We need a federal holiday to celebrate the preservation of the Union.
On April 9, 1865, the signing of surrender terms brought to an end the secession of the Confederate states over the issue of slavery, and it led to a series of constitutional amendments which permanently ended slavery and gave African Americans the right to vote.
The 150 years since that surrender have been fraught with historical revisionism over the causes of that war, and with reactionary measures designed to erode the civil rights that so many men fought and died for. In many ways, the post-Reconstruction era in America was a (mostly successful) effort to re-institute white supremacy.
Let us have a day to remember why the Civil War was fought, how it was won, and what it means to all of us today.