Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause

The subject of memorializing Confederates, especially Robert E. Lee, came to a head in August 2017. When the city council of Charlottesville, Virginia voted to remove a statue of Lee, a gathering of white supremacists staged a protest which resulted in the murder of a counter-protestor. Shortly thereafter, he came to Washington and Lee at the invitation of Ted DeLaney, the history professor who began his time at the university decades earlier as a custodian, to come to the Lee Chapel and discuss the general’s legacy. Seidule was anxious about the talk, not only because his alma mater was devoted to the memory of Lee, but also because Virginia at that time still celebrated “Lee-Jackson Day.” He decided to make himself part of the story, confessing his own acceptance of racist ideas and institutions, so that he was not simply condemning a long-dead historical figure but coming to terms with a part of himself. He told the crowd that Lee betrayed the United States because he refused to accept the outcome of a democratic election, and did so in order to defend slavery. It was an uncomfortable moment, but the truth is often uncomfortable, and Seidule believes that the American people are capable of handling it. There is now a more concerted effort to deal with the Confederate past. Cities across America have removed Confederate statues and other commemorations. Civil War memorialization remains hotly contested. However, an honest treatment of the facts is a necessary and possible first step in healing the wounds that American history has left behind.