American Civil War Centennial

Ulysses S. Grant III, the first chairman, wanted to emphasize large events that appealed to the public, such as "sham battles" or reenactments.

They agreed on a Cold War consensus to the effect that all Americans were ideologically united, with the result that potentially divisive civil rights issues were not emphasized.

The same geographical divisions that had helped spark the Civil War itself also affected the works of the separate state commissions that tried to oversee the Centennial.

For the first time, many Americans, especially white Southerners, volunteered or were recruited into historical reenactment groups that performed pageants and re-creations of Civil War battles, field maneuvers, and encampments.

In addition, much of the current interpretive infrastructure of other major American Civil War battlefields dates back to planning decisions made in the early 1960s.

This decision (reversed in 2015 after the Charleston church shooting) accompanied white resistance to integration and the civil rights movement.