Protest Isn’t Civil

Lexington, Virginia, is a city where history radiates like hot air shimmering over blacktop. Nestled in the Shenandoah Valley, the town’s namesake is the site where Massachusetts patriots first gave their blood in battle against the British. The area’s institutional heart, Washington and Lee University, is named after Virginia’s two best-known sons, one who created the Union, and the other who fought to destroy it. The bones of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson rest in Lexington, perhaps as reminders that the country continues fighting their war.

Last week, in the middle of an immigration and family-separation crisis that has engulfed the administration, Lexington reminded the country of its deep partisan and philosophical divides again. Stephanie Wilkinson, owner of the Red Hen restaurant on Main Street, refused to serve