(Washington Post) — “Dixie,” that emotionally freighted and much-debated anthem of the old Confederacy, starts soft when it’s done right, barely above a whisper. But each sotto voce syllable of the opening verse, each feather-light scrape of the fiddle strings, could be heard without straining when the ladies in the hoop skirts and the men […]
(Bellingham Herald) — White and black. Pro-Confederacy. Anti-Confederacy. A secession ball, one of the first major events to mark the 150th anniversary of the events that led to the Civil War, divided many Charlestonians on Monday night and got sesquicentennial commemorations off to a divisive start. Ball organizers and roughly 120 people who gathered in […]
Why does the old Confederacy want to honor racism and savagery?
(The Atlantic) — Last week, while on stage with Haley Barbour, the governor of Mississippi, at the Atlantic-sponsored Washington Ideas Forum, I kept thinking this one thought: Black people are very forgiving people. Over and over again, this notion came to mind as I listened to Barbour spin himself away from a simple question I […]