As a state senator in 2007, Hyde-Smith cosponsored a resolution that honored then-92-year-old Effie Lucille Nicholson Pharr, calling her “the last known living ‘Real Daughter’ of the Confederacy living in Mississippi.” Pharr’s father had been a Confederate soldier in Robert E. Lee’s army in the Civil War.
The resolution refers to the Civil War as “The War Between the States.” It says her father “fought to defend his homeland and contributed to the rebuilding of the country.” It says that with “great pride,” Mississippi lawmakers “join the Sons of Confederate Veterans” to honor Pharr.
The measure “rests on an odd combination of perpetuating both the Confederate legacy and the idea that this was not really in conflict with being a good citizen of the nation,” said Nina Silber, the president of the Society of Civil War Historians and a Boston University history professor.
“I also think it’s curious that this resolution — which ostensibly is about honoring the ‘daughter’ — really seems to be an excuse to glorify the Confederate cause,” Silber said.
The concurrent resolution was approved by Mississippi’s House and Senate. Hyde-Smith served as a state senator from 2000 to 2012. She was a Democrat before switching parties in 2010, citing her conservative beliefs. Hyde-Smith’s campaign did not respond Saturday to a request for comment on the resolution.
News of the 2007 measure comes amid increased scrutiny of Hyde-Smith’s past after a series of recordings surfaced that featured her making comments about attending a “public hanging” and suppressing the votes of students in the state.
Hyde-Smith campaign spokeswoman Melissa Scallan, when asked to comment on the report, attacked the “liberal media,” saying in a statement, “They have stooped to a new low, attacking her entire family and trying to destroy her personally instead of focusing on the clear differences on the issues between Cindy Hyde-Smith and her far-left opponent.”
Mississippi still displays the Confederate battle flag within its state flag. But more critical attention has been paid toward Confederate monuments, symbols and icons in recent years, particularly after the Charleston, South Carolina, church shooting and white supremacists’ march in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Hyde-Smith and Espy debated Tuesday night. But otherwise, Hyde-Smith’s campaign has kept her mostly out of public eye and away from the press — eschewing the usual event-after-event sprint to Election Day — as controversy over racially insensitive remarks she’d made earlier this month swirled.
“I also recognize that this comment was twisted and it was turned into a weapon to be used against me,” she said.
Source : Nbcnewyork