The Case for Retiring “Confederate Heroes Day”

“As we come to know more about the morally repulsive aspects of our national history—and, more importantly, face those realities—removing symbols of our collective failure in the past is not an attempt to deny our history. Rather, it is a sign of growth, a willingness to face our history.”

The Confederate States of America (CSA) dissolved in 1865.

The United States of America legally renounced the CSA’s white-supremacist ideology in the civil-rights and voting-rights legislation passed in 1964 and 1965.

But this week the state of Texas once again marked “Confederate Heroes Day,” as it has since 1973. And for the third straight legislative session, a state representative had filed a bill to end recognition of the day as a state holiday, which has about as much chance of passing this time as it did in previous sessions.

The controversy over the public display of Confederate symbols seems to be a permanent part of American politics and culture.

Here is another recent example, from a civil-rights complaint filed this month against the Effingham County School District in Georgia that alleges “deliberate indifference to racial animosity toward Black students” and “viewpoint discrimination in dress code.”