`` A failure to acknowledge the central role of slavery in the Confederacy and deeming insignificant the reprehensible transgression of moral standards of liberty and equality that slavery represented is simply not acceptable in the America of the 21st century , '' he continued . NEW : One former governor forgives omission , one does not . Ca n't understand Civil War without understanding of slavery , president says . Comment: Gov . Bob McDonnell designated April as Confederate History Month .
NEW : One former governor forgives omission , one does not . Ca n't understand Civil War without understanding of slavery , president says . Comment: Gov . Bob McDonnell designated April as Confederate History Month .