typo. I intended to say people with confederate soldier ancestors.

      • Mike Musick Jan 30, 2014 @ 14:38

        Sasha: Thanks for your good-natured reaction to my comment. By the way, I’m old enough to have spoken with the sons and daughters of Confederate and Union soldiers (“Real Sons” and “Real Daughters,” as they’re called). One of these was the daughter of the remarkable John Gregory Bourke, who received the Medal of Honor in 1887 for “Gallantry in Action” at Stones River. She showed me an accomplished painting by Bourke, done as a student in his West Point drawing class after the war. She directed me to some tiny writing in the corner of the picture: “No more drawing.” She said Bourke hated to draw.

  • James Harrigan Jan 30, 2014 @ 10:20

    If you did your homework and researched anything I said you would see that it is all factual. … I did not make anything up. I researched it myself and it is all true.
    Sasha, just because you didn’t make anything up yourself, and found these wacky ideas somewhere, doesn’t mean they are true. Anybody with access to Google can find a source that says pretty much anything, but that isn’t what “research” means.

    • Sasha Jan 30, 2014 @ 11:31

      Your assumption that my research was “googled” is incorrect, however from what I have read on this blog, everyone who has commented Googled and posted erroneous information about HK and his mission. Your statement that HK is mentally ill is downright slanderous.

  • Nathan Towne Dec 19, 2013 @ 12:13

    I am not entirely sure what Mr. Edgerton’s problem is but very little of what he said here makes any sense. The whole first half of his letter has essentially nothing to do with Forrest or the name of the school and the second half deals with Forrest in only a few vitriolic sentences before going off on a long diatribe about other things that also have basically nothing to do with Forrest. It is more of an incoherent rant than anything else.

    With that said, as much as I hate agreeing with anything that Mr. Edgerton says, Forrest’s complex character and his morphing political philosophy in the postwar years, especially over the last decade of his life are often misunderstood or neglected. There is a lot of good history available on Forrest though, if Mr. Edgerton is interested.

    Nathan Towne

    • Southern Girl Jan 30, 2014 @ 6:59

      I know HK Personally and understand the message he is conveying. Southern Heritage!

      We have been brainwashed to believe what we were taught in the history books. We have learned to accept what the Media tells us as the truth because we are too lazy to do our own research to seek the truth. The Southern Battle flag was just that, it was a battle flag and the Battle Flag is honored by the Southern people (black and white) who believed in what they were fighting for, who understand that cause of the civil war was initially over taxes, not abolition of slavery. Removing long standing monuments and other relics of our past is ridiculous. History has already been made. You cannot erase what has already happened. The third KKK has done all the damage to the Confederate flag just as Hitler

      There are ancestors of Confederate Soldiers living all over America; their stories that have been handed down through history were of noble soldiers that were fighting for their land and their way of life, free of Northern taxation and regulations. Emancipation came as a way for the Union Army to gain Manpower and leverage. It was a war!!!!! The abolition of slavery began long before the civil war began and slavery did not totally end for years and years after the civil war ended. Lincoln is not the great emancipator, quite the contrary and the Union Army committed heinous crimes after the war as documented by burning and random killing of southern folk, both white and black.

      The history that I was taught told nothing about the how the Kings of African States bartered their own people with the Europeans for Material Goods and after years and years of this, when it was coming to a halt, the African Kings argued why is MUST continue. The Kings of Africa would bring the slaves to the Coast so they could be traded. The African Kings were leading the charge, all for material goods. It started with trading criminals as slaves for goods but then it became so lucrative and they began to rely on the material goods that the African Kings resorted to kidnapping people from other African states to trade as well as their own people to continue the trade. The history books did not tell me that it was the United States Flag that was hanging on the slave ships during the Atlantic Slave Trade, not the confederate flag.

      Yes slavery existed here in America; it existed in the North just as it did in the South. More importantly existed where it was started and it flourished in South America and Europe.

      Over 10 million Africans were taken from their homeland, traded (by their African homeland Ruler) to the Europeans for material goods yet we continue to focus on this small bit of American history.

      • Andy Hall Jan 30, 2014 @ 8:07

        Bless your heart, you can’t even bear to attach your own name to that foolishness.

        • Sasha - Southern Girl Jan 30, 2014 @ 9:35

          My name is irrelevant to the conversation but if it makes your feel better, my name is Sasha. If you did your homework and researched anything I said you would see that it is all factual. HK may sound like he is ranting at times but this is because his message is met with ignorance and narrow minded people. People such as yourself who only believe what you’ve been “told” or “taught”. Think outside of the box and research what I said. You will then see how American propaganda works. I did not make anything up. I researched it myself and it is all true.

          Hitler and the KKK did a disservice to the Swastica just as the KKK did to the Battle Flag. The Swastica symbol has been around for Centuries and its meaning is “IT IS GOOD” but when Hitler began using the symbol in the 1920 it became a symbol of monstrosity, thus now when anyone sees it they think of Hitler.

          • Andy Hall Jan 30, 2014 @ 10:15

            I do think names are relevant, because if people have something important to say, they should put themselves behind it. As for my allegedly only believing what I was “told” or “taught,” I’m happy for people to look at my work and make their own judgment about that.

  • Jerry McKenzie Dec 19, 2013 @ 11:47

    It’s too bad we don’t have the testimony of an escaped or auctioned slave on the tender mercies and benevalence of Nathan Beford Forrest!

  • John Russell Dec 18, 2013 @ 14:42

    Whoever this fool is, he has lost his mind. He also, apparently, has lost his grasp on reality. There is no proof on this planet, other than in the minds of idiots, that Nathan Bedford Forrest or the South ever had “Colored” troops. Black people did flock to his funeral. In the words of one old ex-slave, “We just wanted to make sure the Son of a Bitch was dead.:

    • Kevin Levin Dec 18, 2013 @ 14:56
    • Kirk. Murrell May 20, 2017 @ 3:22

      To whom it may concern…
      H. K. Edgerton is a christain gentelman,not a liar. His defence of General Nathan Bedford Forrest is correct. My great,great,great grandfather fought in the battle of Franklin
      Tennessee in General Forrest
      Cavalry. General. Forrest was a great fighting man who fought for our independence. God bless those confederate warriors,and God bless. H. K. Edgerton and every man,woman and child that stands for the truth of our history and the struggle for southern independence.
      God bless Dixie

      • Kevin Levin May 20, 2017 @ 3:25

        Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

      • Andy Hall May 20, 2017 @ 8:31

        “H. K. Edgerton is a christain gentelman,not a liar.”

        He solicits money for Southern Heritage 411 by claiming it’s a non-profit, and that donations to it are tax-deductible. Neither of those things is true. We should call that what it is.

        I read a phrase describing someone else the other day, that said he suffered from “disordered thinking.” In all sincerity, that’s about the most charitable and generous thing that might be said about H. K. Edgerton.

  • Roger E Watson Dec 18, 2013 @ 13:55

    I think it’s time for an intervention !!

  • Patrick Young Dec 18, 2013 @ 4:35

    The whole thing sounds like a mad rant. Perhaps there is some serious mental illness at work. The following sounded like a threat to me:

    “Delight in this madness against a friend to the African people if you must, but heed my warning for very soon you will not be in the drivers seat as your time of sacrifice will come. And you will have to say goodbye to those you hold sacred”

    • Kevin Levin Dec 18, 2013 @ 5:33

      I don’t think so. As you know, H.K. rarely has anything of substance to say. As you know, he relies on hysterics.

    • Andy Hall Dec 18, 2013 @ 7:39

      “The whole thing sounds like a mad rant.”

      Well, it reads like a word-for-word transcript of pretty much any YouTube video he’s ever made, if that’s what you mean. Lots of stream-of-consciousness gobbledygook in there. Grant “entered the White House with many slaves,” really? Okay.

      • Kevin Levin Dec 18, 2013 @ 7:45

        You are right. I guess I was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt.

    • dan weinfeld Dec 18, 2013 @ 10:47

      You might remember “Shock Corridor” – a Samuel Fuller movie from the early 60s about a reporter posing as a mental patient to get admitted to an asylum to investigate a murder. It’s kind of a proto -“All flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and streams on hulu. One mental patient in the movie, an African American turned white supremacist named Trent, will sound very familiar. BTW, another patient in the asylum, a damaged Korean war vet, thinks he’s J.E.B. Stuart.

  • Kevin Levin Dec 18, 2013 @ 2:03

    Here is H.K.’s letter in its entirety. Thanks to Andy Hall for passing it along.

    Dear Ms. Lunelle,

    Unfortunately time will not permit me to remain in Florida for the upcoming public hearing on Monday night, December 16, 2013 in Jacksonville . I am told by the Honorable Henry Russ that the decision to remove the name of the Honorable General Nathan Bedford Forrest from the School has already been made and that the Public Hearing is only a formality to adhere to public law to have it.

    Had I been able to attend, my three minute presentation would have read : Honorable members of the public and this board. Martin Luther King not only broke the sacred vows of a minister, but also those of marriage with his whims of adultery. Martin Luther King also consorted with many well known and carefully watched members of the Communist Party at a time when Russian Leaders conspired with Fidel Castro, and placed missiles targeted at the Great State of Florida, so said Ralph Abernathy in part, his second in command.

    It is also reported that King, the Southern Baptist Leadership Conference, and Rosa Parks conspired and staged the so called bus debacle, and never has there been found any trace of the White man who was suppose to be the culprit in this precedent that led to the Montgomery bus boycott. And that all the streets, monuments, schools in his name should be removed. Your future!

    The Honorable General Nathan Bedford Forrest would be called a nigger lover, but never to his face, because of the oft spoken love and affection that he showed in his actions to the African people and especially to those men who rode with him during the war and who would attest to his courage, compassion, and the many lies spoken about him after the war to a man would deny.

    All the men at the Congressional Klan trials tried to place him in infamy because of Ft. Pillow, all a lie ( not guilty these Yankees who meant to hang him found ). The Founder and author of the terror of the Ku Klux Klan. Scared they were that all their digging around would showcase to the American people the terror of their very own Union League made up of members of the United States Colored troops and their White Yankee Officers who had committed so many heinous crimes against the Southern people that would surely come to light if they continued on with their witch hunt against Forrest ( not guilty they would find Forrest ).

    Delight in this madness against a friend to the African people if you must, but heed my warning for very soon you will not be in the drivers seat as your time of sacrifice will come. And you will have to say goodbye to those you hold sacred as those of us who are loyal to the memory of those Southern men and women, be they freed or indentured, Red, Yellow, Black and White who made an honorable Stand against a man who would breach the contract that they forged together.

    And who illegally attacked our homeland, burning, looting, murdering,and raping as General Sherman, and General Grant carried the total warfare policy against defenseless old men , children and unspoken and depraved horrors against the Southern women. And never forget the other war criminal that you champion; Ulysses S. Grant who burned and torched the South like Sherman and entered the White House with many slaves, and when asked when was he going to free his slaves? Grant replied that good help was hard to find.

    Your coffers both fiscal and physical and of the future generations of your children will remain bare as you continue the reconstruction policy of of the enemies of your ancestors; pitting the the only true friend of them and arguably of you today that ever cared about your well being ( the Southern White ) against each other. Toss away the poverty pimps and carpetbaggers of today whose plan of Southern social and cultural genocide is only meant to enrich themselves. God bless you, and may you be forgiven for the sacrilege proposed here today against the memory of our hero, the Honorable General Nathan Bedford Forrest.
    May God bless you, and may he bless Dixie..

    Your brother,
    HK

    • Corey Meyer Dec 18, 2013 @ 9:47

      Reading H. K.’s disjointed rant: 5 minutes, Learning Grant took slaves with him into the White House: Priceless

  • Andy Hall Dec 17, 2013 @ 17:30

    At the linked article, the tall man standing next to Edgerton and holding the sign is Jim Shillinglaw, the SCV point man in the Olustee monument dispute. He was the one who compared Union troops to fanatical jihadis. I first encountered him a few years ago when he angrily insisted that Robert E. Lee never owned a slave during his entire lifetime. Good times.

    Here’s what he has to say about the school board’s decision:

    the communists of the NAACP, Jacksonville Progressive Coalition, & Duval County School Board have railroaded through the name change of Nathan B. Forrest High School. A school that was named for a great patriot that all Americans both Northern & Confederate should look up to will now be history. This type of thing proves that regardless of what truth there may be, the system is broken & listens only to the desires of the vocal well-funded minority. I’m disheartened & saddened by this loss but I will not give up fighting against the socialists & their communist & fascist agenda. I will continue to resist. I will not comply with their unconstitutional laws.

    I really don’t understand how the histrionics of folks like Edgerton and Shillinglaw are supposed to sway public opinion in their favor. I really do not.

    • Kevin Levin Dec 17, 2013 @ 17:35

      …all Americans both Northern & Confederate…

      Really? The presence of people like this makes it that much more difficult to make a reasonable opposing argument. The media loves it, but ultimately there is no payoff. Just entertainment.

      • Matt McKeon Dec 18, 2013 @ 7:45

        “…the media loves it.” Exactly.

    • Patrick Young Dec 17, 2013 @ 18:46

      I was wondering where the Communists had gone to.

    • Michael Lynch Dec 18, 2013 @ 7:52

      Those fascist commies are the worst commies around.

  • Larry Cebula Dec 17, 2013 @ 16:52

    You can’t just waltz into a Fox News show of your own, you have to audition. Edgerton is putting in the work. You know Roger Ailes has a whole drawer filled with Edgerton’s audition tapes.

  • Kevin Dally Dec 17, 2013 @ 16:25

    I don’t think H K ever left the “deep end”. Anyone who reads the stuff on his website would come to the same conclusion!

    • Kevin Levin Dec 17, 2013 @ 16:35

      It’s all pretty bad, but I still think you can trace his more recent comments. Perhaps it’s a reflection of the challenge of maintaining some sense of relevancy. He’s never had much of an impact on a public debate. I think most people just stare with amazement.

  • James Harrigan Dec 17, 2013 @ 16:17

    It has been obvious to me for a long time that H.K. is mentally ill. He’s a sad figure, endlessly exploited by white supremacists. He deserves our compassion, not scorn.

    • Kevin Levin Dec 17, 2013 @ 16:19

      I agree entirely.

    • Ann Feb 5, 2014 @ 17:18

      Many who disagreed with Jesus, or Gandhi, probably said the same as your comments above about their mental state.
      Unless you are a certified mental health professional, and have professionally evaluated him, one on one, it is not your place to judge others. It is judgmental, reckless, careless, and as a certified professional, deeply disturbing that you would pose as an authority. Impersonating, diagnosing as a doctor is a crime.

      • Kevin Levin Feb 5, 2014 @ 17:20

        Jesus, Gandhi, and H.K. Edgerton…yes, that is quite a trio.

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