Confederates In The Attic: Dispatches From The Unfinished Civil War

Chapter 14 is one of the few chapters that Horwitz devotes entirely to the experience of African-Americans in the South. Prior to this point, much of his conversations had taken place with white Southerners, with the occasional tangential conversation with an African-American for either context or balance. However, with his journey to Montgomery and Selma, Horwitz focuses exclusively on the Civil Rights Movement in the American South and with the effect that the Civil War has had on African-Americans.

Horwitz begins the chapter by touring the capitol building of Alabama, which still has bears witness to the state’s segregationist past (354). While there, he meets a young African-American woman named Sandy who seems oddly out of place giving tours that reflect the white supremacist history of the state; however, to this, Sandy only replies, “Times have changed…I like to think these dead white guys are looking back at me and rolling in their graves” (356). Sandy serves as an example of a member of the African-American community who seems to meet the past and present with a sense of humor and panache that recognizes the history but still attempts to move forward.

Continuing on, Horwitz meets with a man who used to serve on “Selma’s segregationist city council during the civil rights violence of the 1960s” (360).