These events linked Confederate monuments to modern racist beliefs and acts ... The potential presence of a local all-Black militia proved to be controversial. To avoid accusations of race ...

Despite a common suggestion that the militia exists today only in the form of the National Guard, the modern militia exists today in the same place it did in 1791—in the body of the people ...

In any event, modern practice has allowed the militia ... were marginal. After the Civil War, the militia fell into desuetude (except for a brief and unsuccessful attempt to constitute a militia ...