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History See other History Articles Title: Black lawmakers question college loans named for Confederate general A college loan program created by the Alabama Legislature in 1955 to honor Confederate Lt. Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson is still handing out money -- much to the surprise of black legislators who consider it an outdated relic. State audits show the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Fund has awarded 53 interest-free college loans of $1,000 each since October 1989. The longest-serving black member of the Alabama Legislature said he didn't know about the fund. "I don't think we should be spending any funds on Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson Davis or any other Confederate leader. They fought to maintain the institution of slavery," state Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, told The Birmingham News. Supporters laud the fund as a way to educate students about Alabama's past. "Any time you can make students in this day and time aware of their heritage and how much they should be proud of being from the South and Southern, to me, you have accomplished something," said Connie Ansley of Huntsville, corresponding secretary of the United Daughters of the Confederacy's Alabama division. The Legislature passed a law in 1955 to create the fund to memorialize Jackson as a "great American and Confederate general." It set aside $20,000 to start the program, with the requirement that the original appropriation can't be spent. A three-member board uses the earnings from the investment to award loans to students who submit essays. State archivist Ed Bridges, state Superintendent of Education Joe Morton and Jack Ackerly, president of the Lee-Jackson Foundation in Charlottesville, Va., serve by law on the board. The state Department of Archives and History handles the operation and notifies school counselors about the loans being available. Just five students applied for the loans by the May 1 deadline this year, said Debbie Pendleton, an assistant director at archives. Archives officials raised the awards to $2,000 each this year. Bridges, when asked about the program, said, "We do what the law tells us to do." Ansley, a retired farmer and private school teacher, helped judge this year's essays, as did Murfee Gewin of Montgomery, a lobbyist for the Eagle Forum of Alabama and a member of Sons of Confederate Veterans. Gewin said Jackson was a trusted lieutenant of Lee. "I don't think there's anybody alive who wouldn't benefit from studying the life and character and career of those two men," Gewin said. Holmes said he wants the Legislature to abolish the memorial fund and use its money for general scholarships. A black legislator who heads the Senate's education budget committee said the timing of the fund's creation is significant. Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, said in 1955, when legislators decided to honor Jackson, many state politicians were trying to undermine a U.S. Supreme Court decision from 1954 that said public school segregation was unconstitutional. "This sounds like it ought to be a private fund rather than a state-operated fund," Sanders said. "It's set up to advance one narrow element of history."
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