The Washington Post weighs in on Wal-Mart and the Wilderness this morning. It’s one of those staff editorials obsessed with balance and being fair—not that there’s anything wrong with that!—but not particularly interested in actually making an argument or having an opinion. Preservationists are right to want to protect some of the battlefield. However, if [...]

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The National D-Day Memorial in Bedford is in danger of closing due to financial problems. A bill designed to help is wending its way through Congress: An effort to save the National D-Day Memorial has made some progress, as the U.S. Senate passed a defense-spending bill that instructs officials to consider making the monument a [...]

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The Richmond Times-Dispatch published an editorial on July 16 headlined “Our Past,” in which it apologized for its support of Massive Resistance during the 1950s and beyond. (Our entry on Massive Resistance provides the requisite background.) The newspaper admitted its complicity in championing segregationist policies, writing that “the record fills us with regret.” Massive Resistance [...]

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Well, almost. Yesterday we called attention to our Anne Spencer entry. Back in March, the Legacy Museum in Lynchburg screened a film by Keith Lee about the poet called Anne Spencer Revisited. Turns out Lee had originally wanted to do a dance, an idea that came to him after visiting Spencer’s Lynchburg home. Keith Lee [...]

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The Washington Post reports this morning that John Grisham is writing a screenplay about the so-called Norfolk Four, four sailors who claim to have been wrongly convicted in the rape and murder of a Norfolk woman in 1997. The men confessed to the crime, but following their guilty verdicts, recanted, claiming they had been coerced. [...]

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In time for the Fourth of July, a new poll asks Americans whether they still agree with the principles laid down in the Declaration of Independence. Turns out . . . that 89% of American adults agree that “we are all endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights among them life, liberty, and the [...]

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Over at BackStory, they’re considering the Fourth of July and the Declaration of Independence, prompting a detailed accusation of “BS” from one commenter, who objects, among other things, to the Declaration being referred to as “propaganda.” Meanwhile, at the New York Times, artist Maira Kalman, author of the forthcoming And the Pursuit of Happiness, considers [...]

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I suggested just the other day that . . . you can do like Cushman, and go to the Wilderness yourself. Cut the language screen down and try to feel what it’s like to just be there. Now, when you’re done just being there, you can just be yourself off to Wal-Mart. A split Orange [...]

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A historical marker was dedicated last Friday to Sacagawea at the statue of Lewis and Clark on West Main Street in Charlottesville. The statue’s image of the Shoshone Indian woman has long been controversial; she’s kneeling, which some people have interpreted as being too subservient. According to the Daily Progress: The statue was erected in [...]

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If you will be in the Charlottesville-Albemarle neighborhood of Virginia on Friday afternoon, please take note: Attention Virginians:  On Friday, June 19th at 5:30 PM, BackStory will be staging a rare, live event. The History Guys will be taping a live performance of the show at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs, [...]

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