Question

The Civil War was a monumental event in American history. The legacy of the war is still present today. One of the most significant symbols of the war is the Confederate battle flag. Today, this flag can be seen on bumper stickers, on T-shirts, and outside individual houses, especially in some southern states.
Read the article below about the Civil War legacy. Focus on the legacy of the Confederate flag and the controversy that it raises.

Required Reading:

Understanding Civil War Legacy

The Civil War Legacy

After reading the article, you will participate in a group discussion on the following topic:

What does the Confederate flag symbolize today to different people, and how might Americans confront the controversy it raises in the future?

Summarize the main points in the article “Understanding Civil War Legacy.” Your response should include information about the political, economic and technological, and social and cultural changes that occurred after the war.

Answer 1

Answer:

The stories we tell about the past can have a profound effect on the present. Our choices about how to remember the past and how we use historical symbols can divide communities and also draw them together. In this way, our relationship to the past has the power to transform our present and our future.

In 2015, the decades-long debate over a symbol from the American past intensified. On June 17, 2015, a 21-year-old white man shot and killed nine African American worshippers in the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The gunman said that he hoped the shooting would ignite a race war in the United States. Investigators later found that the shooter had detailed his racist beliefs on the Internet and posted photos of himself with the Confederate flag.

These photos ignited debate across the United States about the meaning and power of historical symbols. In the United States, the Confederate battle flag from the Civil War has long been a divisive symbol of the country’s history. Most historians maintain that the central issue of the Civil War, which was fought in the 1860s, was slavery; the Confederate states separated from the rest of the country because their leaders believed that the federal government would soon abolish slavery throughout the nation. Yet many Americans today continue to feel an affinity for the battle flag of the Confederate army, the forces that fought to defend the practice of slavery.

Explanation: