Arts and Humanities Commons^™

A Half Century Later, We Need The Voting Rights Act More Than Ever, Jill Ogline Titus

Civil War Institute Faculty Publications

Two years ago, the Supreme Court determined that voter discrimination is a thing of the past. The Court's decision to gut the 1965 Voting Rights Act ensures that this summer's 50^thanniversary commemoration is an ironic one.

We needed the legislation in 1965, the Court argued in its 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder, which struck down the formula that made the act enforceable, but we don't anymore. [excerpt]

Link Racial Past To The Present, Jill Ogline Titus

Civil War Institute Faculty Publications

Americans have been putting a great deal of energy into commemorating the 50th anniversary of some of the key moments of the civil rights movement. This burst of memorialization has inspired one new museum in Atlanta and the redesign of another in Memphis. The Smithsonian and Library of Congress are launching a new oral-history initiative, and films like Selma bring the movement to life for those who rarely read a history book or visit a museum.

This year brings more anniversaries: the Selma-to-Montgomery March, the passage of the Voting Rights Act, and the Watts rebellion. And the commemorative stakes are …

Afterward, Abraham Lincoln, Gabor Boritt, James Daugherty

Civil War Institute Faculty Publications

Caldecott Honoree and Newbery Medalist James Daugherty's pictorial interpretation of President Abraham Lincoln's famous speech, the Gettysburg Address, was originally published by Albert Whitman & Company in 1947. This book is available again in a fresh new edition just in time for the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address with a new introduction by Lincoln- and Civil War-scholar Gabor S. Boritt.

"Truth Is Mighty & Will Eventually Prevail" Political Correctness, Neo-Confederates, And Robert E. Lee, Peter S. Carmichael

Civil War Institute Faculty Publications

Jefferson Davis sent Robert E. Lee an unusual note after the battle of Gettysburg. The dispatch did not contain any presidential recommendations or requests, only a clipped article from the Charleston Mercury criticizing Lee and his subordinates for failure in Pennsylvania. Why Davis sent this article is impossible to say, and Lee apparently was not interested in the president’s motivations. The General dismissed newspaper criticism of himself as “harmless,” but the Mercury’s condemnation of the army disturbed him. He considered the charges harmful to the cause, for his officers and soldiers were beyond reproach. Defeat, Lee insisted, was his responsibility …