Civil War Still Going On?

This year is the 150^th year anniversary of the start of the Civil War. There has been re-enactments of succession balls (Charleston, SC) and a series of planned events for the next five years including the upcoming anniversary of the inauguration of Jefferson Davis as President of the Confederacy. The reason why this is so controversial is because part of the celebration will include a parade to the state capitol along Davis’ 1861 route. This match will start near the spot where Rosa parks boarded the bus where she famously refused to loose her seat to a white man, it will go up the avenue where Martin Luther King and his followers completed the Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights March in 1965, it will pas the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church (the congregation that King served as a pastor) which was firebombed in 1965 while King’s wife and daughter was inside, and it will come within two blocks of the old greyhound station where Freedom Riders trying to desegregate interstate bus travel were beaten by a white mob in 1961. Just think, among those very streets that mark the brutality was inflicted onto blacks fighting for their civil rights is going to be a proud march of the commemoration of Jefferson Davis and the Confederate States of America - an institution that supported slavery as a positive good. This historical irony is almost uncanny. It was argued by the NAACP that these reenactments are comparable to “celebrating the Holocaust” while the Sons of Confederate Veterans feels that it is honoring those who fought in the “War for Southern Independence” (A.K.A. the civil war) and that “It’s not about slavery. It is about remembering our history.”

I am most certainly an advocate for remembering our history, but part of southern history IS slavery - therefore is something that must be addressed in these re-enactments as well. It is hard for me to believe that some people can be so blind to the mistakes of history. To truly understand history and work to change it, you have to understand the negatives, or the times where we as a nation fell short. I feel that these re-enactments (if done the rights way) could be turned around as an educational and productive idea. However, if it is only used a tool to promote, celebrate, and spread a false history that did not happen, it can only hurt us.

I got all this information this week’s USA Today. Pick one up if you want to read more about it.

Meredith Cotter, Post #5