How white supremacists rewrote history after the Civil War

American history is largely the history of a European colonial power transplanted onto our shores. I wish I had a miraculous remedy to offer, but I’m not a scientist or politician. As an historian I merely report the crime. As a scholar I always come back to the Civil War. It is the monumental moment in our history. Wars are supposed to settle something, and the Civil War could have done so. Unfortunately, white supremacists took over the narrative, and America has never recovered.

In his Memoirs Ulysses Grant, leader of the victorious Union armies, described how Southern leaders began to alter the outcome of the end of slavery. “The Southerners had the most power in the executive branch, Mr. Johnson (President Andrew Johnson) having gone to their side; they felt that they would be able to control the nation at once, and already many of them acted as if they thought they were entitled to do so”. These Southerners enforced the new story in many ways. Despite the slave-owning Confederacy’s defeat in the war, the Southern state authorities murdered black people, prevented them from voting, and segregated them. Southern organizations like the United Daughters of the Confederacy put up monuments to the South’s generals and soldiers as if the South had won. As an example, Christ Church in old town Alexandria, Virginia has a marble tablet commemorating the grave of thirty four Confederate soldiers. Conveniently white-washed from history is the fact that these soldiers fought on the side of slavery, the side that lost. To this day some Southern states use the Confederate banner in their state flags. These racist symbols cause pain to African Americans; they also deny the outcome of the Civil War. Losing wars have consequences, and the conquered don’t get to fly their colors.

In order to heal we have to put an end to the Southern grasp of history. The flags must come down and the statues and monuments placed in museums, not public squares. We have to honor true American history: black soldiers who fought for freedom in the War, leaders who fight police brutality and economic oppression, women who fight for their rights and equal employment, workers who demand fair pay and a safe work place, environmental activists and anti-war protesters. These are the people representing the true ideals of freedom, equality and holding government and business accountable.

There are two Americas. One is the dreamed-of ideal of freedom and equality for all; the other is the harsh reality. Racism, imperialism, war and capitalist greed have been the norm for four hundred years. It’s time for them to end!