In reaction to White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly’s comments that the Civil War could have been avoided through compromise, Professor Johnson published an article on Hyperallergic.
“White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly is aware that the continued portrayal of Lee as an ‘honorable ma’” serves as a dog-whistle to embolden the alt-right. His assertion that ‘compromise’ could have stopped the Civil War is historically indefensible and in lockstep with Trump’s inflammatory post-Charlottesville comments. How can there be compromise on whether someone would be enslaved or not?”