Stories & Essays: At War with Ourselves

A young boy wanders up to a dancer as the Victorian Dance Society invite the public to join a demonstration during Civil War Day at the Historic Blenheim Estate in Fairfax, Va. The 150th anniversary of the Civil War has brought discussions back to the forefront. Though many people in the South still deny that slavery was cause of the Civil War, historians now largely agree. "This history is very, very central to the black experience," said historian Adam Goodheart, "yet blacks have been told that it doesn't belong to them."
A young boy wanders up to a dancer as the Victorian Dance Society invite the public to join a demonstration during Civil War Day at the Historic Blenheim Estate in Fairfax, Va. The 150th anniversary of the Civil War has brought discussions back to the forefront. Though many people in the South still deny that slavery was cause of the Civil War, historians now largely agree. "This history is very, very central to the black experience," said historian Adam Goodheart, "yet blacks have been told that it doesn't belong to them."