from Ken Taylor

(CNN) -- It has been eight years since people in my state of Virginia got a chance to debate the meaning of the Civil War in front of the nation, and the comments posted on CNN and other news Web sites suggest our passion over the topic has not dimmed.
If Governor Bob McDonnell wants his fellow Virginians to think deeply about "how our history has led to our present," then his declaration of April as Confederate History Month has accomplished this goal, if not exactly in the manner he intended.
The problem with the celebration of Confederate History Month, however, goes far beyond McDonnell's "mistake" in not discussing the centrality of slavery in the Civil War in his original proclamation.
Confederate "history" means more than the four years during which Virginia and other states fought a war to form a separate country called the Confederate States of America. It refers to the many uses of Confederate symbols and evocations of Confederate history in the almost century-and-a-half since Appomattox as well.
This long history offers nothing to memorialize. Former Confederate soldiers quickly formed the Ku Klux Klan after the war to attack Reconstruction officials and the black and white Republicans who were trying to run the state, and they sometimes displayed Confederate symbols as part of their work. After congressional hearings shut down the Klan, copycat organizations continued to make use of Confederate symbols as they engaged in acts of political terrorism.
Former Confederates openly supported and participated in what many white Southerners called the "redemption" of the region, the reassertion of their control over state and local governments as Reconstruction ended.
Another perspective on the history of the Confederacy In the 1870s and 1880s, the decoration of Confederate graves with flowers and flags and celebratory speeches and parades increasingly signaled a commitment to what came to be called the "Lost Cause," a decidedly partisan and self-consciously politicized account of the Civil War.
Analyzing: Use all of these questions to develop and organize your analysis:
How does this story frame public discussion of an issue (by repeating various story elements, using common metaphors, quoting similar people, etc.)?
It takes the side of the African American people whom were tortured for years by these KKK groups, and the Confederate symbol, which both stand for in the minds of most rational Americans as Terrorism and racism.
Who are the main spokespeople on this particular topic, and how are they being quoted? Are they mainly advocates, policymakers, academic experts, etc.?
Governor Bob McDonnell is the primary person being discussed.
How often are these various spokespeople quoted and in what context?
Not often because this is more of a opinion column
What topics are being covered, and what topics are being ignored?
The Confederacy and its history and the Civil War, and the Civil Rights movement, political terrorism.
Is this story not covering or ignoring an issue or organization that they should be covering?
No it is shedding light on an issue that is bigger than any particular organization.
　
Is there a time of year when this issue (or organization) is more likely to be covered than others?
Summer time seems to bring this sort of issue out more often than not
Is this topic or organization a front-page story, and if not, where in the magazine or webpage is that topic or organization covered?
It depends on the media outlet you are viewing. It was covered in the U.S. News headlines, but not the top issues.
Which reporters are writing on this issue/organization?
CNN reported Grace Elizabeth Hale The fact that slavery was a part and not a part from the civil war has been a recent issue in the news. I found this article on CNN.com and I knew I had to report it. It was better than my original choice so I changed it to suit this more recent issue. The psychological issues and damages this issue has always had is profound in American history. These people whom seem to think that waving the flag of the Confederacy around is not offensive and now saying that the civil war was not about slavery is just ridiculous to put it plainly. I feel that this is a failure in society to teach and learn from history. If a whole race is damaged by another races behavior in a particular era then any and every event is a part or a factor in the races psychological well being and should never be treated any other way. The article’s writer was brilliant to point out how the history of the Confederacy goes hand in hand with the history of slavery. This is something that we as America love to bring up from time to time so it seems. Trying to remove the damages from an era that was filled with lynchings and much much more, is futile and almost simply stupid on the part of those whom wish to carry the legacy or history of those racist acts. The psyche behind those whom keep trying to save and relate to that era has got to be one sided, or blind to the fact that things have happened in American history that will forever take a toll on a race, and race relations in America. We can’t simply wake up and get over something that people continue to bring up and try to parade around as if it was the roaring 20’s. I cannot simply move on when everywhere I go in the south there is a flag that commemorates that legacy, and that history that hated a race that I am a part of. This article was by far the best I have seen in a while. I have been following the commentary on the news, and the Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Though I find humor in the ridiculous nature of those whom think we should be over it and moving on and just allow them to parade that around as if it has had more positive than negative history. The fact is that the confederate Flag, and its entire existence was built around the fact that there were issues with the fact of slavery, be it hidden in property issues, or finances, the Civil War was a battle over slavery.
This story is useful because finally it comes up again where people think that racism is dead and that excuses their behavior. In a class like this we should always take note to moments when people act like their "true selves" and show you how they really feel. The Governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell wanted to have April be Confederate History Month, but leave out slavery, as a cause of the Civil War. Perhaps I and many others are too sensitive to the delivery, but I am sure that I am far from over reacting.
　
Though many supporters of secession believed during the Civil War that they were fighting against other Americans over the issue of slavery, amateur and professional historians, many with ties to the Confederacy worked to rewrite this history as a noble fight for states rights and a celebration of the sacrifice of Confederate soldiers. What members of the Sons of the Confederacy offer today as the "true" history of the region has its roots in this effort.
By the end of the 19th century, organizations like the Confederate Veterans and the Daughters of the Confederacy organized public acts of commemoration and the celebration of the "honor" of former Confederates.
Members of these organizations actively used their version of history to support the disfranchisement of African-Americans and the expansion of a white supremacist social order grounded in segregation. Across the region, Jim Crow segregation and Confederate commemoration expanded hand in hand, as the Lost Cause version of the Southern past justified the contemporary elimination of black rights.
iReporter: Gov. McDonnell "wrong and right" on the issue When more subtle displays of Confederate symbols and history were not enough, white Southerners violently attacked and murdered African-Americans, sometimes publicly before large crowds. Lynchers sometimes brandished Confederate symbols.
In the early 20th century, monuments to Confederate soldiers appeared on courthouse lawns across the South and on the grounds of southern state capitols, marking these public spaces as the property of the white people who celebrated this "Confederate" version of the past. By the 1920s, a revived Klan made the Confederate battle flag their second-most important symbol, after the fiery cross, as they once again used violence and threats of violence to uphold white supremacy.
With the NAACP's victory in Brown v. Board of Education and the success of the Montgomery bus boycott, some white Southerners revived the use of Confederate versions of the past and Confederate symbols in their fight against the civil rights movement and integration.
Crowds who attacked civil rights activists sometimes carried Confederate flags as civil rights supporters carried American flags and sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" to counter these Confederate symbols. Called the "country club Klan" because of its public condemnation of violence, the White Citizens Council also used Confederate versions of the past in its opposition to African-American equality.
Today, Confederate history is as much about 1965 and the Voting Rights Act as it is about 1865 and Lee's surrender. The long history of the ways Confederate symbols have been used and Confederate history has been evoked to support racist violence and African- American oppression haunts Gov. McDonnell's declaration of Confederate History Month.
Confederate history cannot be separated from the issue at the center of the Civil War, slavery. But it also cannot be separated from the history of segregation, massive resistance, and the fight against the civil rights movement.
Historically, Confederate versions of the past and Confederate symbols have meant opposition to equal rights for all Americans. In officially recognizing Confederate History Month, Gov. McDonnell is asking Virginians to join together in celebration of this history of white supremacy.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Grace Elizabeth Hale.

News Sources

Identify RELEVANT stories by checking out these web news outlets:

List of News Sources

New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/
The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/
The Atlantic http://www.theatlantic.com/
Utne Reader http://www.utne.com/daily.aspx
The New Republic http://www.tnr.com/
National Review http://www.nationalreview.com/
The Nation http://www.thenation.com/
BlackNews.com list of African American newspapers http://www.blacknews.com/directory/black_african_american_newspapers.shtml
The Economist http://www.economist.com/
U.S. News and World Report http://www.usnews.com/
Time http://www.time.com/time/
Salon http://www.salon.com/
Slate http://www.slate.com/
Newsweek http://www.newsweek.com/
eTalkinghead http://www.etalkinghead.com/
The Progressive http://www.progressive.org/
Mother Jones http://motherjones.com/
In These Times http://www.inthesetimes.com/
Harper’s Magazine http://www.harpers.org/
CounterPunch http://www.counterpunch.org/
Dissent Magazine http://www.dissentmagazine.org/
The Root http://www.theroot.com/
Reason http://reason.com/
Daily Kos http://www.dailykos.com/
The Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/home-page
The Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/
The Chicago Tribune http://www.chicagotribune.com/
The Dallas Morning News http://www.dallasnews.com/
The San Francisco Chronicle http://www.sfgate.com/
The Boston Globe http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution http://www.ajc.com/
The Philadelphia Inquirer http://www.philly.com/inquirer/
The Detroit Free Press http://www.freep.com/

Education

Choose a current story related to African American Studies and education from the list of online sources in the handout and on the introduction page. Try to choose a news outlet that you don’t read regularly so that you can use this assignment to become more familiar with it. To find a relevant story, you should scan the headlines on the home page of whatever magazines or journals you may choose, but also be prepared to do a search of recent published stories. The names of the specific fields may be too broad as search terms; depending on the numbers of links that come up in your initial search, you will have to refine those terms by focusing on a specific issue. Education/sociology issues include Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), black middle class, National Baptist Convention, Church of God in Christ, African Methodist Episcopal Church, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, National Black Catholic Conference, Southwest Athletic Conference, National Urban League, United Negro College Fund, National Black Chamber of Commerce, National Pan-Hellenic Council, The Links, National Council of Negro Women, Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association, Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

History

Choose a current story related to African American Studies and history from the list of online sources in the handout and on the introduction page. Try to choose a news outlet that you don’t read regularly so that you can use this assignment to become more familiar with it. To find a relevant story, you should scan the headlines on the home page of whatever magazines or journals you may choose, but also be prepared to do a search of recent published stories. The names of the specific fields may be too broad as search terms; depending on the numbers of links that come up in your initial search, you will have to refine those terms by focusing on a specific issue. Those search terms can come from the list of glossary terms that your group compiled and defined.

Politics

Choose a current story related to African American Studies and politics from the list of online sources in the handout and on the introduction page. Try to choose a news outlet that you don’t read regularly so that you can use this assignment to become more familiar with it. To find a relevant story, you should scan the headlines on the home page of whatever magazines or journals you may choose, but also be prepared to do a search of recent published stories. The names of the specific fields may be too broad as search terms; depending on the numbers of links that come up in your initial search, you will have to refine those terms by focusing on a specific issue. Politics issues include gerrymandering, desegregation, criminal justice system, restrictive covenants, white flight, reparations, employment, racial profiling, busing, voting rights, gentrification, and prison industrial complex.

Psychology

Choose a current story related to African American Studies and psychology from the list of online sources in the handout and on the introduction page. Try to choose a news outlet that you don’t read regularly so that you can use this assignment to become more familiar with it. To find a relevant story, you should scan the headlines on the home page of whatever magazines or journals you may choose, but also be prepared to do a search of recent published stories. The names of the specific fields may be too broad as search terms; depending on the numbers of links that come up in your initial search, you will have to refine those terms by focusing on a specific issue. Psychology issues include interracial identity, transracial adoption, stereotypes, personality, racism, mental health, and group identity.

Economics

Choose a current story related to African American Studies and economics from the list of online sources in the handout and on the introduction page. Try to choose a news outlet that you don’t read regularly so that you can use this assignment to become more familiar with it. To find a relevant story, you should scan the headlines on the home page of whatever magazines or journals you may choose, but also be prepared to do a search of recent published stories. The names of the specific fields may be too broad as search terms; depending on the numbers of links that come up in your initial search, you will have to refine those terms by focusing on a specific issue, for example, if your broad topic is African American Studies and economics, you may want to try searching for such specific issues as redlining, foreclosure, working poor, affordable housing, child care, health insurance, hunger, job training, earned income tax credit, living wage, family medical leave, minimum wage, or black underclass.

We are here now! Make yourself a Follower!

I created an external blog to replace our eDocs-based wiki, so post your stories and analyses here. I will migrate the old stuff here as I have time, and I will paste a link to this page in BlackBoard for easy access. To post, you can sign into this blog using an already existing Google or Twitter account, but if you don't want to link those accounts, I suggest creating an easy-to-remember ID and password for this purpose. The recent problems using the wiki relate to upgrading for Windows 7, so rather than wait for those fixes, we will just use this.