Confederate History Month
{{Short description|Commemorative month in the Southern United States}}
{{also|Confederate Memorial Day}}
Confederate History Month is a month designated by seven state governments in the Southern United States for the purpose of recognizing and honoring the Confederate States of America. April has traditionally been chosen, as Confederate Memorial Day falls during that month in many of these states. The designation of a month as Confederate History Month began in 1994.{{cite news
|first=Jeff
|last=Schweitzer
|title=Confederate History Month: An Embarrassing Abomination
|date=April 22, 2015
|newspaper=Huffington Post
|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-schweitzer/confederate-history-month_b_7119936.html}}
State declarations
Although Confederate Memorial Day is a holiday in most Southern states, the tradition of having a Confederate History Month is not uniform. State governments that have regularly declared Confederate History Month are as follows:
- Alabama{{cite news|last=Glanton|first=Dahleen|title=Southerners share confederate history|url=http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2009-03-22/news/0903210133_1_confederate-flag-confederate-history-month-sons-of-confederate-veterans|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111004233048/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2009-03-22/news/0903210133_1_confederate-flag-confederate-history-month-sons-of-confederate-veterans|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 4, 2011|work=Chicago Tribune|date=22 March 2009|access-date=19 November 2010}}
- Florida (since 2007)
- Georgia (by proclamation since 1995, by legislative authority since 2009[https://archive.today/20120804141307/http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2009_10/fulltext/sb27.htm sb27.html])
- Louisiana
- Mississippi
- Texas (since 1999)
- Virginia (1994–2002, 2010){{cite web|url=http://www.governor.virginia.gov/OurCommonwealth/Proclamations/2010/ConfederateHistoryMonth.cfm |title=Governor Robert F. McDonnell: Our Commonwealth |access-date=2010-04-13 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100413130145/https://www.governor.virginia.gov/OurCommonwealth/Proclamations/2010/ConfederateHistoryMonth.cfm |archive-date=2010-04-13 }}
Only Mississippi has officially declared April Confederate Heritage Month in 2022, 2023, and 2024.{{cite news |last1=Williams |first1=Angela |last2=Adams |first2=Ross |title=Mississippi governor declares April as Confederate Heritage Month |url=https://www.wapt.com/article/mississippi-governor-declares-april-as-confederate-heritage-month/36122178 |access-date=1 May 2021 |publisher=WAPT |date=April 14, 2021}}
In 2022, four states: Alabama and Mississippi (April 25), North Carolina and South Carolina (May 10) still celebrate Confederate Memorial Day.{{cite web |title=Confederate Memorial Day |url=https://www.holidayscalendar.com/event/confederate-memorial-day/ |access-date=10 January 2022}}
Controversy
The Confederacy lost the Civil War, which occurred when the Southern states seceded from the United States out of fears over Federal overreach in institutions such as slavery, which fueled the mainly agricultural economies of those states. Confederate History Month and Confederate Memorial Day are thus highly controversial as they are linked to a war, secession, and anti-Black racism.{{cite journal|last=Walker|first=Katherine|title=United, Regardless, and a Bit Regretful: Confederate History Month, the Slavery Apology, and the Failure of Commemoration|journal=American Nineteenth Century History|date=September 2008|volume=9|issue=3|pages=315–338|issn=1466-4658|doi=10.1080/14664650802288431|s2cid=144289078}}{{cite journal |last1=Weinberg |first1=C |title=The Strange Career of Confederate History Month |journal=OAH Magazine of History |date=2011 |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=63–64 |doi=10.1093/oahmag/oar008 |jstor=23210248 |doi-access=free }}{{cite book |last1=Seidule |first1=Ty |title=Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause |date=January 26, 2021 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=978-1250239266}}
When Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell issued a proclamation resurrecting Confederate History Month in 2010, controversy arose due to the proclamation's omission of slavery.[http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20040130-105141-2159r.htm Confederate history month rises again – Washington Times] McDonnell later announced, "The proclamation issued by this Office designating April as Confederate History Month contained a major omission. The failure to include any reference to slavery was a mistake, and for that I apologize to any fellow Virginian who has been offended or disappointed. The abomination of slavery divided our nation, deprived people of their God-given inalienable rights, and led to the Civil War. Slavery was an evil, vicious and inhumane practice which degraded human beings to property, and it has left a stain on the soul of this state and nation."{{cite news|url=http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2010/apr/07/mcdonnell_statement_on_omission_of_slavery_in_conf-ar-163834 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121005233543/http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2010/apr/07/mcdonnell_statement_on_omission_of_slavery_in_conf-ar-163834 |url-status=dead |archive-date=5 October 2012 |work=Richmond Times Dispatch |author=Times Dispatch Staff |title=McDonnell statement on omission of slavery in confederate history proclamation |date=7 April 2010 }} McDonnell has indicated that he will not issue a proclamation in future years. In 2007, the Virginia General Assembly approved a formal statement of "profound regret" for the Commonwealth's history of slavery.{{cite news| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/02/AR2007020201203.html | newspaper=The Washington Post | first=Tim | last=Craig | title=In Va. House, 'Profound Regret' on Slavery | date=3 February 2007}}
On April 11, 2010, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour defended McDonnell on CNN's State of the Union, calling the controversy raised by McDonnell's proclamation "just a nit". "It's trying to make a big deal out of something that doesn't matter for diddly," Barbour said.{{cite news| url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/11/haley-barbour-defends-bob_n_533358.html | work=Huffington Post | first=Alexander | last=Belenky | title=Haley Barbour Defends Bob McDonell's Confederate History Proclamation, Slavery Omission (VIDEO) | date=11 April 2010}}
Unlike the Virginia proclamation, the 2010 Alabama proclamation noted, "our recognition of Confederate history also recognizes that slavery was one of the causes of the war, an issue in the war, was ended by the war and slavery is hereby condemned."{{cite web|url=http://governorpress.alabama.gov/pr/proc-2010-03-22-confhistoryheritagemo.asp|title=Confederate History and Heritage Month|date=March 22, 2010|access-date=2010-11-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100617035106/http://governorpress.alabama.gov/pr/proc-2010-03-22-confhistoryheritagemo.asp|archive-date=June 17, 2010|url-status=dead}}
See also
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
Further reading
- {{cite journal|doi=10.2307/3660347|last=Berlin|first=Ira|author-link=Ira Berlin|title=American Slavery in History and Memory and the Search for Social Justice|journal=The Journal of American History|date=March 2004|volume=90|issue=4|pages=1251–1268|jstor=3660347}}
- {{cite journal|last=Horton|first=James Oliver|title=Presenting Slavery: The Perils of Telling America's Racial Story|journal=The Public Historian|date=Autumn 1999|volume=21|issue=4|pages=19–38|jstor=3379471|doi=10.2307/3379471}}
External links
- [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125818039 Virginia's Split Personality On The Confederacy] - audio report by NPR
- [https://truthout.org/articles/if-you-think-the-civil-war-ever-ended-think-again/ If You Think the Civil War Ever Ended, Think Again] by Adele Stan, Alternet
{{US Holidays}}
Category:Historiography of the American Civil War
Category:History of the Confederate States of America