The Confederacy is rising again in Texas. Sigh.

Rss@dailykos.com (thandisizwe Chimurenga) · Saturday, August 13, 2016, 9:25 am

While a few southern states such as Georgia and North Carolina and cities like New Orleans ditched their Confederate monuments from public display, the Great State of Texas—via small cities such as Orange and Georgetown—is determined to dig in and hold on. Politico reports that not only is a tug of war currently going on between neo-Confederate flag wavers and some state lawmakers in the capitol of Austin, but a mega-ton “Confederate Memorial of the Wind” is currently being built near the border with Louisiana. Said to be the largest Confederate monument built in a century, it will have 13 large Greek columns and 26–32 Confederate flags. Sigh.

Why, oh why, does this continue to be an issue? John Savage, author of the Politico piece, puts forth one theory:

In his book Race and Reunion, Yale historian David Blight argues that after the Civil War, Southern whites coped with crushing defeat by justifying why they had seceded. Reluctant to admit the Civil War was fought over slavery — a moral anachronism in much of the world at the time — many Southerners framed the war as a fight for states' rights. Blight argues that Southern whites worked, through memorials and monuments, to etch the false narrative in the nation's collective memory.

Giving Confederate monuments places of pride in town squares and in front of government buildings proved an enduring way of shaping public memory. Across Texas, at least 178 publicly sponsored symbols honoring the Confederacy occupy prominent positions, including monuments, schools and roads dedicated to Confederate icons. Most were erected at the turn of the 20th century, as Confederate veterans were beginning to die of old age, and a second wave of dedications came during the 1950s and 60s, presumably in response to African-Americans’ burgeoning struggle for civil rights.

In other words, this continues to be an issue because of the politics of “reaction.” But you already knew that, didn't you? #Yep.

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