AB couldn't agree more. I had seen that story too.
It's like monuments..of people who weren't perfect..Ok, so go ahead and attach a plaque that details every aspect of their life, if desired. Add as much detail as you like - but fairly cover all aspects of their life. The bad AND the good (the good reasons why they achieved great things). Throw in a bit detailing what they thought about slavery and race if you want. Don't overemphasize any one aspect. The problem is nobody agrees on how to proportionately cover aspects of people's lives in history books. Take Jefferson. Some people just see nothing more than the fact that he had slaves. Other people are on the other extreme - So he had slaves, most people did, they focus on the great things he achieved and the simple fact he helped found the USA is a pretty darn good start. Other people are somewhere in between.
One thing is sure. Even with the proliferation of Confederate flags throughout our country, it's interesting that so many people still had no idea what it actually looked like.
I'm not personally from the South, but I can understand if people from the South view it as ridiculous to just discount anything and everything a Southerner achieved in life simply because he lived during a time when everyone had slaves.
That would be like taking an accomplished person from the Roman period and saying they were nothing and nobody for the books because Romans crucified people they didn't like. Or that a relatively 'good' king from the middle ages was nothing for the books simply because serfdom (a slavery of whites, by whites, by the way) existed at the same time.
Politics is like a pendelum. It swings too far one way, so then it swings too far another way, and a knee jerk reactionary populace keeps driving it. So we all keep bouncing along...
