It’s important to note that plaques and historical markers don’t always tell the full and literal truth. In James Loewen’s book Lies Across America, the author points out that historical markers often say as much or more about the era they were dedicated in as they do about the specific times, places, and people they are ostensibly there to commemorate. Many markers in the American South that whitewash slavery are very much products of the turn of the twentieth century when the backlash against progressive Reconstruction was in full force. Markers in the West and elsewhere often ignore the
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