Confederacy

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• 2/22/2023
  

  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. 

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• SOURCE: Substack
  1/18/2023
  

  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. 

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• SOURCE: Mississippi Free Press
  1/10/2023
  

  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. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  1/2/2023
  

  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. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  12/11/2022
  

  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. 

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• SOURCE: Substack
  11/20/2022
  

  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? 

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• SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
  11/6/2022
  

  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. 

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• SOURCE: CNN
  10/27/2022
  

  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. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  10/7/2022
  

  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. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  10/7/2022
  

  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. 

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• SOURCE: Above the Law
  10/3/2022
  

  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. 

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• SOURCE: The Guardian
  9/5/2022
  

  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 

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• SOURCE: New Statesman
  8/17/2022
  

  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? 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  8/25/2022
  

  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. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  8/3/2022
  

  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. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  7/15/2022
  

  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." 

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• SOURCE: NextCity
  5/23/2022
  

  Virginia's Governor Took Away the Most Important Piece of Protest Art in the Country. What Should He Have Done?

  Outgoing governor Ralph Northam removed the graffiti-covered pedestal of the former Robert E. Lee monument, which has become a site of community gathering and a public forum to express alternative visions of history. Cities should try to encourage such openness (if not spray-painting). 

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• SOURCE: CNN
  5/24/2022
  

  Congressional Commission Unveils Proposal to Rename Bases Honoring Confederates

  West Point historian Ty Seidule was vice-chair of the renaming commission, and sought community input for the proposal. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  5/23/2022
  

  Facing the Truth in the Land of Lee

  by Laura Brodie

  The controversy over removing Robert E. Lee's portrait from diplomas at Washington and Lee University points to an uncomfortable truth: Lee's historical depiction as handsome has been a visual symbol of the Lost Cause that has contributed to acceptance of the pro-Confederate mythology. 

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• SOURCE: Baptist News
  5/13/2022
  

  The Religion of the "Lost Cause" Is Back, and It May be Winning

  by Bill Leonard

  The weaponization of Southern Christianity around perceived threats to cultural integrity today adapts the playbook of the Lost Cause to the present.