Being a man of character and

a good Confederate soldier, he joined the Confederate Veterans in Atlanta.

Amos had a special place at each veterans' meeting. From memory, he called

every member by name and qualified each person with the word "here"

or "dead."

Amos in his later years was

interviewed by a Yankee journalist who questioned him about being a slave

in his younger days and about the Rucker family who owned him. He responded,

"The Rucker family is my family. My grandchildren play with their

grandchildren. The Ruckers will give me anything I ask for."

Amos Rucker never missed a

Confederate veterans' meeting. Amos felt ill one meeting night and sent

his son to the meeting with these words, "Send my love to the boys."

Amos Rucker was buried in Atlanta's Southview Cemetery, the same cemetery

where members of the Martin Luther King family are buried. The Confederate

veterans bought two plots there, one for Amos and one later for his wife

Martha.

His funeral and his pallbearers

read like the Who's Who list in Atlanta. Funeral services were conducted

pallbearers were Gov. Allen D. Chandler, Gen. A. J. West, Judge William

Lowndes Calhoun Jr., [and] ex-Postmaster Amos Fox.

Amos Rucker's estate was administered

who became known for commuting the death sentence of Leo Frank. Slaton

and his Confederate veterans camp had helped Rucker buy a house in west

Atlanta. Now they helped to bury him and take care of his family.

Amos was buried in his gray

uniform wrapped in a Confederate flag. Just before the casket was lowered,

Capt. William Harrison read a poem entitled, "When Rucker Called

the Roll." There was not a dry eye in that place.

For those wishing to pay honor

to this Confederate soldier, to this Confederate veteran who survived

severe wounds at Appomattox, you will not find his headstone, his monument

or his Confederate marker because the politically correct removed them

from Southview Cemetery.

If the politically correct

and other anti-Southern bigots have their way, this Confederate African-American

will not have the 1956 Georgia flag to honor his memory.

I wish to honor Amos Rucker,

the African-American who volunteered for the South, who fought for the

Confederacy, who sustained wounds in the line of duty, who earned the

respect of his compatriots, whose story is now told during Black History

Month.

Harold Harrison Jr.

Confederate American

Peachtree City