Confederate "Heritage" Month 2009, April 9: Obama on slavery and Virginia's "Confederate History Month"

[Update 04/10/10: This post was first titled "The Buchanan administration" due to sloppy editing on my part. I wasn't meaning to imply any comparison over Civil War-related issues between the Obama and James Buchanan administrations.]

The President on slavery and remembering the Civil War:



The text excerpt provided by TPM (Obama On VA Confederate History Month: Omission Of Slavery 'Unacceptable' 04/09/10):

"I'm a big history buff. And I think that understanding the history of the Confederacy and understanding the history of the Civil War is something that every American and every young American should, should be a part of," Obama said. "Now, I don't think you can understand the Confederacy and the Civil War unless you understand slavery. And so, I think that was an unacceptable omission. I think the governor's now acknowledged that."

"And I think it's just a reminder that when we talk about issues like slavery that are so fraught with pain and emotion, that we'd better do so thinking through how this is going to affect a lot of people," he continued. "And their sense of whether they're part of a commonwealth or part of our broader society."

Tags: confederate heritage month 2010, slavery, us south