The white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend was a defining moment in Donald Trump’s presidency. But the event, held in protest of the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, was only a piece of the larger national debate over the legacy of the Civil War and the symbols associated with it.
From the 2015 shooting at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, which led to protests over the Confederate flag, to the more recent reckoning over secessionist monuments, The Atlantic has wrestled with how these symbols are perceived, and whether Americans should still preserve them.
Here are selections from past coverage of this ongoing debate.
The Long Life of the Civil War
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Ta-Nehisi Coates makes the case for reparations
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David Blight argues that the war is far from over
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David Graham on the persistence of Confederate monuments
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Garrett Epps on the Confederate ghosts of his youth, and how taking down monuments would help America confront its past
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Adam Serwer dismantles the myths surrounding General Robert E. Lee
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David Graham on a Confederate statue’s toppling in Durham, North Carolina
The History of the Confederate Flag
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Joshua Green on the controversy over the Southern Cross on Georgia’s state flag
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Kevin Levin argues that the days of the flag as a symbol of Southern pride are coming to an end
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Yoni Appelbaum on the flag’s midcentury revival
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Megan Garber on the phenomenon of the Confederate flag in pop culture
