Atlanta’s Cyclorama had the black role in a Civil War battle all wrong. She set about to fix that.

Washingtonpost.com ^ | 03/26/2019 | Max Blau

[devane617]

The first time Calinda Lee saw the “Battle of Atlanta” Cyclorama, she rolled her eyes in disbelief. The colossal 133-year-old panoramic painting of the Civil War battle featured thousands of human figures — soldiers of the North and South fighting, falling, fleeing, along with sundry attendants of the battlefield: stretcher-bearers, cooks, orderlies and more. Yet in the throng of faces surrounding her, there was only one that looked like hers. Only one was African American.

[jmacusa]

The South started the damn war and had every intention of winning it, didn’t they? They lost, didn’t they?

[rockrr]

I’ve never been to Gettysburg but I remember seeing a Cyclorama in St. Augustine Florida at about the same age. Mom & pop had to tear me away from it!

[jmacusa]

I went to Gettysburg with my dad and my two older brothers. My mom took my two younger sisters to the Jersey Shore. Mom and Dad would often do that. One year dad took the three of us to Washington DC in June of 1967, the very week of the Six Day War. Anyway I remember it was in the summer and I must have been around 10. It was very hot, walking all over that battlefield. We saw Little Round Top, Devils Den, the site of Picketts Charge. I don't really remember too much. I do remember jumping on every cannon I saw, upsetting the park rangers and my Dad! I also remember thinking that because there were (replica) cannons all over that I'd see real, live Yankees and Confederates. I think I was helped along in this delusion by my older brother who loved to bust my chops. Ah, when you were a kid, right?