The War is Still Going on

The War is Still Going On

“They say that war ended a long time ago. But around here it’s like it’s still going on.” Says David Westerman. The war is still going on in Kentucky and throughout the South because of the history of your family is the way you are viewed. Where your family worked, how they look and what they practiced reflects on you. In Guthrie Kentucky there were no public parks for kids to play at or pools to swim in; so local kids paid two dollars to swim at the motel. Two summers ago a problem occurred at the motel. Several black kids paid their two dollars to go swim in the pool. “It was like we sent an electrical charge through the water,” She said. As soon as the black kids jumped in, all the white kids got out. The whites demanded that Eskridge to tell the black kids to get out and leave. Her response was “kiss my grits,” She did not want to discriminate against the black or white people. She just wanted to be fair to everyone that was there.

Some former confederate soldiers also known as the Klu Klux Klan dressed up in camouflage clothes stood in main points around the square handing out propaganda flyers to recruit them. When propaganda started way back in 1622 with pope Gregory XV it has influenced many people in the past and still has changed their ways. The Ku Klux Klan handed around 750 propaganda flyers to join them but when they tried to convince people to join the KKK it did not work out well by only getting 10 people to join.

Michael and Hannah Westerman just wanted their first peaceful night since the birth of their twins five weeks before. Michael had planned to buy Hannah a nice dress before going out to dinner in Nashville, Tennessee, which is one hour south of Guthrie. They stopped to get gas at a convenience store called Janie’s Market on Guthrie’s main street. While the gas was pumping Michaels truck caught the eye of four black teenagers who were parked in their car not far away. The big red Chevy pickup was not hard to miss, especially when there was a big rebel flag flapping from a pole in the trucks bed. Michael just wanted to have the flag and rebel flag plate. Some people around the town interpret the confederate flag creates white racist. “Let’s go whip that dude,” he told his friends speeding to catch up with Micheals speedy Chevy. Because of the tinted windows the four black teenagers were not able to see that it was their former neighbor and classmate Michael Westeman was in the car. Freddie unjammed the gun and aimed, then shot a couple bullets. Hannah did not hear anything but just heard Michael moan, “Oh my God, they shot me.” Hannah grabbed the wheel and hurried to the emergency room back in Kentucky. But by the time they got there he was in shock. The black teenagers just assumed that since there was a confederate flag that they need to show them not to wave it around her. Instead they kill their innocent friend. It was during Martin Luther King weekend so they took it more in offence. The small wars are still happening between different races.

The war has ended but it still going on. After the civil war the KKK, the white league, and the red shirts keep the war on going. The carpetbaggers moved to the south during reconstruction era. They formed scalawags that supported reconstruction. The carpetbaggers tricked the African American people to fill out forms for jobs when they were actually getting all of their information about them. With that then the KKK would go to their house and burn crosses, and other things at their house.