Civil War reenactments: Cultural insensitivity or living history lessons?
by Denise Crosby, Aurora Beacon-News, Jun 27, 2019
(Found on chicagotribune.com)
Timothy Marcus – aka Tennessee Tim – is darn proud of the fact his family has been in this country since 1632 and that he’s got “13 well documented Federal ancestors who served to keep this Union whole, as well as ensure emancipation for slaved people.”
Which is why this Aurora husband and father of three gets frustrated when controversy breaks out over what he and thousands of others do across this country as Civil War reenactors.
“There are so many misconceptions as to what we do as living historians, we could write a novel about it,” said Marcus, who is a member of the 45th Illinois Living History, a group that recreates the lives - and oftentimes deaths - of the men who fought in the Civil War.
What’s being written now are news stories about the Lake County Forest Preserve District’s Civil War Days, a July event that’s been going on for 27 years with no issues but was cancelled over “security concerns” that, from everything I’ve read, seem vague.
According to several news reports, forest preserve President Angelo Kyle questioned its necessity and appropriateness, including the fact Confederate flags would be on display. And even after the Wauconda event was officially back on the schedule on Thursday, Kyle insisted he still wants it to come to an end because after 27 years, “what new can you learn from it.”
While Fox Valley Park District, which hosts annual Civil War reenactments for two days in August, was aware of the events in Lake County, according to Executive Director Jim Pilmer, there have been “no issues with Blackberry Farm’s Civil War-themed days," nor does he expect any down the road.
“This is part of our country’s history,” said Pilmer, “and it fits within the educational mission of Blackberry Farm’s status as a historical museum.”
So, what’s really at play here, history or histrionics?
From what I can gather, even Civil War reenactments themselves date back to 1861, when this form of theater was used to recruit soldiers, entertain audiences and give loved ones an idea of what the soldiers were facing on the battlefield. Modern day reenactments – small and amateurish - began in the 1960s and got a big push in the ’90s, in part because of the popularity of Ken Burns’ PBS documentary: The Civil War.
But in the past couple of years, since the violence in Charlottesville, Va., and the co-opting of the war by neo-Nazis, there have been bomb threats at some of the nation’s larger reenactments. And some who take part in these events feel the rising tensions. While supporters see these reenactments as a great way to understand the war in a historical context, critics decry it as culturally insensitive and a way for white people to whitewash history.
Because society is so politically charged right now, those who support these groups are concerned they will eventually go away, disconnecting us even more from our collective history we should be learning from rather than ignoring.
“This is an American experience and yet we can’t talk about it?" asked Michael Collins, an engineer from Montgomery who has been part of the 36th Illinois Living History group for the past dozen years.
“We cannot bury our history. We cannot continue to take down flags and statues and stop historical reenactments from taking place because we are afraid of being branded as racist. It has gotten out of hand.”
Eric Pry, curator of the G.A.R. Museum in downtown Aurora, is convinced these reenactments, if done correctly, are important because they raise the level of “engagement and interactivity” to a whole new level, even over books or museum exhibits.
The G.A.R. Museum, which details the involvement of Aurora in the American Civil War – including an entire wall about the African-American experience – has in the past asked reenactment groups to do an impression on the front lawn of the property.
“And I have found that many people walking along the sidewalk will stop and ask questions to these reenactors," many of whom have done extensive research on a specific battle or individual, Pry added. "It’s very possible they would have never stopped by the museum otherwise.”
Lillian Perry, a beloved advocate for social justice here in Aurora who grew up feeling the sting of a segregated Georgia, sees these “living history lessons” as a critical way to foster more discussions – which hopefully “turns into action,” she quickly added – regarding the "ongoing racial imbalances” in this country.
“You need to look at it from an educational standpoint rather than a negative,” Perry said. "If you don’t know history then you do not know where you are going,”
Ricky Rodgers, executive director of the long-time youth mentoring program African-American Men of Unity, doesn’t have a problem with the reenactments as long as they tell the “true and complete” story of the war “and “not just what one side wants to project.”
He sees this issue as part of a continuing debate that broke out over Confederate statues but insists there "are bigger fish to fry” when it comes to racial inequalities. Those who want to protest Civil War reenactments would be better off putting their energies toward something that would have “an immediate impact on our current state of affairs,” insisted Rodgers, who mentioned law enforcement’s treatment of black youth and school expulsion rates as two major concerns.
In other words, there are plenty of issues keeping racism alive. But donning historic gray and blue uniforms to educate and/or entertain us is hardly one of them.
