Your guide to the region's top events, mixed with some commentary about life, media, gossip and politics in Washington, DC.
|
A War to Remember—but How?
How Obama should remember the Confederacy as the 150th anniversary of the Civil War approaches
By
Cragg Hines
When Virginia governor Bob McDonnell initially failed to mention slavery as he reinstated the Old Dominion’s observance of Confederate History Month this year, President Obama joined the chorus of condemnation. “An unacceptable omission,” he said, declaring himself “a big history buff.”
The President may need all the historical understanding he can muster as the nation begins to mark the Civil War’s 150th anniversary next spring and our first African-American chief executive becomes a focus.
For Obama to take a leading role in commemorating the Civil War “is what Americans expect—it’s what the world expects,” says Frank Smith, founding director of DC’s African American Civil War Memorial & Museum. But as McDonnell’s misstep illustrated, politicians had best proceed carefully when dealing with a war that many historians see as the most divisive—and decisive—time in the nation’s development.
“It’s not only appropriate but necessary for the President to recognize it in a relatively forceful way,” says S. Waite Rawls III, president of the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond.
Obama already knows the sort of controversy that can flare up. Over the protest of academics, he has continued the tradition of sending a Memorial Day wreath to the Confederate Monument at Arlington Cemetery. His response to complaints was also to send one to the African American Civil War Memorial on DC’s U Street.
Obama’s lineage—black Kenyan father, white American mother—was explored extensively during the 2008 campaign. Though none of his direct ancestors were American slaves, Michelle Obama’s forebears were.
But little has been made of the significance—and ironies—of Obama’s being President when commemorations get under way next spring.
According to the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Obama is, on his mother’s side, a fifth cousin eight times removed of commanding general of the Confederacy Robert E. Lee. In his memoir Dreams From My Father, Obama hinted at a distant kinship to Confederate president Jefferson Davis. And he declared his descent from white slaveholders to be “no surprise” when his lineage flared briefly as a campaign issue in 2007. “That’s part of our tortured, tangled history,” he said.
African-Americans are expectant—Obama’s being President as the Civil War anniversary begins is, Smith says, “like putting a period to the end of a sentence.”
Confederate-heritage groups are wary. “Is the focus going to be nothing but slavery?” asks Charles McMichael of Shreveport, Louisiana, past commander-in-chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. “I don’t want anything that seems to be rubbing our face in it.”
But confronting glorification of the Confederacy is exactly what Obama should do, says researcher Edward H. Sebesta, a critic of neo-Confederate groups. “There needs to be some historical reality,” he says. Obama “could easily combat the persistent ‘lost cause’ ideology,” a view that the Confederacy was a noble endeavor that inevitably failed because of the Union’s military and economic advantages.
Historian Robert Cook says Obama should welcome the fact that “the South is a very different region from the one that seceded in 1861.” But he “should make it clear that a determination to protect racial slavery was the root cause of secession. Mid-19th-century secessionists were more honest and open about their motives than many of their modern apologists.”
The focus should be on the nation-changing effect of the war, says the Museum of the Confederacy’s Rawls: “If we’d had a Pledge of Allegiance to the flag before the war, it would have said ‘one nation divisible, with liberty and justice for some.’ Those are the fundamental two changes that came from the war: that it’s an indivisible union with liberty and justice for all.”
Obama will have many chances to mark Civil War milestones, including in the three formerly Confederate states he carried in 2008—Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida.
Rawls would like the President to visit Richmond, as President Lincoln did after the city fell in 1865. In the battered Confederate capital, a modern historian tells us, Lincoln saw “the most unforgettable scenes of this unforgettable war.” Subscribe to Washingtonian
Follow Washingtonian on Twitter More>> Capital Comment Blog | News & Politics | Party Photos This article first appeared in the November 2010 issue of The Washingtonian.
|
Comments
must check <a href=http://convert-dvd-to-ipod-touch.weebly.com/>convert dvd to ipod touch</a> suprisely at my estore
Posted by: creftwilda, Feb 05, 2012 03:34:32 AM
Outstanding post, I have marked your site so ideally I’ll see much more on this subject in the foreseeable future. Thanks for sharing such type of nice blogs.<a href="http://www.articlefield.com/565468/are-low-interest-rate-credit-cards-the-best-option-for-you/">fair credit credit cards</a>
Posted by: sandrajustin, Jan 20, 2012 07:33:50 AM
for , for special offer <a href=http://www.polykarbonbbs.com/member.php?u=15500>aabags.com</a> for promotion code
Posted by: cymntrang, Jan 20, 2012 01:19:15 AM
This is a great site for playing Pokemon games. If you love Pokemon, you’ll like this site, http://www.juegospokemon.es
Posted by: Pokemon, Dec 17, 2011 06:48:14 PM
I guess Golf Course is best place to go with a date.:)
http://www.thecenterfordatingandlove.com/ is wonderful source to find your date in a certain purpose.
Posted by: Women Seeks Men, Dec 13, 2011 01:33:52 AM
Found an awesome site for golfers travelling to Western Australia. Visit Perth Golf Courses.com.au for WA’s 4 best courses.
Posted by: Perth Golf Courses, Dec 01, 2011 08:06:17 AM
Seo needs an excellent search engine optimizer plan. Simply one of these methods can make a big distinction in your websites place and firm your web site brings you.
[url=http://girlsterva.webcindario.com/porno3/porno-devushek-v-narodnih-kostyumah.html]порно девушек в народных костюмах[/url] [url=http://girlbest.webcindario.com/porno9/molodenkie-shlyushki-porno-foto.html]молоденькие шлюшки порно фото[/url] [url=http://girlbest.webcindario.com/porno4/porno-yagaylovoy.html]порно ягайловой[/url] [url=http://girlsterva.webcindario.com/porno8/porno-super-popi-onlayn.html]порно супер попы онлайн[/url] [url=http://girlboss.webcindario.com/porno3/opisalas-so-vremya-seksa.html]описалась со время секса[/url]
http://girlbomba.webcindario.com/porno8/krasivoe-zhenskoe-seks-lenta.html http://girlcelka.webcindario.com/porno6/pornozvezda-rokko.html http://girlboss.webcindario.com/porno6/starik-otsos-porno.html http://girlmouth.webcindario.com/porno1/porno-polnenkih-devushek.html http://girlnice.webcindario.com/porno4/sazhanie-na-kol-porno.html
<a href="http://girlrest.webcindario.com/porno2/porno-prikoli-devushek.html">порно приколы девушек</a> <a href="http://girlnice.webcindario.com/porno1/smotret-porno-on-layn-zhest.html">смотреть порно он лайн жесть</a> <a href="http://girlvrot.webcindario.com/porno3/porno-s-kristinoy-ageleroy.html">порно с кристиной агелерой</a> <a href="http://girlback.webcindario.com/porno7/skachach-porno-vidio.html">скачачь порно видио</a> <a href="http://girlcelka.webcindario.com/porno4/porno-onlayn-polina.html">порно онлайн полина</a>
Posted by: smeabinuilima, Nov 07, 2011 01:08:01 PM
Definitely one of the challenges which individuals beginning a new on-line firm face is that of obtaining visitors to their internet site.
[url=http://girlmouth.webcindario.com/porno5/seks-gey-porno-smotret-onlayn.html]секс гей порно смотреть онлайн[/url] [url=http://girlsterva.webcindario.com/porno3/porno-na-zadnem-sidenii.html]порно на заднем сидении[/url] [url=http://girlsterva.webcindario.com/porno7/porno-uchenikov.html]порно учеников[/url] [url=http://girlmouth.webcindario.com/porno9/korporativnoe-porno.html]корпоративное порно[/url] [url=http://girlbest.webcindario.com/porno4/porno-foto-vremen-sssr.html]порно фото времен ссср[/url]
http://girlmouth.webcindario.com/porno9/seks-mezhdu-mamoy-i-sinom.html http://girlvrot.webcindario.com/porno7/mama-papa-doch-porno-onlayn.html http://girlvrot.webcindario.com/porno5/skachat-sovershenno-besplatno-porno.html http://girlboss.webcindario.com/porno1/porno-multik-pokemon-smotret-onlayn.html http://girlbest.webcindario.com/porno5/prikoli-domashnee-video-porno.html
<a href="http://girlcelka.webcindario.com/porno1/foto-gde-kristin-lauru-kroyk-trahayut.html">фото где кристин лауру кройк трахают</a> <a href="http://girlmouth.webcindario.com/porno8/porno-amerikanok-bez-registratsii.html">порно американок без регистрации</a> <a href="http://girlsterva.webcindario.com/porno9/lesbiyanki-lizhut-klitori.html">лесбиянки лижут клиторы</a> <a href="http://girlbest.webcindario.com/porno4/porno-siski-vidio.html">порно сиськи видио</a> <a href="http://girlbest.webcindario.com/porno4/posmotret-foto-porno-klitorov.html">посмотреть фото порно клиторов</a>
Posted by: smeabinuilima, Nov 07, 2011 10:10:27 AM
Hey – good weblog, simply trying around some blogs, seems a reasonably nice platform You Are using. I’m at present utilizing Drupal for just a few of my websites but looking to change considered one of them over to a platform very much the identical to yours as a trial run. Something particularly you’ll recommend about it?
[url=http://imyafriv.001webs.com/vozniknovenie-familii-yamashkina.html]возникновение фамилии ямашкина[/url]
http://familly.ws43.com/surename/proishozhdenie-familii-rasseykina.html
<a href="http://nameresni.hellospace.org/uznat-znachenie-familii-pinegina.html">узнать значение фамилии пинегина</a>
фывауаывмчсвыаы
dsafgdsfsdfgsdrvzxv
Posted by: smeabinuilima, Nov 02, 2011 04:26:49 AM
Just Cavalli Jeans
http://www.faters.com/jeans-just-cavalli-jeans-c-728_1071.html
Laguna Beach Jeans Man
http://www.faters.com/jeans-laguna-beach-jeans-c-728_237.html
Lee Jeans
http://www.faters.com/jeans-jeans-c-728_1137.html
Levis Jeans
http://www.faters.com/jeans-levis-jeans-c-728_1176.html
LV jeans
http://www.faters.com/jeans-jeans-c-728_440.html
Prada Jeans
http://www.faters.com/jeans-prada-jeans-c-728_497.html
Red Monkey Jeans
http://www.faters.com/jeans-monkey-jeans-c-728_1221.html
RMC jeans
http://www.faters.com/jeans-jeans-c-728_256.html
Robins Jeans
http://www.faters.com/jeans-robins-jeans-c-728_1166.html
Rock Jeans
http://www.faters.com/jeans-rock-jeans-c-728_238.html
True Religion Jean
http://www.faters.com/jeans-true-religion-jean-c-728_239.html
Versace Jeans
http://www.faters.com/jeans-versace-jeans-c-728_241.html
Man Jeans Short,Pants
http://www.faters.com/jeans-shortpants-c-730.html
Red Monkey Short Jeans
http://www.faters.com/jeans-shortpants-monkey-short-jeans-c-730_1222.html
True Religion Jeans
http://www.faters.com/jeans-shortpants-true-religion-jeans-c-730_1138.html
Posted by: sdfcxvsd, Apr 07, 2011 10:47:44 PM
http://www.p90x-bodybuilding.com
http://www.monster-beatss.com
http://www.mbt-scarpe.net/
welcome our store,we have the best service and good price,you can find what you want in our online store.
<a href="http://www.monster-beatss.com/sennheiser-c-2.html">Sennheiser </a>
<a href="http://www.monster-beatss.com/bose-headpones-c-3.html">Bose Headpones</a>
<a href="http://www.monster-beatss.com/lady-gaga-headphones-c-4.html">Lady Gaga Headphones</a>
<a href="http://www.mbt-scarpe.net/mbt-baridi-shoes-c-2.html">MBT Baridi Shoes</a><a href="http://www.mbt-scarpe.net/mbt-baridi-shoes-mbt-baridi-womens-c-2_28.html">MBT Baridi Womens</a>
<a href="http://www.mbt-scarpe.net/mbt-bomoa-shoes-c-3.html">MBT Bomoa Shoes</a>
<a href="http://www.mbt-scarpe.net/mbt-bomoa-shoes-mbt-bomoa-womens-c-3_29.html">MBT Bomoa Womens</a><a href="http://www.mbt-scarpe.net/mbt-changa-shoes-c-4.html">MBT Changa Shoes</a>
<a href="http://www.mbt-scarpe.net/mbt-changa-shoes-mbt-changa-womens-c-4_30.html">MBT Changa Womens</a><a href="http://www.mbt-scarpe.net/mbt-chapa-shoes-c-5.html">MBT Chapa Shoes</a>
<a href="http://www.mbt-scarpe.net/mbt-chapa-shoes-mbt-chapa-mens-c-5_31.html">MBT Chapa Mens</a>
Posted by: cheap monster-beatss, Mar 18, 2011 10:30:17 PM
As an African American I would be interested in what the Sons of Confederate Veterans now believe they can do to heal the racial breach that is inherent in the former Confederacy, and that those who most venerate the Confederacy seem to be reluctant to overcome.
Posted by: Matthew Holden, Jr., Nov 11, 2010 06:09:49 PM
|
Post a comment
Feel free to leave a comment or ask a question. Because of the prevalence of spam, we ask that you fill out the code in the image below to help us eliminate spam comments. By posting here, you affirm that you are 13 years of age or older. Washingtonian.com reserves the right to remove or edit content once posted.
|
|
|
