Lee birthday bill dead after 2nd no, Bell says

The second debate over Robert E. Lee's Birthday celebration, much like the second battle of Bull Run, proved a decisive victory for the long-dead Confederate general.

On Wednesday, a divided House committee again rejected legislation by Rep. Nate Bell, R-Mena, that would end the joint birthday celebration of Lee and civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. on the third Monday in January.

House Bill 1113, which would also create a Southern Heritage Day on Nov. 30 honoring Lee and Arkansas Confederate Gen. Patrick Cleburne, was rejected the first time on Jan. 28 after an hour of heated testimony.

The House State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee rejected the measure again by a 10-7 vote.

Afterward, Bell said he had no plans to push his legislation again, though he said he would support House Bill 1119 sponsored by Rep. Fred Love, D-Little Rock, which also seeks to strike Lee's name from the holiday.

"This obviously was not what I had hoped to have happen ... this bill is definitely dead," Bell said. "I don't intend to keep beating a dead horse. The committee has spoken pretty emphatically."

Both Bell and Love filed their bills Jan. 21, after the most recent Martin Luther King Jr./Robert E. Lee holiday; several online sources had mocked Arkansas for honoring a white, Confederate warrior and a black Nobel Peace Prize winner on the same day.

The first draft of Bell's bill simply eliminated Lee's name from the holiday. A subsequent draft added the heritage day. Bell's legislation also would eliminate the state's honoring of Jefferson Davis, the first and last president of the Confederate States of America.

Since then, Bell said, he has been on the receiving end of much criticism from "nationalists" and "Civil War re-enactors ... historians."

Some of the criticism, Bell said, contained veiled threats. At the onset of Wednesday's committee meeting, he played a voice mail from one.

"This is a cowardly, traitorous move," the voice mail said. "There will be consequences. We will expose you for the traitor you are."

Bell, whose daughter attended a university bearing Lee's name, said HB1113 was about preventing extremists from using the dual celebration to further regressive agendas.

"Despite those great advances that have happened in our society, racial division exists in Arkansas. There are people who make money and who gain power by inciting and encouraging racial division," Bell said. "Those people who profit from racial division seek out opportunities to incite division along those lines. There are people in this room this day who engage in those activities."

Bell also argued that if Arkansas wants to flourish and attract more economic development, it should leave Alabama and Mississippi as the only states celebrating King and Lee on the same day.

Grant Tennille, the former executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, made similar arguments during Wednesday's meeting.

"I am not here to debate the merits of a Robert E. Lee holiday. I am only here to say that the world looks at the kind of environment that you create," Tennille said. "It's time for us to acknowledge that there are people on the planet who see the dual observance of this holiday as a tremendous slight."

Several legislators took umbrage with Tennille's argument, asking him to quantify how many businesses didn't invest in Arkansas specifically because of the Lee/King holiday.

Bell and Tennille said that was impossible to quantify.

"I'd say [the issue is] how many calls [from investors] haven't we got," Tennille said. "You should approve this bill because it sends the right message ... that says Arkansas is a place where all kinds of people and all kinds of business are welcome."

Bell distributed printouts of social media activity from people who he said had either spoken against the bill in a prior committee hearing or had associations with groups that opposed the legislation. Much of the content was racially derogatory, and much of its anger was aimed at President Barack Obama.

Rep. Trevor Drown, R-Dover, said he found the inclusion of the handouts by his Republican colleague offensive.

"This is a racial issue based on these documents," Drown said. "I will be voting no on this today and will [in the future]."

Throughout the debate, Rep. Richard Womack, R-Arkadelphia, tried to keep order and keep discussion limited only to the bill.

"Please carry on and make an extra effort to stay on the bill," Womack told one speaker. "Not another history lesson."

Robert Edwards, the commander of the Arkansas division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, decried Bell's attempt to move Lee's holiday to a different day as a prejudiced ploy and said he resented being painted as a bigot for celebrating Southern history and heritage.

"The bill is a racist bill and the wording ... is bigotry. Separate is not equal," Edwards said. "Folks, we're never going to drive out hate until we can find a point in time that we can celebrate the accomplishment of two great American heroes with different [skin] colors."

At one point, an opponent of the bill, John Crain, tried to echo Edwards' point that the dual celebration was an illustration of racial solidarity.

In doing so, he referred to blacks in the room as "my colored brothers."

The phrase didn't go over well.

"Having referenced people of my race as colored brothers is a relic of slavery," Rep. John Walker, D-Little Rock, said. "And I'm insulted."

Bell's last comment to the committee highlighted that both Lee and Cleburne were not proponents of slavery and that they would still be celebrated while commemorating historical figures such as Davis, who was a fierce advocate of the institution, would be ended.

"You heard comment from people who said they weren't racists then used racial slurs," Bell said. "You've heard a lot of things that just don't add up if you just sit down and think it through."

After the vote, Rep. Josh Miller, R-Heber Springs, said he voted against Bell's legislation, in part, because he thought the dual celebration showed "unity" in the state and that the only constituents he had heard from wanted him to vote against the bill.

"It felt like [Bell's bill] was more of an attempt to create an issue than solve one," Miller said. The warnings that the holiday could hinder economic development "don't hold water," he added.

Love said he would run his bill later this session and that he is willing to amend it if necessary to end the dual celebration.

"This is a high-profile issue. Some people received some pressure [from voters]," he said. "But I believe history will judge this issue. I'd rather be on the right side of history."

Asked whether he was worried that a second defeat of his measure would only worsen the negative perception some have of Arkansans, Bell shook his head.

"I certainly hope not," he said.

Metro on 02/12/2015