Salvaging the dignity of history Updated 8:00 AM; Most people react to the past based on what little bit of history they were taught in school. Or what they have seen in movies. That’s why when people consider the South they tend to only think of two dates – 1865 and 1965. Visitors who roll into Montgomery or Selma on tour buses sometimes arrive believing those were the only two time periods to ever pass through the Black Belt. Both were significant. They both influenced and shaped the nation. They helped permanently define both cities. Unfortunately, school curriculums can’t easily teach the civil and social progress that have been made as history has evolved.