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'valour [and] manly devotion of the men' should be remembered. When Wilson returned toWashington he began to segregate government offices and facilities. During that year overseventy African Americans were lynched.44This attitude towards the African Americans could be justified by the 'scientific' theoriesof white, especially Anglo-Saxon, racial superiority. African Americans largely acceptedBooker T. Washington's view that racial reconciliation and advancement could only comeby accepting some degree of racial division and through accommodation with theprevailing structures. 45 When it came to celebrating the semi-centennial there was noclamour for inclusion. National and local celebrations were separate. This was nothingnew. African Americans had begun celebrating Emancipation Day (January 1) even beforethe Civil War had ended and, from the 1880s held regular exhibitions that showed the'progress' of the race. 46 During the celebrations a number of states, cities and small townsin the north and the south gave financial support for segregated African American events.So confident were southern whites that most of them supported a congressional grant in1914 for an exposition in Richmond as a way of honouring the 'loyalty' of their formerslaves during the war. The previous year, the most elaborate African Americancommemoration, the 'National Emancipation Exposition,' had been held in New York withgreat success. 47 Hollywood joined in the celebrations by providing films that were in tunewith the times. In 1911 the Civil War was also very good for business.Fifty years later the arrangements for the centennial had a familiar ring. Congress, in 1957,looked forward to celebrating the unity of the nation forged by the 'greatest internal crisis'and the 'supreme experience' in America's history. The language used and the sentimentsit implied - focusing only upon the war - could have been written fifty years earlier. Therewas no mention of emancipation but a bold statement that, 'the sons of both North andSouth have subsequently fought side by side for human freedom, justice, and the dignity ofthe individual among people everywhere.' 48 The irony that many citizens in their owncountry were denied these very things was entirely overlooked. Positioning America in theCold War context was far more important.The semi-centennial was resurrected when the last surviving Civil War veteran, WalterWilliams, died in December 1959. President Eisenhower issued a statement on the WarBetween the States - not the Civil War - observing that the 'wounds of the deep and bitter98