Update: I suspect that this is not the kind of coverage that the SCV is looking for. “They started at a fountain where slaves were once sold, past the church that Martin Luther King Jr. led during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and ended at the Capitol steps, where Alabama’s old and modern history often collide. [...]
Southern History
Organizers of tomorrow’s “Heritage Rally” in Montgomery, Alabama are making every effort to accurately recreate Jefferson Davis’s swearing in ceremony. They have stipulated which flags can be carried as well as guidelines for proper period clothing. As in the case of the recent Secession Ball in Charleston, South Carolina, we are unlikely to hear anything [...]
Well, historian and Sons of Confederate Veterans member, Greg Clemmer thinks so. Clemmer is the author of Valor in Gray: The Recipients of the Confederate Medal of Honor, which was published back in 1997. Unfortunately, he is one of the few voices of reason within the SCV. Consider what he has to say about Lincoln’s [...]
I don’t mind admitting that I am a sucker for the recent string of television shows that trace the family histories of our favorite celebrities. They perform an important function within the muck and mire that is popular entertainment. Most importantly, they present the study of history as an exciting process that often leads to [...]
For my second installment in this series I thought we would take a quick look at Ann DeWitt’s Black Confederate Soldiers site. It’s one of the more recent sites to appear and it is growing in popularity. Feel free to suggest websites that might be worth exploring at a later date. I apologize for the [...]
Today the Virginia Historical Society’s exhibition, An American Turning Point: The Civil War in Virginia, opens to the general public and will run through to the end of the year. I am hoping to make the drive to Richmond to check it out at some point very soon. An American Turning Point is not a [...]
My American Studies course is currently making its way through Reconstruction as part of a broader look at the history of race. From here we move on to the twentieth century and the Civil Rights Movement. Reconstruction readings include Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and W.E.B. Dubois. For our Dubois selection we decided to read [...]
We are likely to see more of these black Confederate stories throughout Black History Month. This one is a perfect example of the confusion and inconsistency that often accompanies these stories. You can clearly discern both the narrative of a slave and a soldier at work here with no sense that they are mutually exclusive. [...]