I guess you never get used to the sight of old white dudes publicly cosplaying as their favorite Civil War characters.
For the fourth consecutive year, I was disappointed to see Confederate flags fluttering on Lexington’s Main Street in honor of “Lee-Jackson Day,” which has since been replaced with Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
But what bothers me most is that Washington and Lee University isn’t doing much to discourage this annual pilgrimage of rebel-flag-toting weirdos.
Washington and Lee even allowed the Generals Redoubt to host an event at the University Chapel comparing Lee to MLK just two days before the parade. The event was a failure for the Generals Redoubt, and, if anything, it showed that mainstream acceptance for MLK’s values has increased since the civil rights movement.
The opposite is true for Robert E. Lee. As for their supposed “similarities,” it doesn’t take a historian to figure out that Lee opposed the core tenets of King’s philosophy, like federally-enforced equality and passive resistance.
The most positive step that the university could take now would be to change its name.The name validates the pro-Confederate ideology, making this town more inviting to ultra-right wing Lost Cause disciples.
Also, since it’s likely impractical to remove Lee’s corpse from university grounds, the university needs to allow progressive historians and descendants of the enslaved to recontextualize the gravesite. Lee will always be defined by what he did between the years of 1861 and 1865, and the Generals Redoubt isn’t convincing anyone otherwise.

For some reason the school hasn’t acknowledged its ethical responsibility to inform prospective students and faculty that the wannabe Confederate parade happens each January.
Students of color, in particular, should be aware of the Lee-Jackson Day Parade before they commit to living here for four years.
There shouldn’t be a day when a student or faculty member of color has to avoid venturing into town out of fear of being glared at, or worse, by crowds of Confederate sympathizers.
The school is becoming gradually more diverse, which means that more students, who likely weren’t aware of it when they applied, are exposed to this racist demonstration each year. That’s no way to prioritize student well-being.
But the school likely won’t take these long-overdue steps without some external encouragement.
So, I recommend that next time a Lee-Jackson Day Parade is held in town, students and members of the community should film it, post that footage on social media, and even send the footage to progressive media outlets for emphasis.
I am optimistic that change could be around the corner. Almost everyone I know, including many conservative sources, reacted to this year’s parade with either annoyance or disgust.
The citizens of Lexington, a relatively left-leaning town, also routinely express their distaste for this ugly tradition.
And judging by the license plates alone, it seems like a lot of the paraders, if not most, come from far out of town.
There is no rational center position to be held in this case. The university cannot say it supports diversity and inclusion unless it fully opposes those crusty, decaying acolytes of the Lost Cause.
And at the very least, Washington and Lee must acknowledge that Robert E. Lee is an icon of racism and that the Lee-Jackson Day Parade is a hostile tradition rooted in white aggrievement.