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Wiki Commons / The Atlantic Richmond’s Confederate Monuments Were Used to Sell a Segregated Neighborhood
Real-estate developers used the statues on Monument Avenue to draw white buyers to a neighborhood where houses could not be sold “to any person of African descent.”
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Gerry Broome / AP A University’s Betrayal of Historical Truth
The University of North Carolina agreed to pay the Sons of Confederate Veterans $2.5 million—a sum that rivals the endowment of its history department.
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Library of Congress The ‘Loyal Slave’ Photo That Explains the Northam Scandal
The governor’s yearbook picture, like many images before it, reinforces the belief that blacks are content in their oppression.
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Mark Wilson / Getty Images Why I Changed My Mind About Confederate Monuments
Empty pedestals can offer the same lessons about racism and war that the statues do.
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Jonathan Bachman / Reuters Robert E. Lee Topples From His Pedestal
The city of New Orleans is removing its soaring monument to the Confederate general, who for decades was held up as a model for the nation and a symbol of its reunion.
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Gerald Herbert / AP Confederate Monuments Will Come Down in New Orleans
The city council decides to remove four memorials that offered a distorted picture of the city’s past.
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The Ku Klux Klan Protests as Memphis Renames a City Park
Many white Southerns have cherished the memory of Nathan Bedford Forrest -- a Confederate general and founding Klansman. But a new controversy reveals how much Civil War remembrance has changed.
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Historians Need to Give Steven Spielberg a Break
Hollywood will never make a movie that satisfies professional scholars. But as a work of art, Lincoln offers plenty to admire.
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A Worthy Death: How Civil War Families Made Sense of Suffering
On the anniversary of Antietam, a new PBS documentary captures the grief of 19th century Americans but not their attitude toward redemption.
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America's Simple-Minded Obsession With the Confederate Flag
Journalists love to recycle old clichés about the rebel banner. But its days as an official symbol of Southern pride are rapidly coming to an end.
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How Should We Represent Black Civil War Soldiers?
A bizarre attack on a beloved Boston memorial raises questions about how we portray the conflict at its 150-year anniversary.
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A Jim Crow View of the Southern Plantation System
In 1950s America, pre-civil war plantations were depicted as scenes of peaceful coexistence between master and slaves.
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Were Slaves Really Loyal to the Union From the Start?
Southerners have falsely claimed that "Black Confederates" fought in the Civil War. But the North has a myth of its own.
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Why Doesn't Anyone Think It's Cool to Dress Up Like a Confederate Soldier Anymore?
The gray-haired enthusiasts who march through Richmond shouting "Kill Yankees!" are doing little to inspire a new generation.
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How the Men of 'Glory' Stood Up to the U.S. Government
The movie ended with a climactic battle scene. But the all-black regiment went on to fight unjust payment policies -- and won.
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What Black 'Confederates' Really Did During the War
Some portray them as devoted manservants who rescued the wounded and remained lifelong friends with their masters. The true picture is far less romantic.
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What the Civil War Can Teach Us About 9/11 Remembrance
Over time, our memory of national catastrophes becomes less personal and more nuanced.
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The Case Against Vandalizing Confederate Monuments
A history teacher argues that statues of Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee deserve to be left alone
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Not Your Grandfather's Civil War Commemoration
From multiracial battle reenactments to seminars on John Brown, sesquicentennial events are revealing just how much our understanding of history has changed in the past 50 years
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How Newt's New Novel Plays Politics With the Past
Eager to court black voters while retaining southern conservatives, Gingrich writes a notorious massacre out of his book
