Virginia group will recommend new name for Camp Pendleton

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — Virginia officials have begun reviewing new names for a military reservation that currently honors a Confederate Army chief of artillery. Several alternatives for Camp Pendleton in Virginia Beach are being considered by a working group from the state’s veterans affairs and...

Text of Biden's inaugural address as the 46th president

President Joe Biden's inaugural address Wednesday, as provided by CQ Transcripts: Chief Justice Roberts, Vice President Harris. Speaker Pelosi, Leader Schumer, Leader McConnell, Vice President Pence, and my distinguished guests, my fellow Americans, this is America’s day. This is democracy’s day. A...

Correction: Capitol Breach-Civil War story

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — In a story January 16, 2021, about Republican leaders invoking war rhetoric, The Associated Press incorrectly referred to an incoming chairwoman of the Michigan GOP. Instead, she is the incoming party co-chair. A corrected version of the story is below.

National Guard sleeping in the Capitol an echo of Civil War

To most Americans, the sight of armed National Guard troops sleeping in the Capitol Rotunda this past week was shocking and disturbing. To me, it was an echo of the far-distant past. “Don’t despond,” Maj. Bowman Bigelow Breed wrote to his anxious wife back home in Massachusetts as his...

Unity has long been a theme, and anxiety, for new presidents

NEW YORK (AP) — When Joe Biden addresses the country for the first time as president, his inaugural speech is likely to echo calls for unity that predecessors have invoked since the first time George Washington was sworn in. Unity has since been a theme, and an anxiety, for many incoming presidents, who...

Years of white supremacy threats culminated in Capitol riots

CHICAGO (AP) — Amid the American flags and Trump 2020 posters at the U.S. Capitol during last week's insurrection were far more sinister symbols: A man walking the halls of Congress carrying a Confederate flag. Banners proclaiming white supremacy and anti-government extremism. A makeshift noose and gallows...

Analysis: Trump's rage ignites mob assault on democracy

NEW YORK (AP) — The riotous mob that laid siege to the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday was the product of the destructive forces that President Donald Trump has been stirring for years, culminating in the disruption of a democratic ritual that would formally end his unconstitutional bid to stay in power. The...

Maryland may repeal state song, a Confederate call to arms

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — After decades of debate, legislators are finally sensing strong support for repealing Maryland's state song, a Civil War-era call to arms for the Confederacy against “Northern scum” that refers to President Abraham Lincoln as a despot. “Maryland, My...

Sculpture honors 1st Black president of an American college

RUTLAND, Vt. (AP) — The first Black president of an American college is being honored with a sculpture installed in the Vermont city where he was born in 1826. The larger-than-life marble bust of Martin Henry Freeman, a scholar, sits on a stack of books in a downtown square as part of the Rutland Sculpture...

South Alabama Civil War battlefield being preserved

SPANISH FORT, Ala. (AP) — A south Alabama battlefield where thousands of Black Union troops help defeat Confederate forces in the final days of the Civil War is being protected with a $300,000 grant, preservation groups announced. While the state already owns about 40% of the 2,000-acre battlefield around...