Confederacy

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• SOURCE: FAIR
  1/15/2021
  

  Keri Leigh Merritt on the New Lost Cause

  Independent historian Keri Leigh Merritt talks with FAIR's CounterSpin about the problem with the media calling the January 6 Capitol riots "unprecedented." 

• 
• SOURCE: Slate
  1/14/2021
  

  Reconstruction Offers No Easy Answers for How to Handle the Trump Insurgency

  by Rebecca Onion

  It's tricky to draw any definitive lessons about how to deal with the Capitol insurgents from Reconstruction, particularly since many facile "lessons from history" make counterfactual assumptions. Historian Cynthia Nicoletti discusses the complex imperatives of justice, punishment, reconciliation, and national reunification that contributed to the course of Reconstruction.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  1/14/2021
  

  Five Myths about the Lost Cause

  by Karen L. Cox

  At this time, it's worth examining the particular tenets of the Confederate Lost Cause mythology because of how pervasive they remain and because they may be a template for narratives of resentment and betrayal that are developing now.

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  1/14/2021
  

  The Confederate Battle Flag, Which Rioters Flew Inside the US Capitol, Has Long Been a Symbol of White Insurrection

  by Jordan Brasher

  The Confederate battle flag has always been a symbol of white insurrection and reaction against perceived Black political power. Its presence among the banners flying during the Capitol rioting is no surprise. 

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• SOURCE: Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting
  1/12/2021
  

  Another Cold War: Documenting America's Cold Civil War

  A discussion of the ongoing impact of Lost Cause mythologies includes the work of new HNN blogger Ann Banks. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  11/12/2021
  

  Impeachment May Not Work. Here’s the Next Best Way to Dump Trump

  by Eric Foner

  The 14th Amendment empowers Congress to bar persons involved in insurrection against the United States from holding office. This can't remove Trump, but it can stop him (and anyone found to have plotted the Capitol rioting) from returning to office. 

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• SOURCE: Reckon South
  1/11/2021
  

  Capitol Riot: The 48 Hours that Echoed Generations of Southern Conflict

  Hours after Mississippi legislators took the final step of removing a Confederate emblem from their state banner, a violent white mob waved the Stars and Bars as it ransacked the U.S. Capitol. 

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• SOURCE: Reckon South
  1/12/2021
  

  Was the attack on Congress un-American? Yes and no, historians say

  Historians John Giggie and Manisha Sinha weigh in on how the Capitol riots do and don't reflect patterns of violence in American history. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  1/8/2021
  

  What Trump Shares With the ‘Lost Cause’ of the Confederacy

  by Karen L. Cox

  The Lost Cause mythology built around Donald Trump's claims to have won the 2020 election will outlive him and potentially fuel a dangerous reactionary political movement for years to come. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  1/9/2021
  

  Confederate Battle Flag an Unnerving Sight in Capitol

  Historians Mary Frances Berry and William Blair discuss the history of Confederate attacks on Washington and the jarring symbolism of the symbol being carried in the Capitol by rioters.

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• SOURCE: The Guardian
  1/9/2021
  

  Trump's MAGA Insurrectionists Were Perverse US Civil War Re-Enactors

  by Sidney Blumenthal

  "As William Faulkner famously wrote, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” But the warped history that the Trump mob thinks it is enacting, reenacting or conjuring is a costume drama of militant ignorance."

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• 1/10/2021
  

  Will VMI Move Further Toward Change and Away from Stonewall Jackson?

  by Wallace Hettle

  Removing the statue of Stonewall Jackson from campus is just one step that the Virginia Military Institute must take toward separating itself from the Lost Cause myth and serving all Virginians. 

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• SOURCE: CNN
  1/7/2021
  

  A Confederate Flag at the Capitol Summons America's Demons

  by Rhae Lynn Barnes and Keri Leigh Merritt

  The presence of Confederate iconography in the Capitol building riots is no coincidence; Trumpers are following the playbook of the slaveocracy in crafting a Lost Cause narrative of grievance and betrayal. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  12/29/2020
  

  Ted DeLaney, Conscience of a Roiled University, Dies at 77

  Ted DeLaney worked as a custodian at Washington and Lee before graduating at age 41,  returned as a professor, became the school's first Black department chair, and pushed the school to confront the moral and ethical implications of venerating Robert E. Lee. 

• 
• SOURCE: CNN
  12/23/2020
  

  New York Ban on Confederate Imagery is More than a Symbolic Gesture

  by Karen L. Cox

  Confederate symbols have been used by opponents of civil rights in New York; the governor's ban on displaying them on state property makes sense in light of this history.

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• SOURCE: Charleston Post and Courier
  12/20/2020
  

  Review: New Book Seeks To Differentiate Between Confederate History And Historical Memory

  "Adam Domby’s book provides a helpful guide through White Southern memory, a place where the Civil War never really ended."

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• SOURCE: Governor Ralph S. Northam
  12/21/2020
  

  Virginia Removes Confederate Statue from U.S. Capitol

  “Confederate images do not represent who we are in Virginia, that’s why we voted unanimously to remove this statue,” said Senator Louise Lucas.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  12/21/2020
  

  Gen. Robert E. Lee Statue Removed From U.S. Capitol

  Virginia will no longer be represented in the US Capitol's Statuary Hall by the military leader of the Confederacy. 

• 
• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  12/18/2020
  

  Why Just ‘Adding Context’ to Controversial Monuments May Not Change Minds

  by Erin Thompson

  Research shows that "adding context" to monuments with problematic subject matter does little to expand the understanding of history visitors take away from the scene.

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• SOURCE: Asheville Citizen-Times
  12/11/2020
  

  What Was the Dixie Highway, Anyway?

  Historian Tammy Ingram discusses the Dixie Highway, about which she wrote the book, as a rare project of early 20th-century highway building and tourism development that was completed.