Many of the statues at the center of Richmond, VA were erected during reconstruction. A friend of mine who lives in Richmond says this about the massive statues at his city's center:
"... These are "maybe we can still get a do-over" statues. Lee's was commissioned in 1875, went up in 1890, all the others followed shortly thereafter."
But many other confederate statues were built much later. Vox's W. Fitzhugh Brundage brings us I've studied the history of Confederate memorials. Here's what to do about them.
Please read the whole thing, but here are a couple subheadings from the article:
- Most monuments went up not immediately after the war, but as Southerners put Jim Crow in place — and Northerners gave up on racial justice
- Some contemporaries linked the monuments to the defense of white supremacy in shockingly explicit terms
Essentially, most confederate monuments were never about reminding ourselves of our history, but were all about white supremacy.
In The Atlantic, Susan Neiman wrote There Are No Nostalgic Nazi Memorials
"... Monuments are neither just about heritage or just about hate. They are values made visible. That’s why we build memorials to some parts of history and ignore others. They embody the ideas we choose to lift up, in the hopes of reminding ourselves and our children that those ideas have been embodied by brave men and women."
Despite the fact that there are no public statues of Hitler or Eichmann or Himler or their compatriots, nobody will forget who they were. Statuary isn't about remembering history. It's about veneration and continuing to win a lost war. White supremacy, slavery, and secession are not values I think we should lift up.
Every confederate statue, monument, and place name reminds every black person of the evil that was inflicted on their ancestors, and the injustices they endure every day. They also keep alive the confederate/white supremacist spirit. Defenders will tell you that the confederate spirit is about independence and chivalry and mint juleps on the porch. Really, it's about white supremacy. Every confederate statue and icon represents and empowers Patrick Wood Crusius and Dylann Roof and their ilk infinitely more than Scarlett O'Hara.
I like this idea from The Atlantic: A Solution to the Confederate-Monument Problem: Destroying the statues won’t erase the past. Why not let them deteriorate in a public space instead? So, each state would put its statues in a remote location on public land. I recognize that confederate fetishists will maintain them, but I'm OK with that as long as the statues are in the middle of nowhere, and it's illegal to steal them or build anything around them.
On a related note, James Risen at The Intercept has Why is the Army Still Honoring Confederate Generals? Yes, that's a year old, but it's still completely relevant.
"... The base names were products of the same reassertion of Southern white supremacy that prompted the erection of many Confederate statues and monuments."
I hope the politicians can find the strength to purge our public spaces of these tributes that glorify traitors and embolden white supremacists.
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