When the ‘Past Is Not Even the Past': The Rhetoric of a Southern Historical Marker

I live in Montgomery, Alabama, where, in the words of William Faulkner, “The past is never dead. It's not even past.” ¹ Faulkner's observation is particularly keen given my newfound home's moniker as “The Heart of Dixie.” When one thinks of American history during the last one hundred and forty years, Montgomery, Alabama, is akin to ground zero in that the two epochal events that define modern American democracy, namely, the Civil War and the modern Civil Rights Movement, both began there.