Atlanta History Center Lecture: Robert J. Cook,
Troubled Commemoration: The American Civil War Centennial, 1961-1965
Atlanta History Center

Wednesday, April 4, 2012
8:00 PM

For reservations call 404-814-4150.

In 1957, Congress established the United States Civil War Centennial Commission, charged with overseeing the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Civil War.  Organizers hoped that formal commemoration activities would bolster patriotism at the height of the Cold War as well as increase tourism in the South.  But the patriotic pageant that organizers envisioned turned into a struggle over the memory of the Civil War and the problems of racial segregation.  In Troubled Commemoration: The American Civil War Centennial, 1961-1965, Robert J. Cook explores the Centennial as a window into the political, social, and cultural conflicts of America in the 1960s and the development of the modern South.