"Through a combination of forces, including heroic activism, fearless scholarship and the slow but awesome progression of demographics and time, the white supremacist version of American history, which long ago lost purchase among academics, is finally losing influence over the mainstream, too. But as we saw in a Thursday poll from CNN, in which nearly 60 percent of white respondents said the Confederate battle flag was not racist, the work is far from over. The tide is only just beginning to turn.
"Yet while I believe freeing ourselves from the false and revisionist history of the Civil War is a vital step toward building an America that comes closer to its professed standards, I don’t believe that will be enough. What will ultimately be necessary is something that seems as unlikely today as South Carolina’s removing the Confederate battle flag from its Capitol grounds seemed in 1962: a mainstream recognition that while the country may have technically begun in the late 18th century, the founding of America as we know it happened on June 19, 1865 — or even July 2, 1964. Until we rid ourselves of white supremacy’s myths, we cannot come together as one people, equal and free."

Elias Isquith is a staff writer at Salon, focusing on politics. Follow him on Twitter at @eliasisquith.
"Yet while I believe freeing ourselves from the false and revisionist history of the Civil War is a vital step toward building an America that comes closer to its professed standards, I don’t believe that will be enough. What will ultimately be necessary is something that seems as unlikely today as South Carolina’s removing the Confederate battle flag from its Capitol grounds seemed in 1962: a mainstream recognition that while the country may have technically begun in the late 18th century, the founding of America as we know it happened on June 19, 1865 — or even July 2, 1964. Until we rid ourselves of white supremacy’s myths, we cannot come together as one people, equal and free."

Elias Isquith is a staff writer at Salon, focusing on politics. Follow him on Twitter at @eliasisquith.
