The statue was commissioned in 1917 and erected in Charlottesville in 1924 Credit: AP:Associated Press. In this moment of reckoning around the country, monuments to confederate heroes have also tumbled or been targets of vandalism, most of which were erected decades after the Civil War. But it was the mass protests over the police killing of 46-year-old George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis, that sped action along. Wikipedia has a partial list here. “This false narrative romanticized the war by glorifying Confederate leaders and Southern motivations. Blevins' "Forever in Mourning" Chart of Union and Confederate Monuments, 1860-1920 . Rashid: Why Would You Let Someone Steal Your Money Every Year? Ralph Northam announced last week that he would be removing the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert Lee, which sits on Monument Avenue in Richmond. But given that Jim Crow laws, which attempted to disenfranchise black Americans, were being enacted in the South around this time, the statues also had a more sinister meaning. As the nation underwent even more significant political changes during the 1960s and 1970s, hundreds of new Confederate monuments, statues and symbols were erected. Many southerners claim Confederate monuments are a representation of their history and were erected to honor Civil War heroes. When were Confederate statues built and why? What Will New Casino Bring to Norfolk, Pamunkey Tribe? Instead their very survival depends on operating in a clear-eyed reality where systemic racial oppression shapes their lives now and then.”. “More than anything, I think we are dealing with questions of historical memory here,” Dickinson said. They also did not go up during Reconstruction (1865-1877), a period during which the federal government, with greater or lesser success and enthusiasm, tried to make good on the emancipatory vision of Union victory (that without ending slavery and protecting the rights of African Americans, the war would have been fought in vain). The monuments go up … In many ways, the statues were meant to be a symbol of white supremacy. Days after Northam's announcement, a self-admitted Ku Klux Klan leader and alleged Confederate ideologist rammed his pick-up truck into a crowd of Black Lives Matter demonstrators protesting near the statue on Sunday. The historic mass uprisings throughout Virginia against police brutality and racial injustice might make you think almost everyone supports the removal of the state’s Confederate monuments. "The fact that they were placed on the grounds of county and state courthouses was intentional. Just for the record, the last Confederate veteran died in the 1958s. The Confederate statues were put up when they were put up [not just after the war but largely during periods of Civil Rights tension in the 20th century], to send a message about white supremacy, and to sentimentalize people who had actively fought to preserve the system of slavery. Activists tore down a Confederate soldier statue in Durham, North Carolina last year. For many activists, there is a direct line between police brutality that disproportionately kills Black people in America and the racial injustice these monuments embody. Jim Crow laws legalized segregation in many states, and essentially made it completely OK for white citizens to discriminate or enact violence against black citizens. Many southerners claim Confederate monuments are a representation of their history and were erected to honor Civil War heroes. (This was swiftly challenged in court and is under a ten-day injunction.) Or as James Boyd, the NAACP chapter president for Portsmouth, another city discussing how their Confederate statues will come down, said: “People are just tired of being sick and tired.” Boyd added that the monuments represent more than 400 years of oppression. Houseless Residents Say They Were Evicted Without Warning in Richmond. In short they imply that racism was the prime motive for Confederate monument-building. In this moment of reckoning around the country, monuments to confederate heroes have also tumbled or been targets of vandalism, most of which were erected decades after the Civil War. In the past week, confederate statues have been in the spotlight. In this moment of reckoning around the country, monuments to confederate heroes have also tumbled or been targets of vandalism, most of which were erected decades after the Civil War. Not just statues were erected during this period, either. Because other motorists had previously hit the monument, the UDC, which had funded and erected the monument in 1910, decided the sculpture would be safer if it was moved to a nearby cemetery. While those innocent individuals were being mourned, Confederate flags, symbols of slavery and oppression, were still being flown at the South Carolina statehouse. Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney said he would introduce an ordinance to remove the other Confederate statues from the avenue. Virginia, once the capital of the Confederacy, has more than 200 statues honoring the side that lost the Civil War. For example, in June 2015, a white supremacist shot and killed nine people during a Bible study at a historically black church. Statues of Confederate heroes were not erected immediately after the war. Meghan McCarthy Activists and some political leaders have tried for years to remove them. The statues of Davis in the state capitol and Morgan in Lexington were erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The COVID-19 Vaccine is Available in Virginia. Who raised the majority of the Confederate Monuments and Statues? Chris Canipe, Haley Britzky. Xzavier Hill Was Unarmed, Family Says. After the "Unite the Right" rally, which was started in opposition of the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue, turned violent in Charlottesville, other officials across the country began removing statues in their own cities. “The first was to help perpetuate the ‘Lost Cause’ narrative of the Civil War,” Dickinson said in an interview. “These statues were erected, in essence, as a reminder to the community that Southern order and Southern culture depended upon white supremacy,” Grossman says. Neither was about celebrating America. "Why would you put a … Following the landmark Brown versus Board of Education decision in 1954, which said maintaining racially segregated schools was unconstitutional, there was an uptick in the number of colleges and schools named after Confederate soldiers and generals: From 1954 to 1970, at least 45 were named after Confederates. Similarly, after a 32-year-old woman was killed by white supremacists as they rallied over the removal of a Confederate statue in Charleston this weekend, hundreds of similar monuments that are an homage to white supremacy still exist across the country. ONLY a cynical person would reach any other conclusions as to why Confederate Statues Monuments and Markers were erected. Social Justice “And it took what is in effect a mass uprising of the community to say these things are not acceptable.”. They were built as … So, in essence, when you remove a Confederate statue monument or headstone, you are in fact, removing a statue monument or headstone of a U.S. Commentary Meghan was also a reporter at National Journal, and her work has been featured on CSPAN, MSNBC, NPR, New York Times, and Washington Post. After statues around the world were defaced as part of the Black Lives Matters protests, Kelly Grovier looks at why some monuments provoke powerful reactions. June 11, 2020 2:41 pm EDT. He thought they would make it harder for the country to heal. In addition to monuments to the Union and Confederate honorees, the … Before that, Meghan was a cofounder at Morning Consult, where she led the company’s newsroom. So, why were Confederate monument erected in the first place? "They were built during a period of racial violence and strong beliefs about Anglo-Saxon supremacy," Karen L. Cox, professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, said. No one puts a monument up to Washington or Jefferson to promote slavery. I think it’s an American Tragedy.”, Or another: “It belongs to America! Activists and some political leaders have tried for years to remove them. In many ways, the statues were meant to be a symbol of white supremacy. "Tributes to the Confederacy — placing statues, naming streets and other public facilities — were part of the Lost Cause ideology that focused on an idyllic era of stately mansions, beautiful women, and gallant Confederate officers," Charles S. Bullock, III, a professor of public and international affairs at the University of Georgia, told Politifact. 2021 Bustle Digital Group. VETERAN. Houseless Residents Say They Were Evicted Without Warning in Richmond. Most notably, this ‘Lost Cause’ vision claimed that preserving states’ rights and preserving Southern culture were the central aims of the Confederacy, when in actuality preserving slavery and white supremacy were its main goals.”, The second motivation, Dickinson said, was “an effort to reassert white supremacy after Reconstruction—physical reminders for the black population who was in control.”. But experts believe the monuments were built to send a message promoting white supremacy. But it was the mass protests over the police killing of 46-year-old George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis, that sped action along. Stop the cultural cleansing of our nation’s great heroes and history!”. As Prof. Michael Dickinson, an expert in African American history at Virginia Commonwealth University, explained, there were “two primary motivations” for the people who put up Confederate statues on Monument Avenue in Richmond. It’s from the Southern Poverty Law Center, and it shows us when all those Confederate monuments and statues were erected: This illustrates something that even a lot of liberals don’t always get. There's been a lot of discussion lately about whether Confederate monuments and memorials should remain in public spaces. When were Confederate statues built and why? A large number of Confederate memorials were constructed in the 1920s, at a time when Civil War veterans, who had long been respected in Southern society, were dying of old age. 1911 was a big year for putting up Confederate monuments in a number of states; across the South, numerous statues were erected during the Jim Crow era. Before Charlottesville, the most high-profile move came earlier this year, when New Orleans finished tearing down four Confederate monuments. The removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia, sparked a deadly protest, but the Confederate general opposed them. Rather, Confederate monuments were intended “to celebrate … the re-subjugation of the formerly enslaved and their progeny into the economic peonage and racial caste system of Jim Crow.” why were Confederate monument erected in the first place. While some may argue that the monuments are an important way to preserve American history, many of the statues that depict Civil War heroes were not erected until decades after the war had already ended. Social Justice Virginia, once the capital of the Confederacy, has more than 200 statues honoring the side that lost the Civil War. The Associated Press contributed to this report. … We’ve tried marches, petitions, protests, going to city council” to get the Confederate monuments removed, said Phil Wilayto, a longtime community organizer and activist with the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality. While many statues have been up for years, … Yet still standing were Confederate monuments that fueled the white supremacist ideas which got Evers, King and countless other Black people killed or brutalized, or discriminated against. The mere idea of removing the statues, however, has activated people who say they want to “preserve” the monuments, arguing that it is “un-American” to remove them. For example, one poster in the “Monument Avenue Preservation Group” on Facebook put it this way: “Welcome to Soviet Russia, destroy the past and re-write the narrative. A damaged nearly century-old Confederate statue li A damaged nearly century-old Confederate statue lies on a pallet in a warehouse in Durham, N.C. on Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017. Here's What You Need to Know. … Meghan McCarthy, Originally Published But there are still plenty of white people in our state who are comfortable arguing, publicly on Facebook, that Confederate statues in the commonwealth should stay standing. It was also a time of great poverty in the region following its loss in the war, and the statues were seen as a way to commemorate a more prosperous past. The message: white men are in charge.". … Big statues in prominent public spaces erected to make a point about the supposed glories of the Confederacy should be transferred elsewhere (ideally to museums or battlefields). According to many historians, they were constructed with a very particular political agenda, something that should definitely be taken into account when debating their removal. Since the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) compiled the data, they suggest the memorials were most frequently put in place during periods of flagrant anti-black sentiment in the South. All rights reserved. More statues were targeted following protests over the police killing of George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis, on May 25, 2020. Rashid: Why Would You Let Someone Steal Your Money Every Year? Vaccines Explained Confederate monuments may be a part of history, but not the part of history that most people probably associate them with. Here's What You Need to Know. All the news you need — right in your inbox, Virginia Sees Immediate Impact From Some of Biden's Executive Orders, Panel Vote Puts Pfizer COVID Vaccine Before FDA for Final Approval, Republicans Have Been Packing the Courts Since Trump Took Office, Xzavier Hill Was Unarmed, Family Says. Economy Questions Remain in Police Shooting. “African American communities do not have the luxury of having idealized views of the past or the present. So, why were Confederate monument erected in the first place? is a national editor with COURIER and she helped found Dogwood. "These statues were meant to create legitimate garb for white supremacy," James Grossman, executive director of the American Historical Association, told NPR. These arguments are uniquely ironic, considering the Confederate generals themselves chose to secede from America, an act of treason, and fight a bloody war to keep enslaving Black people. The reality is that they were erected to support a cause, but not that cause you may think. Another ten monuments were documented in 1866, and 11 more in 1867 by the time the first post-war Confederate monuments were erected in Romney, Hampshire County, West Virginia and Chester, Chester County, South Carolina in 1867. Many people may be surprised to learn that most of these Confederate monuments and statues were erected more than 35 years after the Civil War ended. In the meantime, protesters in Richmond and other Virginia cities have pulled down statues themselves, including a statue of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy. When Confederate statues were erected throughout history. One statue is a tribute to Confederate General Robert E. 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