Calvin E. Johnson Jr.

When ‘Gone with the Wind’ premiered in Atlanta

Hello America! The 1930s was an exciting time when everyone loved Super Star-Shirley Temple, Baseball Home Run Legend-Babe Ruth, Aviator Pioneer-Amelia Earhart and “Gone with the Wind” Author- Margaret Mitchell. The Great Depression was ending but Europe would enter World War II. The United States was only two years away from entering the war but the Christmas Season of 1939 was a jubilant time for America, especially in the Southland, when….

A Veterans Day Remembrance

What does Veterans Day, Friday, November 11, 2011, mean to you? To me it means…. Remembering American Patriots like Thomas Jefferson who said, “A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.”

Love Me Tender Premiered in New York

Did you know that Elvis Presley had Cherokee ancestry and November is American-Indian Month? Let me tell you about an exciting time before the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Dixie Cups, and Diana Ross and the Supremes came on the music scene with their wonderful music. In 1956, Americans loved President Dwight Eisenhower, Fats Domino sang “I found my thrill on Blueberry Hill”, Buddy Holly and the Crickets appeared at New York’s Paramount Theater and “Love Me Tender” starring Richard Egan, Debra Paget and introducing Elvis Presley premiered at the Paramount Theater that is located at 43rd Street and Broadway in New York’s Times Square Theater District.

141st Anniversary of Robert E. Lee’s death

Do Americans know more about Fidel Castro and Che Guevara then they do about George Washington and Robert E. Lee? I have been told that some college students wear Che Guevara and Mao Tse Tung tee shirts but are not allowed to wear American History shirts depicting Robert E. Lee, George Washington, the United States flag or Confederate Battle flag.

A Hispanic Month Tribute to Moses Ezekiel

September 15th -October 15th is Hispanic History Month and the Educational Committee of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a national-historical and educational organization, has included an informative Hispanic History Month fact sheet about those who served in the Confederate and Union Armies. "The death of Moses Ezekiel, the distinguished and greatly loved American sculptor, who lived in Rome for more than forty years, caused universal regret here"---1921, The New York Times Dispatch from Rome. Do your children know who Sir Moses J. Ezekiel was?

Football, Cheerleaders and the Band Played Dixie

Do you remember the crisp-cool autumn days of high school and college football when…. The Ole Miss Cheerleaders and school Mascot Colonel Reb lifted the spirit of fans who waved Confederate flags and cheered to the band playing Dixie? Today, however, Colonel Reb has been replaced and flag waving discouraged. Some call for sensitivity and understanding toward some people but apparently this respect does not apply toward Southern-Americans who love God and are proud of the old traditions of their native South land of which many books and movies are written.

When Rucker called the roll — A Soldier’s Story

The following should be included in American History studies in schools. Mrs. Daisy Anderson was the last widow of a Black Union soldier whose husband Private Robert Ball Anderson served in the 125th United States Colored Troops. She and Mrs. Alberta Martin, the last widow of a Confederate soldier, met in Gettysburg, Pa. in 1997. Both of these grand ladies have sadly passed over the river to rest in the shade of the trees. The Confederate flag, which continues to come under attack, was the proud banner of Black, White, Hispanic, Jewish and Native American sons and daughters of Dixie who stood nobly in defense of their homeland and way of life during the War Between the States. Once upon a time neither the Confederate nor the Union Veterans nor their blood stained battle flag needed any defense.

The Gettysburg Reunion of 1913

America will celebrate her 235th birthday on July 4th! Fifty years had passed since the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1st- 3rd, 1863, when the Veterans of Blue and Gray braved the summer heat to meet again in Gettysburg. America celebrates her 137th birthday, nearly a century ago, when….

June 4, 1914 Dedication of Arlington Monument

While they lived, few criticized the men of Union Blue and Confederate Gray. Let me tell you of the Arlington National Cemetery where this nation honored the men who fought for the Confederacy, the Union and those men and women who fought our nations' wars since the War Between the States. Did you know there are 245,000 service men and women, including their families, buried at Arlington?

Memorial Day farewell to Jefferson Davis

Monday May 30th is Memorial Day Jefferson Davis, born June 3, 1808, served the United States as a soldier, statesmen and Secretary of War. He was also the first and only President of the Confederacy. On Sunday, May 28, 1893, a few days before "Memorial Day" in New Orleans, a story began that overshadowed all other news events.

Confederate Memorial Day

Kennesaw, Ga-The original Constitution of the Confederate States of America will be on display tomorrow Tuesday, April 26, 2011, Confederate Memorial Day, in the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library {on the 3rd floor of the Main Library} at the University of Georgia, in Athens. See details Ideal Memorial Day for Atlanta Confederates. Thin lines of Gray-Clad soldiers of the sixties were met with enthusiastic applause all along the route of the parade.—April 27, 1909, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution.

Old Times not forgotten in Dixie

Tennessee Senator Edward Ward Carmack said in 1903, “These Confederate soldiers were our kinfolk and our heroes.” He also said, “The people of the South have the right to teach their children the true history of the War Between the States, the causes that led to it and the principles involved.”

America’s Great Locomotive Chase Story

Tuesday, April 12, 2011, marks the 149th anniversary of the "Great Locomotive Chase" that made "The General" famous. Jefferson Cain, an employee of the Western and Atlantic Railroad, was Engineer of The General. At 4:15 on the morning of April 12, 1862, Cain pushed the throttle of The General and drove the engine out of Atlanta,Georgia for Chattanooga, Tennessee as a cool spring rain fell on the city. During the spring of 1862, the peaceful town of Big Shanty (now Kennesaw) was paid not so peaceful a visit by Union spies led by James Andrews, who brought with him plans to disrupt Confederate supply lines. Andrews and his men boarded the train at Marietta, Georgia. They had spent the previous night at the Fletcher House now (Kennesaw House). Twenty boarded the train while two were left behind.

General Forrest License Plate in Mississippi

February 17th marks 60th Anniversary of “I’d Climb the Highest Mountain” premiere

When was the last time a movie made you laugh, cry or just feel good? In 1951, the “Golden-Age of Hollywood,” great family movies were at an all-time peak with such classics as: David and Bathsheba, the Day the Earth Stood Still and I’d Climb the Highest Mountain. Cleveland, Georgia is home of the Old Stovall Covered Bridge that bridges Chickamauga Creek. This 1890s structure appeared in the movie “I’d Climb the Highest Mountain.”

Black History Month’s Forgotten Story

The following true story should be part of Black History Month tributes in February. In 1989, a magazine article caught my eye which I had to read from beginning to end. This was not an ordinary story but about a black child, a Confederate President's First Lady and the Southern Presidential Family. The story was written by Gulfport, Mississippi freelance writer Mrs. Peggy Robbins and is entitled, "Jim Limber Davis." While Black History Month mostly focuses on black adults in history, this story is about a black child. This is a summary, in my own words, of Mrs. Robbin's splendid story.

Robert E. Lee: Remembering An American Legend

America has always loved her heroes like: Baseball Legend-Babe Ruth, Golf Great-Ben Hogan, Movie Actor-John Wayne and….. Wednesday, January 19, 2011, is the 204th birthday of General Robert E. Lee. Young people will get a school holiday in remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King whose birthday is January 15th. But, will anyone tell them that January 19th is also the birthday of Robert E. Lee? Booker T. Washington, America’s great Black-American Educator wrote in 1910,

“The first white people in America, certainly the first in the South to exhibit their interest in the reaching of the Negro and saving his soul through the medium of the Sunday-school were Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.”

71st Anniversary of Gone With The Wind

Two years before the United States entered World War II; there was jubilation throughout America , especially in the Southland, when…. Gone with the Wind premiered during the Christmas Season of 1939, just 74 years after the end of the “War Between the States” and Wednesday, December 15, 2010 marks the 71st anniversary of that classic movie which opens with:

“There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old South. Here in this pretty world, Gallantry took its last bow. Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and of Slave. Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered, a Civilization gone with the wind.”

Gone with the Wind won 8 Oscars for 1939, including Best Picture, and;

A Soldier’s Story of Christmas Past

Why do some merchants and media call it just a holiday? People stand in line at malls after Thanksgiving and rush through the doors to buy, buy and buy. Is this Christmas? Partly, but the true meaning of the Christmas Season is about the birth of Jesus Christ. Christmas is also about helping people.

Love Me Tender premiered in New York

Do you remember 1956? This was the year: Dwight Eisenhower was President, Fats Domino sang “I found my thrill on Blueberry Hill”, Buddy Holly and the Crickets appeared at New York’s Paramount Theater and “Love Me Tender” starring Richard Egan, Debra Paget and introducing Elvis Presley premiered at the Paramount Theater that is located at 43rd Street and Broadway in New York’s Time Square Theater District.