Books by Micki McElya

Arlington National Cemetery is America's most sacred shrine, a destination for four million visitors who each year tour its grounds and honor those buried there. For many, Arlington's symbolic importance places it beyond politics. Yet as Micki McElya shows, no site in the United States plays a more political role in shaping national identity.

Assertions of black contentment with servitude alleviated white fears while reinforcing racial hierarchy. McElya exposes the power and reach of this myth in advertising, films, and literature about the South, and in national monument proposals, child custody cases, New Negro activism, anti-lynching campaigns, and the civil rights movement.