If nothing else, this project has been and interesting education in controversial Southern practices. For instance, we had no idea there was a “Confederate Memorial Day” but there is. And it’s today.
Still celebrated/observed/recognized in Alabama and Mississippi, the holiday closes state offices and invites a remarkably predictable Twitter war.
On one side, you have what appears to be a fairly small number of white Southerners who defiantly defend the day as a nod to the history of their people and place. And on the other side you have the folks they are defying — a mix of northerners and non-white southerners who see the holiday as an ode to white supremacy, slavery and terrorism.
Combine on social media, shake, and you get a familiar cocktail of hostility and incompatible worldviews.
