Liberal Preachers and their Left-wing Connections

by Al Benson Jr.

As is probably known to most in the Southern Heritage Movement by now, the Rev. Louis Coleman of the Justice Resource Center in Louisville, Kentucky was one of those who made a big fuss over Confederate symbols at Allen High School in Floyd County, Kentucky, way over in Appalachia, just a bit of a way from his native stomping ground in Louisville. You might wonder why.

Rev. Coleman was supposed to speak to a school board meetig in Floyd County during January of this year (2007). Coleman's talk was an attempt to get the school board to force Allen Central to do away with their school's Confederate symbols. It would have been nice if someone over in Floyd County had just told Rev. Coleman to go back to Louisville and mind his own business, as what they do in Floyd County is their business, not his.

Given Rev. Coleman's background and associations, though, it is not at all surprising that he would be in the forefront of the attempt to obliterate Confederate symbols when and wherever he ran across them. His associations with those on the far political Left bear this out. Just a small example, if you will allow.

Enter Anne Braden, who just passed away this past year. She and Rev. Louis Coleman have had some association with each other. There is, on the Internet, a photo of her and Rev. Coleman, with others, standing side by side at a "Myles Horton 100th Birthday Party in Louisville, Kentucky in July of 2005." Well, so what, you say--but please bear with me--it gets better. Myles Horton was one of the founders of the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee. He said of his school "Here in the mountains, should the economic situation become pressing enough, the people could be made to understand that the socialization of property would give them more personal freedom...Here was an opportunity to direct the American revolutionary tradition towards a cooperative society operated by and for the workers...Many strike songs are as class-conscious as the writings of Karl Marx..." In other words, Horton was using this "folk school" as a vehicle for the promotion of Communist propaganda.

In fact, the Joint Legislative Committee of Un-American Activities for the state of Louisiana has listed Highlander Folk School as a "Communist training school." So Rev. Coleman and Anne Braden were photographed together at this party for one of the founders of a Communist training school--which is not really surprising, for you see, Anne Braden and her husband, the late Carl Braden, were both identified in sworn testimony as Communists. For years the operated the Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF) which was a Communist front group. Doesn't Rev. Coleman keep interesting company? The picture of he and Anne Braden is part of an article on the Internet for the Highlander Research and Education Center, in an article dealing with Anne Braden. Check out http://www.highlandercenter.org/n-braden.asp and see for yourself.

Some among the gullible might say that this one association could be coincidental, and well it might be, except that this isn't the only one.

There is another outfit out there, operating among us "great unwashed", the Coalition for the People's Agenda. Interesting name! Folks from this group meet regularly at the Braden Center, 3208 W. Broadway in Louisville, Kentucky. Now who do you suppose the Braden Center has been named for? At any rate, this group has an entire litany of leftist programs going on. Anyone who has read Communist propaganda during the 1950s and 60s has already seen this type of stuff--it's not really new. It has just been repackaged a little so it will sell to the contemporary crowd (they hope). This organization has something going called "The People's Agenda" and guess who two of the authors and planners were for this project--Anne Braden and the Rev. Louis Coleman. Surprise surprise! Birds of a feather and all that!

It would seem that Rev. Coleman's political affiliations place him way, way over at the Left end of the political spetrum--not exactly in the mainstream of American thought. So why, pray tell, should patriotic Americans in Floyd County, Kentucky seek to rid themselves of their Confederate symbols for the sake of him and his Leftist pals?

The theological and political Left has always been in the forefront of the opposition against the Confederacy and her symbols and flags. It was so in the 1860s and it is no different today. Their Leftist propaganda needs to be exposed for what it is--divisive class hatred and an abiding hatred for anything Southern, Confederate, or Christian.