The United Daughters of the Confederacy, or UDC, is a social organization that was organized for the purpose of preserving and enhancing the history and reputation of the Confederate forces after losing the Civil War and with it their bid to continue the practice of slavery. The UDC was established in 1894 in Nashville, Tennessee. The organization, still in operation today, proposes, lobbies, and raises funds to establish and preserve Confederate monuments, markers and other symbols across the South and the entire United States.

In the past, as part of the Neo-Confederate movement, they have also actively and successfully sought to undermine history education in public and private schools by promoting history curricula and text books that promote a biased viewpoint on the nature of Slavery and of the Civil War. Their goal was to promote the premise that the Southern states didn’t secede from the United States to preserve their perceived right to own slaves and to also push the idea that slavery as an institution was not detrimental to enslaved people. In 1852 to further their goal of influencing the textbooks used in Southern schools, the UDC created a curriculum guide at the request of the United Confederate Veterans called, "A Measuring Rod to Test Books, and Reference Books in Schools, Colleges and Libraries.” This guide was used by school districts to exclude the use of any textbooks that didn't have a pro-Confederate viewpoint. Between 1889 and 1969 it is believed that nearly 70,000,000 students were indoctrinated with curriculum based on this inaccurate “lost cause” narrative.

While the influence of the UDC's guidance on textbooks and encouragement of librarians to stamp library books that didn't match their ideas with the words, "Unfair to the South," were extensive, the United Daughters of the Confederacy’s most visible influence in promoting the lost cause narrative of the Civil War is on display all over the United States in the form of monuments to Confederate soldiers, historical markers, and the naming of public landmarks like bridges and roads.

The narrative attached to these curriculum initiatives and monuments is patently untrue and proven so by reading the secession documents that some individual Southern states drafted and looking at the realities of slavery. The Southern States’ manifestos specifically referenced slavery. In the case of Mississippi their secession articles state that their "position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery- the greatest material interest of the world.” The Texas secession articles mention slavery 21 times. The real treatment of slaves is well documented and was consistently abusive and included beatings, whippings, branding with hot irons, rape, and forcible separation of families.

The biases of the UDC were in full view when In the early 1900s the organization often supported and promoted the Ku Klux Klan and even funded the building of a monument to the Klan in 1926 on which the words, "Quod semper, Quod ubique, Quod ab omnibus." Which means, "Believed by all, is that it is always, present everywhere." They also worked with the KKK to fundraise for their other projects using the popularity of the controversial pro-South, pro-slavery 1915 film, 'Birth of a Nation' which depicted the Ku Klux Klan as hard charging freedom fighters, completely erasing the group’s history of hatred and violence in the form of abuse, voter suppression, and murderous acts committed against people of color and anyone else who stood in their way.