Why haven't black civil rights leaders demanded that the American national anthem be changed?

But first things first: This is the sesquicentennial of the year the American Civil War ended. The four-year conflict being of perennial interest and debate in this country, a great many books and essays have poured forth anew to mark this occasion. Apparently, a lot of questions remain unsettled.

Take "The Dangerous Myth of Appomattox," a recent installment in the irregular series that The New York Times started under "Disunion" in 2010. Gregory Downs who wrote it warns that the popularity of Appomattox as a Civil War site may obscure what the war was all about and its aftermath.