Robert Greene II, a PhD student at the University of South Carolina, has a brief article in Jacobin on the memory of the Civil War and Reconstruction. From the article:
Fortunately, the history of Reconstruction furnishes plenty of relevant examples of African Americans and white Americans working together for common cause. Instead of celebrating the Lost Cause and Robert E. Lee, we can emphasize James Longstreet’s post–Civil War loyalty to the Republican Party, and his leading of African-American troops against the White League at the 1874 Battle of Liberty Place. Instead of statues to Wade Hampton III in South Carolina, we can hail the example of Congressman Robert Elliot, an African American who led the fight for the 1875 Civil Rights Act. History shows us, time and again, the value of solidarity in political, social, and cultural movements.
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