Confederacy

Arlington Cemetery Will Remove its Racist Confederate Monument, but Some Won't Let it Go

by Erin L. Thompson

The Arlington Confederate Memorial, according to a Defense Department review, mythologizes history so severely that no contextualizing signage could overcome its embodiment of the Lost Cause myths that justified Jim Crow. Some adherents of that myth are mad. 

Engaging Toxic Nostalgia on Confederate Memorial Day

by Richard Brown

"For those of us who have a visceral objection to Confederate Memorial Day—who are appalled at not only commemorating but celebrating an economic and social system that oppressed a race for over two centuries—how should we engage a worldview that doesn’t see the harm of such celebrations, or that embraces the mythology of the Lost Cause?"

A Painful Shared Bond: Their Ancestors were Enslaved by Robert E. Lee

Descendants of people enslaved by Robert E. Lee have met with his other descendants in an effort to expand dialogue about the public history presented at Arlington House, with the guidance of historian Susan Glisson. 

Honoring the Confederacy, Tennessee GOP Stands for Insurrection

by Daniel Feller

Amid the recent furor over the expulsion of two Black Democrats from the state House, Tennessee lawmakers made another shameful move: affirming acclaim for the Confederacy while disregarding the work of historians who have demonstrated that the CSA was founded to protect slavery and white supremacy. 

Can Rebellion Be Too Big To Fail? Reflections on Jefferson Davis and Trump

by Wallace Hettle

If Jefferson Davis's release on bail in 1867 and pardon before trial in 1868 seemed to signal his diminishment as a national figure, the rise of the Lost Cause mythology with Davis as its martyr showed it was a serious mistake to excuse insurrection. 

Bemoaning Alabama's King-Lee Holiday Misses a Bigger Point

by Kevin M. Levin

While white Alabama still embraces the "lost cause" mythology embodied by Robert E. Lee, outrage about the holiday he shares with Martin Luther King, Jr. shouldn't blind the public to the ongoing struggle to change the commemorative landscape—in Montgomery and nationwide. 

Why I Vandalized Ole Miss's Confederate Statue

Zach Borenstein explains why he painted "Spiritual Genocide" on the base of a campus Confederate memorial, and why he wishes he had talked with local activists first. 

When White Contractors Wouldn't Remove Confederate Statues, a Black One Did

Devon Henry didn't seek the job of removing a dozen Confederate memorials in Richmond, but local white-owned vendors refused the contracts. He has received death threats and wears a bulletproof vest at job sites. 

The Lost Cause is Alive and Well in Textbooks for JROTC Programs

Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps texts offer information on a wide variety of subjects, including military history, without the kind of oversight that mainstream textbooks receive. The result is a curriculum shot through with right-wing ideology and historical myth. 

Push Confederates Out of Gettysburg for Good

by Kevin M. Levin

Why are the forces that fought to preserve slavery, and who invaded the free state of Pennsylvania and kidnapped free Black Americans into slavery in 1863, allowed to march in Gettysburg's Remembrance Day parade? 

Why the States of the Confederacy are the Foundation of American Gun Culture

by Nick Buttrick

White Southerners' efforts to reclaim power after Reconstruction help explain how Americans think about guns: what they're used for, and whom they're used against. 

Michigan GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Claimed in 2020 Dems Plotted Overthrow of US in Retaliation for Losing Civil War

Tudor Dixon used a far-right streaming network to make this claim in 2020; she also has made unfounded claims about abortion and schools teaching socialist ideology. 

The Troubling History of Arlington Cemetery's Confederate Monument

by Samantha Baskind

The monument misrepresents the history of the Confederacy, and is itself a document of the way that white supremacy enabled a national "reconciliation" after the Civil War. 

A Missed Opportunity to Honor Black Troops in Base Renaming Process

Dwight Eisenhower was a visitor to Fort Gordon en route to golf outings at Augusta National. Critics wonder if Ike was the best choice for renaming the base. Military historian Ty Seidule defended the naming process as open and suggested complete consensus was not possible. 

Judge Laurence Silberman Dies—Do His Latter Years Make the Case for Judicial Reform?

A legal observer suggests the influential judge's reputation might have benefitted from judicial term limits, as his penchant for judicial restraint took a hard turn toward activism in decisions on gun control and public pronouncements about confederate monuments. 

Ty Seidule: Confederates Were Traitors

The naming of military facilties for Confederates was not a project of post-Civil War reconciliation; it was about valorizing and defending segregation in the 20th century, as with 

Sarah Churchwell on the Lies of "Gone With the Wind"

by Adam Hochshild

Does a 500 page book on the historical distortions of the novel and film seem like beating a dead horse? What if the horse is still alive and threatening to trample people? 

The Virginia History that Conservatives are Suppressing

by Kevin M. Levin

Conservatives appointed by Glenn Youngkin to the state Board of Education are ignoring the important history of the Readjusters—a biracial party that governed in the tumultuous era between the end of Reconstruction and the consolidation of Jim Crow. Students need to know about them. 

Youngkin's Neoconfederate Nominee to State Historical Board Resigns

Ann Hunter McLean resigned after facing controversy for her remarks about Confederate monuments and the causes of the Civil War. 

Youngkin's Appointee to VA Board of Historical Resources has Opinions about Robert E. Lee and Confederacy

Ann McLean called secession legally valid and compared the Union army to the Russian forces invading Ukraine, while lamenting that Confederate monuments would no longer "tell the true story of the American South to people 500 years from now."