Today is a confederate holiday in Alabama, but not everyone is celebrating.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ birthday is a state holiday in Alabama. Heritage groups say the holiday keeps Southern history alive. But civil rights groups think it is a celebration of white supremacy.
Bernard Simelton is the president of the Alabama NAACP. He said the South has a unique relationship with its history.
“It’s a holiday that celebrates an attempt by those in American society to maintain slavery in the United States,” he said.
Jefferson’s birthday follows Confederate Memorial Day celebrated in April. Robert E. Lee’s birthday celebrated the same day as Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
“In Germany they don’t celebrate Hitler’s birthday, or ‘Hitler’s Day’ or anything like that," Simelton said. "Yet we still in the United States celebrate a person, a government that tried to overthrow the government of the United States.”