s academic quad. It was motivated by a desire to preserve the status quo and continue enslaving Black Americans. Americans once again are calling for and debating the removal of Confederate monuments. Angry mobs are tearing down and defacing monuments across America. But while he was alive, Lee stressed his belief that the country should move past the war. Most have been removed. by the simple manhood of They do not inspire unity. Rice University Opinion Confederate Monuments Slavery America said goodbye and good riddance this month to yet another monument glorifying the Confederacy and lying about history on public grounds. Learn more about Friends of the NewsHour. She is a former Kinder Institute fellow. “He said he was not interested in any monuments to him or – as I recollect – to the Confederacy,” explained James Cobb, history professor emeritus at the University of Georgia, who has written about Lee’s rise as an icon. The denial of the Black American experience is clear through the inscriptions on some of the monuments. “But you have to ask why [he would remove them]. Yet in Richmond, which has no shortage of public memorials to defenders of white supremacy, there has been comparatively little outcry. An experimental study examining voting behavior further demonstrates that there are real consequences to keeping Confederate symbols in public spaces: people who were primed — or subconsciously saw — a Confederate battle flag reported being less willing to vote for Barack Obama and higher levels of anti-Black attitudes. Our history matters, and the way that we remember the Confederacy is an important part of that history. So, here we are, again. A final, complementary option to consider is the addition of a new monument. Some places heeded that call — the Confederate battle flag flying over the SC state capitol came down; monuments in Baltimore were contextualized and later removed — but most ignored it. Since the death of George Floyd, the United States has been in nothing short of a reckoning with systemic racism — a reckoning that has, in part, focused on how we remember our past. All Rights Reserved. Here are some ways to address it. The statue of Rice, who was a slave owner, is prominently located in the center of the school’ Parents of Black/white biracial children are least likely to report their child’s race as “Black and white” on the census, and are more likely to opt for “Black alone” in states where the history of anti-miscegenation law is stronger. A group of Democratic state lawmakers is working to make this year’s Confederate Heroes Day the last. Ralph Northam ordered the removal of the monument to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond. Why does the removal of Confederate monuments remain in public conversation? For now, the removal has been blocked by an injunction issued in one of several lawsuits. But he personally described slavery as a “moral and political evil” that should end. True healing will begin only when the pressure of racist monuments is removed from African Americans' necks. Numerous other Southern communities, large and small, are reconsidering the future of the Southern soldiers in marble and bronze that stand watch over their town squares and courthouses. “He was worried that by keeping these symbols alive, it would keep the divisions alive.”, Construction crews prepare a monument of Robert E. Lee, who was a general in the Confederate Army, for removal in New Orleans, Louisiana on May 19, 2017. “But he didn’t want a cult of personality for the South.”. Robert E. Lee, who led the Army of Northern Virginia through the Civil War, opposed the construction of monuments commemorating the vanquished Confederacy. by their sublime courage “I think it wiser,” the retired military leader wrote about a proposed Gettysburg memorial in 1869, “…not to keep open the sores of war but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife, to commit to oblivion the feelings engendered.”, WATCH:The shifting history of Confederate monuments. Would Lee have opposed his own monument today? Inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, Lisa Desjardins Officials with Gettysburg National Military Park said they have no plans to remove any of the park's 1,300-plus monuments, markers or plaques. In all, more than 30 monuments and symbols to the Confederacy have been dedicated or rededicated since 2000, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. have preserved for us Rice University students are petitioning to have the statue of school founder William Marsh Rice removed from campus. Follow the Kinder Institute on social media. They make no distinction between Confederate and Union, abolitionist and pro-slavery, 15th-century figures and 20th. Anti-miscegenation laws legalized racial boundaries, but were abolished in 1967. “I don’t think that means he would have felt good about the people who fought for the Confederacy being completely forgotten,” Cobb added. our children shall know 6100 Main Street, Suite 305 6100 Main St. MS-208 But Lee himself never wanted such monuments built. Removed California Last month, Virginia Gov. He was a slave owner who some say was cruel and a general who fought to preserve the institution. That’s where Confederate monuments fall short. Forthcoming research by Christina Simko, David Cunningham and Nicole Fox suggests that places that accomplish this are in a better position to maintain meaningful conversations about inequality, even after the monument is removed. Finally, if that were not enough, there is even evidence that Confederate monuments are related to higher levels of Black-white inequality. Removal of Confederate monuments and memorials is an ongoing process in the United States since the 1960s. The momentum to remove Confederate memorials … Jenifer Bratter is an associate professor of sociology at Rice University and director of the Kinder Institute’s Program for the Study of Ethnicity, Race and Culture. But we want to close with a cautionary reminder: Ultimately, the issue of monuments and names is a symbolic one. As the deaths of black men and women resulting from police violence continues in America, protestors in cities large and small are calling for the end of systemic inequalities and police brutality. But underlying it all was one rationale: That the war had ended, and the South needed to move on and avoid more upheaval. Monuments dedicated to this historical moment — the year we came together during a global pandemic to fight for equality, for life — could be a truly inspirational and uniting public symbol. But the Confederate general Robert E. Lee himself never wanted such monuments … In Centreville, Alabama, the United Daughters of the Confederacy described their “Confederate heroes” using the following text: “These were men who In fact, they celebrate rebellion. Even here in Houston, students at Rice University are asking for the statue of William Marsh Rice — the university’s founder and a slave owner — to be removed. Even Lee, as cruel and brutal as we now know him to have been, knew there should be no monuments to him, or to anyone of the Confederacy which had been defeated on the field of battle. a priceless heritage of Honor.”, “It is a duty we owe to The United Daughters of the Confederacy were instrumental in … to the Confederacy? Kraft Hall Virginia State Troopers stand under a statue of Robert E. Lee before the white supremacists rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 12, 2017. Before the war, Lee opposed secession, but once his native Virginia voted to leave the Union he declared he was honor-bound to fight for the Confederacy. And not just Confederate monuments. From frequent recurrences of police brutality and the widening gaps in access to opportunity, to the coronavirus’ outsized impact on communities of color, the invasive disease of racism has spread throughout the American system. and unspeakable sacrifices, More than merely testimonies to the past, the division and inequality that slavery began remains steadfastly part of our day-to-day. Of the more than 1503 public monuments and memorials to the Confederacy, more than 718 are monuments and statues. White supremacists, neo-Nazis and others have protested the removal of Confederate monuments. No one puts a monument up to Washington or Jefferson to promote slavery. Along Richmond, VA's manicured Monument Avenue, statues of Confederate leaders stand among pristine trees and a grassy mall.As of June 10, there is one less Confederate statue for passersby to see. They offer comfort to some (white Southerners who view the confederacy as a key part of their heritage), but they exclude (white non-Southerners) and outright reject (Black Americans) others. If you would like to order copies of the print editions, visit upress.ufl.edu. Five years ago, in the wake of the racially motivated mass shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, that left eight African American parishioners dead, we saw similar calls to action. through the gloom of defeat, However, this time we carry even more baggage because we chose not to make changes five years ago. Note to our readers: We are no longer giving away free PDFs of Dixie’s Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate Culture by Karen L. Cox and Recalling Deeds Immortal: Florida Monuments to the Civil War by William B. Lees and Frederick P. Gaske. ... Make … Subscribe to ‘Here's the Deal,’ our politics newsletter. However, this option ignores the importance of placement. Removing a monument or renaming a building are steps toward using symbols that better reflect shared values of equity and inclusion. Ralph Northam ordered the removal of the monument to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond. Many municipalities in the United States have removed monuments and memorials on public property dedicated to the Confederate States of America (CSA), and some, such as Silent Sam in North Carolina, have been torn down by protestors. Photo by by Dean Hinnant / Unsplash. Subscribe to the Urban Edge to be notified when new stories are published. We are witnessing the removal and, in some cases, outright toppling of statues commemorating the Confederacy. Raw emotions and a sharp political divide were revealed by an unsuccessful attempt in the 2019 session to make it far more difficult to remove monuments to the Confederacy … At the root of the problem is racism. “All I think that can now be done,” he wrote in 1866, “is … to protect the graves [and] mark the last resting places of those who have fallen…”. Returning to a familiar and difficult conversation. They put up monuments to T.J. because of the Declaration of Independence, which every group has used to make their place in American society. Like the Vietnam memorial in Washington, D.C., an apt memorial for the Confederacy is a scar, not an heroic statue. Removing them and doing nothing more masks the underlying systemic racism that supported their initial placement on public property. Removal may be symbolic, but it can jump-start a conversation and help us move forward on structural change. Horn leaned toward yes, though he noted that it’s impossible to compare Lee’s views in the 1860s with the situation today. The fact is, if we can’t remove a monument, how are we going to tackle bigger changes? Mailing Address: Worse, others responded by erecting new Confederate monuments. This column has been updated to correct the … If white people truly mean well, they must make an unflinching commitment to the tough, unpleasant and honest work of authentic change. worthy of their sires.”. Lee himself was conflicted about the core issues of his day. He might just want to hide the history, to move on, rather than face these issues.”, Left: They are designed to inspire emotion and recall a shared history. Still, some may argue that the past is the past and it has no bearing on today. It was meant to praise those who fought for the Confederate cause. A statue of Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate Army, is seen in the Crypt of the Capitol in Washington. Lee advocated protection of just one form of memorial: headstones in cemeteries. Rather than merely coinciding with Jim Crow laws or pushback against civil rights progress, the act of erecting monuments to the Confederacy was another plank in the platform to promote white supremacy and rewrite history. their lives, You know, you would think betraying your country and getting bodied for it hundreds of years ago would be enough to stop people from sympathizing with the Confederacy, but no… But if we remove them outright, we run the risk of both forgetting the role they played and why their removal was called for in the first place. Some demand the Confederate monuments remain. To lavish praise on those who fought for the Confederacy and leave prominent monuments honoring their cause is to deny the brutal reality of the people who were enslaved. California once had far more Confederate monuments and place names than any state outside the South. From Charlottesville, Va., to New Orleans, La., the removal of Confederate statues from public spaces and the debates over their removal are making national news. even to the heroism of death The retired Confederate leader, a West Point graduate, was influenced by his knowledge of history. Last month, Virginia Gov. We see this again when thinking more broadly about the ways we understand race and identity. Like the some 680 other monuments still scattered across the Confederate and border states, those in New Orleans were meant to reaffirm the nobility and legitimacy of the “Lost Cause” of Southern independence and justify efforts to roll back the challenges to white supremacy posed by emancipation and so-called Radical Reconstruction. To lavish praise on those who fought for the Confederacy and leave prominent monuments honoring their cause is to deny the brutal reality of the people who were enslaved. Big statues in prominent public spaces erected to make a point about the supposed glories of the Confederacy should come down and be transferred elsewhere (ideally to museums or battlefields). The Make It Right Project has begun working with local activists, academics and citizen journalists in Denton, Texas, to take down the town’s Confederate monument.. Erected in 1918 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the marker has now stood for a century on the grounds of the county court. Heather O’Connell is a professor of sociology at Louisiana State University. © 1996 - 2021 NewsHour Productions LLC. The Sons of Confederate Veterans and, in a quieter way, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the group that erected many of the monuments that are now the target of the biggest removal campaign in history, are pushing back by building new statues, buying land to house torn-down memorials, and airing radio and online ads seeking public support for their cause. 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