Undisclosed Locations

So much for the "undisclosed location" to which King Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain were whisked after landing in last night's rain storm. By noon yesterday only 4,200 residents of Pensacola Beach knew the royal couple was to be housed for what remained of the night at the Pensacola Beach Hilton. Today's News Journal was the last to spill the beans.

The visit has been correctly termed a "whirlwind" lasting only 17 hours. King Carlos is no fool. He knows what happened to the first Spanish big shot to stay around too long.

Speaking of undisclosed locations, where's Reginald Dogan? Holed up with all of his homeys like Queen Latifah and Lebron James?

We hope he's found the time to read how King Carlos out-maneuvered the fascist murderer, Franco, and restored parliamentary democracy to Spain. Or, how the King put down a pro-fascist attempted coup [pdf] in 1981.

If he's really pressed for time, Reginald might try reading his own employer's editorial page, where Georgia M. Smith's Viewpoint article yesterday pointed out, correctly:

Spain was the most liberal of all the European colonizers. It was in this Spanish-ruled city that many free blacks lived during the antebellum days. The antebellum Spanish years in Pensacola can be called the Ebony Golden Age.

Indeed, Ms. Smith is, if anything, too cautious. The admirably multicultural Spanish influence in Pensacola lasted well beyond the Civil War and Reconstruction. So deeply rooted was racial equality in Pensacola that it took as late as 1885, well into the dark days of the post-Reconstruction era, before a newly installed state legislature and racist governor, Edmund Perry, felt politically strong enough to suspend the entire Pensacola city council so as to replace it with hand-picked Ku Klux Klan members. See, Cantor Brown, Florida's Black Public Officials, 1867-1924 (University of Alabama Press 1998).

King "John Charles Alphonse Victor Mary of Bourbon and Bourbon-Two Sicilies" may have a snooty name and be a descendant of the Bourbons, but he's no ordinary royal rightist. He'd probably even get a kick out meeting Dogan the Homey -- if only the columnist could be lured out of his own undisclosed location.