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Development of Confederate monuments in the United States

Image of the Confederate Memorial carved on Stone Mountain in Georgia.

In the period immediately following the American Civil War, efforts began to commemorate the conflict across the United States. The continued presence of monuments dedicated to the Confederate States of America has caused public controversy in recent decades. The debate has coalesced between two camps which either support or oppose removal of Confederate memorials. Sentiments within these camps cover a range of potential solutions, either demolition, placement of memorials in museums, or leaving them in public spaces.

From the end of Reconstruction through the end of the Civil Rights era, roughly 1877 to 1964, it is estimated that over 700 memorials were created across the United States. These memorials exist as monuments, statues, sculptures, names of military installations and vessels, and public ceremonies. Their construction was promoted by various organizations, including the Sons of Confederate Veterans, United Daughters of the Confederacy, United Confederate Veterans, and government-affiliated groups.

In the 21st century there has been renewed scrutiny and public discourse about Confederate Monuments. This debate was prompted by new instances of racial violence, and focuses on whether or not Confederate Monuments should remain in public spaces or be torn down.

Background

From 1787 until 1861, the United States stratified between the agrarian south and industrialized north. A series of compromises extended the legal right to slavery into new territories. Southern politics were largely controlled by wealthy elite members of the planter aristocracy, whose primary motivation was to preserve the institution of slavery in the south. Following the Presidential election of 1860, resulting in the victory of Abraham Lincoln, southern fears of growing abolitionist sentiment led many states to secede from the Union to form the Confederate States of America. The subsequent conflict from 1861 to 1865, called the Civil War in the United States, led to the devastation of most of the south, and resulted in emancipation becoming a war aim of the Union. Shortly after the final surrender of the Confederacy in April, 1965, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. He was succeeded by his Vice President Andrew Johnson who held sympathies toward the south, and frequently espoused racist ideas.

Following the Civil War the period of Reconstruction saw a brief period of participation in government by Black people in the South between 1865 and 1877. Slowly, former Confederate leaders and their supporters, called "Redeemers," initiated a wave of reactionary public policy known as "Black Codes" aimed at restricting the rights of Freedmen. They passed restrictive legislation which implemented poll taxes, literacy tests, and gerrymandering, among other policies which had the effect of stopping freed slaves and their descendants from participating in Southern elections. It further resulted in the reinstitution of the racial caste system, with whites holding power over black people. This became known as the Jim Crow era, and lasted until approximately 1964 with the passage of the first Civil Rights Act.

A social movement quickly developed after the Civil War which sought to restore southern pride. Following the publishing of the eponymous book in 1866, the Lost Cause myth gained wide acceptance across much of the United States, particularly among former Confederates and their descendants in the south. This version of the Confederacy reduced the importance of slavery as a motivating factor for the Civil War, and claimed that slave owners acted benevolently to their slaves. It reframed the Civil War as northern aggression aimed at stripping away the states' rights and economic engines of the south. It honored the Confederate soldiers and leaders as the militarily superior force, who only lost the war because of the industrial and population strength of the Union. The Lost Cause earned national notoriety through publications in the media, most famously with the release of D.W. Griffiths' film, The Birth of a Nation in 1915. This film summarized the Lost Cause by portraying the Ku Klux Klan as a heroic force in opposition to the dastardly carpetbaggers and freedmen. Throughout much of the early 20th century, efforts by groups like the UDC and UCV saw southern classrooms indoctrinated with the Lost Cause as well. Many educators in the former Confederacy were forced to adopt textbooks which promoted narratives of southern pride, northern aggression, and Black complacency featured in the Lost Cause. The myth of the Lost Cause continues to be influential today, inspiring the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups, and shaping conservative narratives of the Civil War.

Throughout the periods of Reconstruction and Jim Crow, black people across the south were the targets of physical violence and intimidation by white supremacists. Organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan organized mob violence which aimed to terrorize black communities, either to force them to leave or to restrict their participation in the electoral process. Beatings, murder, and lynching became commonplace throughout the south during this period. These extraducial terror campaigns coincided with legal disenfranchisement and segregation codified in both state constitutions and Supreme Court cases such as Plessy v. Ferguson. The widespread systemic attempts to return Black people in the south to a state of second-class citizenship and bondage were protected throughout this time by southern legislatures.

This era of violence also saw the construction of most of the Confederate monuments in the United States. The erecting of monuments in public spaces served as a reminder to the population of the south of Confederate glory and white supremacy. The close relationship between Lost Cause ideology, groups like the UDC, and the resurgent Ku Klux Klan coalesced around the creation of these monuments. The massive Confederate Memorial Carving at Stone Mountain, Georgia was perhaps one of the largest such memorial made during this period. In 1915, Stone Mountain was chosen as the sight for the reestablishment of the second wave of the Ku Klux Klan, and many of the people involved in the memorial's creation were associated with the Klan. Plans for the memorial began in 1914, with it finally being completed in 1970 after the sight was purchased by the government of Georgia. Additional monuments can be found across the south, including until recently, Monument Avenue, in the former Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.

Public discussions

Image from the "Unite the Right Rally" held in Charlottesville, VA 2017 showing crowd carrying Confederate and Nazi flags.

Public controversy regarding Confederate monuments gained newfound prominence in the 21st century. While racial conflict had taken place throughout United States history up until then, the 2015 Charleston Church Shooting became a watershed moment for new debates, particulary about Confederate Monuments. Following a resurgence of racial violence, white supremacist movements, and right-wing demonstrations, public outcry over the removal of Confederate Monuments prompted a fierce rebuttal from those who sought to preserve them. The discussion typically presents solutions such as destroying the monuments, placing them in a museum or other institution, or leaving them in place either with or without added context.

Supporters of removal

Supporters of removing Confederate monuments give several reasons to justify their views. The Confederacy was explicitly founded on the premise of protecting slavery as an institution. This is supported in several of the secession documents of former Confederate states, as well as public declarations by various southern leaders.

The subjects of the monuments broadly represent the racist and oppressive history faced by African-Americans in the United States, particularly in the South and during the Jim Crow era. In areas where Confederate monuments were built, there has been a higher instance of Black disenfranchisement and inequality.

The construction of Confederate monuments was largely undertaken with the purpose of intimidating Black people and promoting white supremacy, and perpetuates a false narrative of United States history. These values and symbols have proven to be powerful motivators for new generations of white supremacists engaging in racial terror campaigns.

Opponents of removal

Opponents to the removal of monuments claim that removing them is equivalent to erasing history.

Ideas promoted by the Lost Cause are widely circulated by opponents to statue removal, who claim that the subjects depicted were gallant heroes who valued loyalty to their homes over loyalty to the Union.

Many express that Confederate iconography, including monuments, flags, and other depictions represent, "heritage not hate." This concept broadly attaches southern identity to the Confederacy, and claims that contemporary views of the Confederacy are shaped by a shared sense of pride in the past, instead of explicit hatred toward Black people.

Removals of Confederate Monuments

Resistance to Confederate monuments has existed since their construction. Very few monuments were removed New waves of intense public scrutiny followed numerous incidents of violence instigated by white supremacists and the alt-right movement.

Charleston, South Carolina

The Charleston church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina prompted massive public outrage directed toward Confederate monuments, which were seen to glorify white supremacy.

Charlottesville, Virginia

In 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia, The Unite the Right Rally formed to protest against the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. This demonstration contained various images of white supremacist symbols, antisemitic chants, and deadly incidents of violence.

Richmond, Virginia

The first statue on what became Monument Avenue was an equestrian statue of Robert E. Lee dedicated in 1890. Between 1890 and 1929 several other statues of Confederate leaders lined the prominent street in the former Confederate capital. Public controversy ensued when in 1996 a statue of Black Tennis legend Arthur Ashe was unveiled in 1996.

Following the 2017 Unite the Right Rally, public calls to remove the Confederate statues grew increasingly louder. Between 2020 and 2021, city and state leaders agreed on plans to remove the Confederate statues and plinths, leaving only Arthur Ashe on former Monument Avenue.

Subsequent events

Following these events, additional plans to remove Confederate statues have been made across the United States. Cities such as Baltimore, New Orleans, and Lexington, among others have all announced efforts to remove Confederate symbols. These efforts have met with varied reactions by the public and politicians.

Continued attempts by a black member of the Georgia legislature to remove Confederate symbols led to a response by a white colleague who threatened violence against anyone trying to remove statues in Georgia.

New waves of protests and counterprotests about Confederate monuments occurred following the murder of George Floyd in 2020 by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

See Also

• Jim Crow laws
• List of Confederate monuments and memorials
• List of monument and memorial controversies in the United States
• Neo-confederate
• Reconstruction Era

Notes

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Further reading

• Domby, Adam H.. The False Cause: Fraud, Fabrication, and White Supremacy in Confederate Memory, University of Virginia Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/odu/detail.action?docID=6027094.
• Equal Justice Initiative, “Reconstruction in America: Racial Violence after the Civil War, 1865-1876” (2020).                                               
• Southern Poverty Law Center (Feb 1, 2019). https://www.splcenter.org/sites/default/files/com_whose_heritage.pdf.

External Links

Whose Heritage: Public Symbols of the Confederacy[1]

Categories:

Civil Rights History | Civil War History | Cultural History | Lost Cause of the Confederacy | Race-related controversies in the United States | Removed statues