Tennessee Govenor “regrets” wearing Confederate uniform

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Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee was 17 when he joined the Kappa Alpha fraternity at Auburn University, which every spring held an “Old South” party where he and other members dressed in Confederate uniforms.

The fraternity has since ended the tradition, and Lee, four decades removed from his undergraduate days at the Alabama university, says he regrets attending and wearing the uniform, and has come to see his participation in the event differently.

A spokeswoman for Lee confirmed on Thursday that Auburn’s 1980 yearbook includes a photo of the governor and another man in Confederate uniforms.

Lee, who was sworn in as governor in January, spoke to the AP briefly about how he has come to view his actions. He later said through a spokeswoman that he has never worn blackface or attended parties where others were doing so, nor has he taken part in other activities or organizations since college that would be considered racially insensitive or offensive.

Kappa Alpha’s annual “Old South” parade at Auburn ended in 1992, said university spokesman Preston Sparks. The fraternity’s national organization, meanwhile, prohibited the use of Confederate flags at any chapter in 2001 and the wearing of uniforms and parades in 2010, a spokesman told the AP.

In the 1980 yearbook photo, Lee is wearing a Confederate soldier uniform and is standing with a woman in an antebellum dress. Lee’s office said it did not immediately know the identity of the woman.

Another unidentified woman and man are also in the photo wearing the same kind of outfits.

Two other photos with different people in Confederate clothing are on the page, which has the caption, “The South shall rise again, right Bill! When the band plays ‘Dixie’, a tear comes to our eyes. I’d do anything Lee, but she comes first.”

The page also explains that Kappa Alpha was based on ideals that “constituted the frame and fabric of Southern Culture” and that its founding fathers saw in Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee “chivalry, valor, loyalty and reverence for womankind.”

Auburn’s yearbook from 1978, Lee’s freshman year, called the party sponsored by Lee’s Kappa Alpha fraternity “one of the biggest social events on campus.”

It described the festivities this way: “Preliminary parties last for a week and finally culminate on Saturday night. The sound of rebel yells and horses’ hooves can be heard as the KA’s parade down College Street – reminiscent of one of the South’s hardest, yet grandest times.”

The yearbook noted that Kappa Alpha also sponsored an event called Convivium, a celebration of Robert E. Lee’s birthday. The yearbook said he was “exemplary of the Southern gentleman” and represented attributes “that KA strives to uphold — to mold leaders not simply followers.”

Old South parties were a Kappa Alpha tradition on other campuses, including at the University of Georgia in 1983, when Georgia’s current governor, Republican Brian Kemp, was a student. Kemp was a member of a different fraternity, and there is nothing in his yearbooks to suggest he attended the parties.

Kemp did not respond to the AP survey.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey attended Auburn a decade earlier than Lee. Her sorority’s 1967 yearbook photo shows five members with black masks portraying “minstrels” in a rush skit, but Ivey said she is not in the photograph. Its caption reads, “Alpha Gam Minstrels welcome rushees aboard their showboat.”

The photo is on the same page as a description of the sorority and the accomplishments of its members. The page notes that Ivey was vice president of the student body.

Ivey, a Republican, said she did not recall the skit.

“When I was shown that picture, it had to be a rush skit or something at the sorority at some point in time, but no, I didn’t remember it,” she said. “I certainly wasn’t a part of it.”

Ivey said “there is no place” for blackface and that she had never worn it. When asked if she had ever made a remark perceived as racially insensitive, she replied that she hoped not.

I wonder how many of those frat boys even knew the history of their own state. Tennessee actually remained in the Union during the Civil War.

Offence archaeologists. I like that.

I wonder how many of those frat boys even knew the history of their own state. Tennessee actually remained in the Union during the Civil War.

Offence archaeologists. I like that.

Examining the digital past of a contemporary public figure in order to unearth any statements that might be offensive to the ruling class. These offenses are best presented devoid of context or intent, which maximizes the potential for self-righteous virtue signaling among the people who are pretending to be outraged.

That’s what liberalism is, now — the search for baddies doing bad things, like little offense archaeologists, digging deeper and deeper to find out who’s Good and who’s Bad.” That comment is from a May 2017 essay by the writer Freddie deBoer, whose coining of “offense archaeology” looks prescient.

I think that you are confusing Tennessee with its neighbor to the north, Kentucky. Kentucky was a slave state, but stayed in the Union. Tennessee was the last of the eleven states to secede but it did secede, and did finally join the Confederacy on June 8, 1861.

Firstly, Gov Lee has nothing to apologise for.

Yes, Tennessee was the last state to join the Confederacy and the first to be re-admitted to the Union. That is why the Emancipation Proclamation didn't apply to TN.

Because of the military occupation during the civil war, the TN constitution actually prohibits the state from declaring martial law. Art. I, Sec. 25.

Lots of people do things they shouldn't have and come to regret it. However not sure why this is news where people complaining about it...or the Governor just randomly brought up they regret it?

Also though I never viewed Frats as the sort of thing anyone should model their behavior after...never heard of anything good coming out of a frat party or frat houses being pleasant places. I think dressing up as a confederate while mixed up in that toxicity can certainly be forgiven....

At least he didn't get killed by being force fed hard liquor for a ritualistic frat pledge or something. I have read of that happening.

I think you're right. And to think, I have a degree in history!! !