@RobBenjamin @debmorello @HCandler @sundancefest @HISTORY Well done. I was about to post on Longstreet's shunning, because it's so revealing about the particular slate of names chosen for these Southern forts. As the article details, Longstreet was almost alone among the top tier of Confederate generals in avowing that the war +
@RobBenjamin @debmorello @HCandler @sundancefest @HISTORY had been about preserving slavery (the others were all busy advancing the 'Lost Cause' myth that it had really been some post-doctoral skirmish over States' Rights). He joined the Republican Party, and supported Grant (his West Point classmate and friend) for Pres.+
@RobBenjamin @debmorello @HCandler @sundancefest @HISTORY Having been Lee's most trusted confidant and aide during much of the War, Longstreet openly criticized Lee's tactics (Gettysburg in particular), annoying the hell out of Southern leaders who were anointing Lee as "Greatest Military Leader Since Alexander."
@RobBenjamin @debmorello @HCandler @sundancefest @HISTORY In other words, the particular Confederate Generals whose names 'grace' our Forts today were some of the *most* unreconstructed, unapologetic, unrepentant, irredentist leaders of the post-Civil War period.+
@RobBenjamin @debmorello @HCandler @sundancefest @HISTORY These were the men who led the opposition to Reconstruction, and put Jim Crow in its place. The problem with their names being on the Forts, therefore, is, importantly, that we're not only honoring racist traitors who killed our men on the field,
@RobBenjamin @debmorello @HCandler @sundancefest @HISTORY we're honoring men who, in post-war civilian life, snatched victory from the jaws of defeat and essentially reconstituted the systemically racist system and way of life for which they'd fought in the war. And we let them do it.
