“Why Two North Carolina Commemorative Websites?”

The Raleigh News & Observer recently reported this story on two competing websites commemorating the War Between the States in North Carolina: The privately-funded North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial, and the NC Archives & History-produced site North Carolina Civil War Sesquicentennial.

Brock,

I have been following the discussion regarding the two website commemorations, and saw on author Michael Hardy’s blog his comment about the makeup NC Department of Archives & History’s sesquicentennial team. He is right to question this – it is all state employees and contrary to a recent Raleigh News & Observer article about it being inclusive, it seems to include only state employees. Even the academic board is state employees, if they work for the state university system. I have always been a strong supporter of Archives and History and the artifacts and documents in their care, but this is a glaring question about the professional integrity of a state agency supported by tax dollars.

What bothers me is that the N&O article dismisses the people behind the competing “War Between the States” website (www.ncwbts150.com) as amateur historians, and it looks like their commission is made up of private citizens (they claim to be privately-funded) from across the state – I dare say they are the ones paying the salaries of the state employees who ridicule their view of history. I would also argue that inclusion also means including all views, not just the private views of state employees.

What say you?

Publius

From Free North Carolina