At the start, the plans for the nation's bicentennial celebrations had an admirable future cast−model cities, rapid transit systems, the formulation of new goals. But with 1976 rapidly approaching, those dreams have largely dissolved into straightforward nostalgia. Leading the parade into the past will be Charleston, S.C., which has plans for a series of son et lumière historical tableaux and a 500-acre display site for revolutionary memorabilia, including a naval museum. The purpose: to remind the nation of the city's own illustrious role in the struggle for independence.
Convinced that schoolbooks give short shrift to the South, the area's historians point out...