Revolution in Understanding

Revolution in Understanding: To Dr. Edward Ayers, a recognized expert on Southern history and president of the University of Richmond, 2011 marks the start of the sesquicentennial of the Civil War and the emancipation of African-Americans. It’s an important distinction based on the evolution of Civil War scholarship that has produced a fuller understanding of history, one that puts the role African-Americans played in the transformative conflict front and center.

The Yale University-educated scholar has written and edited 10 books including In the Presence of Mine Enemies: Civil War in the Heart of America, which won the Bancroft Prize for distinguished American history. He now leads a consortium of 15 institutions, including Virginia Union University, that is coordinating Civil War sesquicentennial events in Virginia.

Ayers spoke with Diverse about the role Blacks played in their own freedom, the context of the Civil War’s legacy in today’s equality struggles and the war’s global significance.