Calla Imming-
The creation and later societally wanted removal of Confederate Monuments and symbols across the United States has been an age-old struggle, recently reignited after decades of being quieted. Beginning again on July 17, 2015, when Dylann Roof, a twenty-one-year-old white supremacist, shot and murdered nine African American people at Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Roof had the intentions of hoping to incite a race war from his actions, but instead the massacre lead to revival of policy change and activism attempting to remove all symbols of the Confederacy across the nation. Though Roofs actions where only the beginning. The next few years the occurrence of horrific racially based violence would grow as would the need for further change. “The murder of Heather Heyer during a right-wing rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 and a 2018 shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue that claimed eleven lives.” (Charleston, HIST) Then the unjust killing of “George Floyd, a forty-six-year-old black man, on May 25, 2020” (Cox, 6)Protests began to grow across not only the United States but the world.
The fabricated narrative which has fed into the false modern-day perspective around confederate symbolism can be arguably first started by Edward A. Pollard, who was a wartime journalist who first published a literary piece called The Lost Cause: A New Southern History of the War of the Confederates, in 1866. The piece was aimed to soothe the devastating southern confederate loss by twisting the narrative of the true reason behind the civil war, to make2/5southern communities who fought to believe their cause was just. “The Confederate generation’s undying faith in southern nationalism and belief that southern culture was superiorto that of theNorth made defeat a hard pill to swallow. The Lost Cause became Pollard’s paean to southern nationalism and a rally cry to not give up on it.” (Cox, 17) But the truth of the matter remains. The main reason behind the confederacy in the Civil War was not simply a matter of protecting ‘states’ rights.’ It was to justify and maintain the inhumane act of slavery.
The purpose of wanting the removal of confederate symbols across the nation is not an attack on southern communities’ history and heritage, which many argue as to why these symbols should still stand, but it is “about acknowledging the injustices of the past as we address those of today.” (SPLC) “Confederate monuments are not innocuous symbols… they are weapons in the larger arsenal of white supremacy.” (Cox, 3) I stand with the growing movement which desires the elimination of these monuments, though I do understand the complicated nature behind the societal perception of their removal. Over 1,747 confederate symbols still stand across the United States, almost 800 of them are monuments, 100 of them are schools and universities named after confederate icons, almost 100 cities are named after confederates, as well as 10 U.S. military bases, and there is a total of “9 observed state holidays in five states.” (SPLC) It’s easier said then done to remove absolutely all traces of the confederacy. Even if so, “removing a monument does not remove the systemic racism with, which has long been associated. It is a symbolic act only” (Cox, 4) One the United States deeply struggles with.
Though the action of iconoclasm is not foreign to the rest of the world. From obliterated Aztec temples by Spanish Conquerors, to destroyed Ancient Roman artwork by medieval Christians, to even “more recently, in 2001, the Taliban destroyed giant statues of the Buddha in central Afghanistan… Flags and portraits of reviled leaders like World War II Germany’s Adolf Hitler were destroyed after a fall from power.” (Fortin, NYT) All of these were symbols of different cultures and backgrounds representing a wide range of cultural ideologies. Examples of other nations instances of removing historically misleading or disagreed with symbolism.The issue with current day standing confederate monuments in the United States is that “they were placed there by white southerners whose intentions were not to preserve history but to glorify a heritage that did not resemble historical facts.” (Cox, 13) And the modern-day cultural viewpoint in the United States is no longer wishing to tolerate these objects which misrepresent the nation’s history. This fabricated view and teaching of confederate history continued until around the late 1970’s in most southern districts when public schools were desegrated. But monuments continued to be erected until the late 2000’s. This could lead as a possible explanation as to why the Lost Cause narrative still dominates most of the nation’s perspective towards confederate symbolism. It was taught to whom we know as the baby boomer generation and generation x, these generations together make up around 40% of the current U.S population. Regardless of public or private education, it is well known that our greatest influences in life are our families, the older generations teach and form the younger ones.
Hypothetically if the nation gathered and agreed to remove and rename all current standing confederate symbols, it begs the question, what do you do with them? Where do they go? Karen Cox mentions in her book No Common Ground that few confederate statues and plaques resides on battle grounds, which I believe would be a smart place for many of these statues to go, or museums, so they can also be given the proper historical context behind them, when people come to view them. This way we’re not destroying and taking away what many people do believe to be representations of their heritage. But at least they would be out of public spaces, specifically not in front of governmental buildings in which they have absolutely noplace, for there they serve nothing more than as a reminder of slavery and the abuse of black southerners done by the overexertion of power of white men. Though I must admit I am also not completely against the utter destruction of some which is borderline hypocritical to my beliefs regarding historical objects whether they represent good or bad moments in history. History needs to be preserved especially if there is evidence that that very history was manipulated, so we as a society can learn from how it shaped us, but also then recognize the truth. These monuments are historical representations, despite the fact they have been used to spin a false narrative.
Citations
Cox, Karen L. No Common Ground: Confederate Monuments and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice. Chapel Hill, The University Of North Carolina Press, 2021.
Fortin, Jacey. “Toppling Monuments, a Visual History.” Nytimes.com, The New York Times, 17 Aug. 2017, http://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/17/world/controversial-statues-monuments- destroyed.html#. Accessed 8 Oct. 2024.
History.com Editors. “Charleston Church Shooting.” H/STORY, A&E Television Networks, 8 June 2020, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/charleston-ame-church-shooting.
Southern Poverty Law Center. “Whose Heritage? Public Symbols of the Confederacy.” Southern Poverty Law Center, 1 Feb. 2019, http://www.splcenter.org/20190201/whose-heritage- public-symbols-confederacy.
The Humanists Works 