Next year, 2015, marks the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act into law. It’s also the sesquicentennial of the end of the American Civil War. I was spurred to consider this  a few weeks ago during a Twitter conversation with Merlin Chowkwanyun, when he mentioned how many events were up for commemoration next year. One wonders how, or if, the American government (not to mention the American people) will commemorate such events. The memory of both of these, after all, are important elements of the modern American story—the triumph over slavery and session in one, the Read more