Questioning the Point of Revisiting the Past

I fail to see what is so revelatory about Austin, Texas, as a state with slavery as long as it could be allowed to last. The existence of slavery was found all over the U.S.A., north and south. Many people benefitted from it as long as it could exist, as long as the South could prevail. Others did not approve of it out of many different motives. Dredging up the past of our country, which had many unenviable features, seems to me to be pointless, except for political agitators who would use it for their own needs.