The Text On Historical Markers Has Become Another Front In The Culture Wars

“Stories of Pilgrims and Puritans, Founding Fathers, westward-bound settlers, and brave American soldiers dominated this consensus-driven picture of the nation’s past. The vast majority of historical markers reinforced these themes on a local level, pointing out important events or notable residents – most of them white and male – as travelers wound their way to their final destinations. … This [particular] consensus view of American history has not held up.” New historical markers – for example, one commemorating the KKK Greensboro Massacre of 1979 – now get fought over long and hard. (In that case, even the word “massacre” was contentious.) “Not surprisingly, no event has proved to be more controversial to recognize through historical markers than the American Civil War.”