WHY DO PEOPLE BELIEVE MYTHS ABOUT THE CONFEDERACY?

WHY DO PEOPLE BELIEVE MYTHS ABOUT THE CONFEDERACY?

Because our textbooks and monuments are wrong.

History is the polemics of the victor, William F. Buckley allegedly said. Not so in the United States, at least not regarding the Civil War. As soon as Confederates laid down their arms, some picked up their pens and began to distort what they had done, and why. Their resulting mythology went national a generation later and persists — which is why a presidential candidate can suggest that slavery was somehow pro-family, and the public believes that the war was mainly fought over states’ rights. The Confederates won with the pen (and the noose) what they could not win on the battlefield: the cause of white supremacy and the dominant understanding of what the war was all about… Teaching or implying that the Confederate states seceded for states’ rights is not accurate history. It is white, Confederate-apologist history… De-Confederatizing the United States won’t end white supremacy, but it will be a momentous step in that direction.  More

 

Pentagon: No Plans to Rename Bases Honoring Confederate Generals

The U.S. Defense Department has no immediate plans to change the names of military bases honoring Confederate generals -- including some Ku Klux Klan supporters -- in response to the South Carolina church massacre, Pentagon officials said Wednesday… There was no immediate list available of military facilities with place names or other symbols honoring the South's role in the Civil War, but at least 10 Army bases are named for Confederate leaders, including Robert E. Lee, revered in the South as leader of the Army of Northern Virginia. Besides bases, there is the Lee Barracks at the U.S. Military Academy… In the military, the names of some of the Army's most well-known bases such as Fort Bragg, Fort Benning and Fort Hood have periodically been subjects of controversy but the naming policy itself dates back to War Department General Order No. 11 in 1832, according to information distributed by Army historians… In the period between the World Wars, the war secretary would often solicit recommendations for names from installation commanders, the Army said. "It was common for camps and forts to be named after local features or veterans with a regional connection," the service said. "In the southern states they were frequently named after Confederate soldiers."  More

 

If the Confederate flag is about heritage, its supporters know much about the war

Supporters of displaying the Confederate battle flag in public places like South Carolina's state house often argue that it's about "heritage, not hate." But as political scientists Spencer Piston and Logan Strother write for the Washington Post's Monkey Cage blog, there is actual data measuring how Confederate flag supporters and opponents each feel about the South and its history. And, frankly, it doesn't look good for the "heritage, not hate" argument… So, how about the hate side of the equation? More bad news for the "heritage, not hate" slogan. Confederate flag supporters were much more likely to oppose interracial dating, and to believe that African Americans aren't discriminated against for jobs, than opponents were.  More