TOPIC 5.7 Secession & Civil War

The Confederacy, its flag, & its monuments: Yes, They are Racist

KC-5.2.II.D…After a series of contested debates about secession, most slave states voted to secede from the Union, precipitating the Civil War.

Objective: Students will critique the “Lost Cause” mythology and identify the true white supremacists origins of the Confederacy and its symbols.

Antiracism in the US history classroom:

When you allow the Confederate flag to be a symbol for our state, you’ve given credibility to hate, you’ve given credibility to bigotry, and the eyes of the world look at you and say, ‘I wonder if Mississippi will ever change.’ - Mississippi State Congressman Benny Thompson on why he had never displayed the flag in his office

According to CONFEDERATE LEADERS: the Confederacy was a white supremacist empire, and its symbols glorify and romanticize racism.

The actual original Confederates knew it.

Modern historians know it. 

The vast majority of African Americans have always known it.

Why do the majority of white Americans NOT know it? 

Notes

Instead of lecturing about what Confederate symbols mean, it’s most effective to let Confederates speak for themselves. I refer to this style of lesson as a “guided DBQ.” Students will work on AP Skill #3: identifying claims in sources. I do this at the very start of our study of the Civil War. It’s important to establish a few basic truths before we can dive into the conflict.

Because this topic is so extremely relevant to our world, it impacts students heavily.  They really enjoy having a trail of documents that they can go back to when these issues come up (both in class and in the real world).

***Before starting this lesson, I strongly recommend warning students that we are going to be reading some hate speech in the day’s lesson. This will be traumatic for some of our students. This is indeed a difficult topic to cover in class, however, in a world still permeated by Confederate symbols, it is our responsibility as teachers to inform the public about what these symbols originally meant.