When I was 19, I knew a much older man who'd grown up in 1930s Alabama. "We didn't celebrate the Fourth of July," he told me. "For us, it was the day Vicksburg fell." Vicksburg, Mississippi, fell to Union troops on July 4, 1863. The Confederates surrendered, as was their habit. Long memories still mourn the Lost Cause of Black backs whipped bloody. So how am I, a resident of Rhode Island, supposed to celebrate the Fourth of July this year?