Gettysburg 1963: Civil Rights, Cold War Politics, and Historical Memory in America’s Most Famous Small Town by Jill Ogline Titus published by University of North Carolina Press (2021)
Gettysburg is the most famous Civil War town in America. In 1963 the locals tried to cash-in on the opportunity to turn the 100th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg into the sort of Golden Opportunity that facilitates the American Dream. Hotels hoped to see their rooms full to capacity, historians hoped to stage conferences and sell books, the National Park Service staff dreamed of record attendance, and the city fathers anticipated wise development both preserving the battlefield and creating memories that would encourage Centennial visitors to return year after year. Then there were the “roadside attraction” purveyors, who mainly wanted to make a buck, however unrelated what they were selling was to the events of July 1863.
Whatever the locals may have wanted, there were other forces at play. The Centennial took place against the background of the Cold War and Vietnam. Weirdly, national leaders decided that America’s bloody Civil War was a great example to hold up to the world of the genius of America for compromise! The modern generals who were soon to lose the Vietnam War wanted to use the Centennial to demonstrate American military prowess, forgetting that at least one American side lost in the Civil War. Segregationist politicians deployed Lee’s soldiers’ heroism to rally their followers to enlist in a new Civil War against Black voting rights and school integration. And liberals, mindful of the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement, hoped that a national desire to put the words of the Gettysburg Address into practice might lead to advances in “race relations.”
This would be the first major Gettysburg anniversary with no veterans of the Civil War bodily present. This left the modern commemoration organizers free to craft a commemoration without regard to what the old veterans might have wanted. According to author Jill Ogline, “the centennial commemoration was intended to heal a fractured citizenry by extolling the United States as the savior of democracy and advancing a vision of undisputed American supremacy—political, economic, moral, and military—in the global war against Communism.” (p. 1) This was fine with many segregationists, writes Titus, because many of the:
“Lost Cause vein claimed historical ground to assert that Confederates were freedom-loving Americans entitled to equal space and prestige on the Gettysburg battlefield. Some openly attempted to utilize anticommunist ideology to legitimize massive resistance to civil rights.” (pp. 1-2)
Of course, many of them believed that the whole Civil Rights Movement was just a Commie Plot!
Gettysburg itself had shown increasing hostility towards African Americans as it entered the 20th Century. Adams County, where it lies, saw active Ku Klux Klan activity in the second and third decades of the century. The once large Black celebrations of the freedoms won at Gettysburg were now discouraged by the city’s elite. While in the 19th Century the Battle of Gettysburg was hailed as a Union victory, by the 20th Century the city was marketed as “The High Water Mark of the Confederacy” and its most famous action as “Pickett’s Charge.” The Union soldiers’ successful defense took a back seat to Confederate heroism in the evolving narrative.
Gettysburg businesses were willing to part with Black customers. A 1953 study found that a majority of Gettysburg restaurants would not serve Black customers and the city’s most prominent hotel would only lodge African Americans who were well-known. In advance of the Centennial celebration, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission visited businesses in Gettysburg to remind them that the law prohibited this kind of racial discrimination.
The Commission had reason to be concerned. A generation earlier, when 5,000 Klansmen marched through the city in 1925 a cheering crowd of 25,000 mostly local people greeted them. The Gettysburg Times published a special commemorative edition with headlines like “Ku Klux Klan Presents Gorgeous Display in Monster Procession This Afternoon” and “Town Turns Out by Thousands to Greet Klansmen.”
Before the Civil Rights Era, the only integrated church was the local Catholic parish. The Klan, which rose in the 1920s on fears of Blacks, Catholics, and immigrants, exploited the already latent fears of Gettysburgians and helped mold them into a political force. The Hotel Gettysburg, which did not rent rooms to Blacks, became the Klan headquarters during the gathering. The Klan’s rituals took place on Oak Ridge. While some Gettysburg College students, and some Catholics, Jews, and African Americans were unhappy with the Klan convergence on the city, the Gettysburg Times described it as a shot in the arm for tourism. The Adams’ County Klaverns used Gettysburg again as the site of its 1927 ingathering.
During the 1930s, hostility towards Catholics was on the wane, but Blacks continued to face discrimination. When the Depression Era Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was set to work creating the modern Gettysburg Battlefield, the local Congressman asked that Blacks not be part of the project. The Roosevelt Administration responded by sending an all-Black unit to Gettysburg.
After World War II the United States intensified its contest with the Soviet Union for the allegiance of the countries of the newly decolonizing Third World. One of the most effective weapons the Communists used against the Americans was the legal and de facto discrimination against non-white American citizens. A county could not win over people in Africa and Asia who knew that in the United States they would be treated as less than fully human because of their skin color. Cold War Liberals like Bruce Catton made the case that discrimination in the upcoming Centennial events could only damage the reputation of the U.S.
In a series of three Gettysburg Centennial speeches, Catton said that while the Union war aims in 1861 were conservative, “Restoration of the Union,” by the end of the war they had become revolutionary. According to Titus:
“Catton warned listeners to guard against becoming prisoners of the war’s romance and the gimmickry and commercialization of the centennial, and thus failing to see the “deep, tragic issues” that precipitated the conflict and resulted in such a profound loss of life. “(p. 49)
George Wallace, Alabama’s segregationist governor, was invited by South Carolina to give the exact opposite of Catton’s speech. Wallace identified the Confederate cause thoroughly with 1960s White Supremacy and called on Southerners to defend the values of their heroic forefathers.
Not all was international politics and civil rights conflicts in 1963 at Gettysburg. Tourism boosters used the months-long celebration to advance the cause of battlefield preservation. As they tried to make Gettysburg more “authentic,” the operators of very inauthentic roadside attraction expanded their operations and put out blue and gray gee gaws and knickknacks.
The actual July 1-3 events seem small to those familiar with modern Gettysburg turnouts. About 2,000 people were at the Peace Flame for the opening ceremonies. 1,500 reenactors attracted an audience of only 20,000 for the July 3 Pickett’s Charge event.
Gettysburg 1963: Civil Rights, Cold War Politics, and Historical Memory in America’s Most Famous Small Town by Jill Ogline Titus is a revealing book about a place I have visited at least ten times in my life, beginning in 1969. I have read a lot about the battle, the park designed to memorialize it, and the commemorations there over the last 157 years. Still, there was a lot here I did not know, some of which genuinely surprised me. This book will be a welcome read for students of the battle, for those interested in Civil War Memory Studies, and for anyone who wants the answer to the question of what General Pickett’s Buffet had to do with Pickett’s Charge.
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