JAMES M. MCPHERSON VS. THE U.D.C. & THE S.C.V. On November 3, 1999, the noted WBTS historian and Princeton University professor, James McPherson appeared on a Pacifica Network radio broadcast. Also on the broadcast was Ed Sebesta, who the United Daughters of the Confederacy (U.D.C.) considers "a notorious hater of all things Confederate who operates a Web page that is especially slanderous of the U.D.C." On that broadcast, Professor McPherson said: "I think I agree a hundred percent with Ed Sebesta, though, about the motives or the hidden agenda -- not too deeply hidden, I think -- of such groups as the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of the Confederate Veterans. They are dedicated to celebrating the Confederacy and rather thinly veiled support for white supremacy." Source: The text version from the United Daughters of the Confederacy web site and the audio version from the Pacifica Network (Democracy Now) web site. To hear the audio version, go to: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/07/0412226 (George W. Bush and the Confederacy: Where Does He Stand?) and then click on the link: "Listen to Segment". In response to criticism regarding his remarks, Professor McPherson, in the February 18, 2000 issue of Harvard University's Chronicle of Higher Education, made the following remarks: "What I meant to say is that some of these people have a hidden agenda of white supremacy, [which] they might not even recognize they're involved in. Basically I was trying to defend these groups against what was a fairly relentless effort to get me to stop defending them, so this was my concession to the interviewer -- that sometimes they do have a hidden agenda." (Source: United Daughters of the Confederacy) It is apparent from these comments, by a noted history professor, why the South and its heritage are under such a barrage of politically correct attacks. I know of nothing that would support Professor McPherson's assertion that the U.D.C. and the S.C.V. support white supremacy. Robert F. Koch > Opinions > McPherson © Copyright 2000 thru 2008 by Robert F. Koch.