The Truth About America: Florida

Impeached President of Seattle UDC #885, Heidi Christensen Speaks

Pictured below is my Ancestor, Pvt. John James Rooks, 15th Cavalry, Company B.

Born August 25,1838 in New Hanover County, North Carolina, Elder Poppy was a Wagoneer during 1861-1865 in the Marianna Dragoons of Chipley, Florida. He married Adelaide Potter, had many children, and lived until 1896. His body is buried in Chipley, Florida. We love him and know we best honor him when we obey God.

Heidi served in the UDC as Registrar, Patriotic Affairs Director, and President of its Seattle chapter. She also held the position of Monuments and Memorial Markers Chairwoman for UDC Headquarters in Richmond. She was awarded for Patriotic Affairs in Richmond, for organizing a campaign to send packages to active duty Troops. While some UDC members actively supported American Troops through care packages, others were outraged that these gifts reached all service members, rather than only those related to UDC members.

The losses the UDC’s Richmond headquarters suffered during 2020 rioting and looting has not yet given them impetus to make it right with the family of Mrs. Essie Mae Washington Williams, eldest child of Senator Strom Thurmond as told in her autobiography, Dear Senator. While we must respect another’s private property, we must first teach all history so that it will not repeat itself.

The UDC has long dictated whose heritage is honored and whose is erased. Heidi’s investigation into why the UDC denied full membership to Senator Strom Thurmond’s biracial daughter, Mrs. Essie Mae Washington Williams, resulted in her impeachment in 2009 during a trip to her hometown, Lakeland, Florida. The official UDC response—a Cease and Desist letter—made it clear: the organization was more interested in preserving an idealized, half history than reckoning with the truth. The UDC’s extraordinary work in preserving history and genealogy is laudable; opening the organization to all youth will be even better.

America’s obsession with the Civil War, particularly in the South, continues to fuel systemic violence and division. It is well to be proud of one’s Ancestors; it is better to be humble and kind. Second place prize is not a thing in warfare; our Ancestors are more sacred than ensigns. All wars, past and present, create healthcare crises borne by Veterans and their family caregivers. Until we confront this history honestly, the cycles of suffering and exclusion will persist.

The UDC’s elite grip on Southern heritage education must end. UDC’s elite does not represent the many daughters of the American Southland who labor for family Veterans, often with no pay. Exposing their stale contradictions and challenging their selective reverence for history is the only way forward.

A special thank you to Attorney Frank K. Wheaton, “The Kid from Compton” whose work remains invaluable.

Dedicated with gratitude to Dr. Ronald C. Foreman, University of Florida Director of African-American studies, PhD Mass Communications.

Thank you also to those who have interviewed or quoted Heidi. Buy their books, read them and share them:

The Secret Fight to Save Confederate Monuments, Glamour August 2018, Shaun Assael

How the Word is Passed by Dr. Clint Smith