"The current national debate about slavery and its role in American history is finally forcing not only a discussion of reparations, but, more important, a re- examination of the long-accepted message conveyed by respected white scholars whose textbooks on slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction were still being assigned to college students in the 1950's and even later. It was the message reinforced at countless Memorial Day celebrations, where white Union and Confederate veterans shook hands and recalled their collective heroism, while survivors of the 200,000 black Union soldiers and sailors crucial in helping win the war were not welcome. It was the message bestowed on the white veterans by Woodrow Wilson, the first Southerner elected president after the Civil War, during the huge 50th reunion at Gettysburg in 1913."
[snip]