Our daughter of confederacy vox youtube7/27/2023 The city itself was a spectator in this legal fight. Eventually, the UDC prevailed and the restored monument was rededicated in the cemetery in 2014. But in a strange twist, the plan was blocked when the Sons of Confederate Veterans, another Confederate heritage organization, sued the UDC to prevent the relocation of the monument. Over the past decade, Southern legislatures have passed laws requiring approval from state legislatures before any historical monuments can be moved, removed, or altered - thereby freezing those private decisions in place.Ī controversy in Reidsville, North Carolina in 2011, which failed to attract any national attention, offers a window into the origins of Confederate monuments and their contested “ownership.” That year, an errant driver plowed into the generic Confederate soldier memorial that stood precariously beside a major street in the small town, 25 miles north of Greensboro.īecause 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. Most Confederate monuments were, in short, the result of private groups colonizing public space. As a consequence, contemporaries, especially African Americans, who objected to the erection of monuments had no realistic opportunity to voice their opposition. Typically, groups like the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), which claimed to represent local community sentiment (whether they did or did not), funded, erected, and dedicated the monuments. Few if any of the monuments went through any of the approval procedures that we now commonly apply to public art. It is going to take equal energy and focus to remove them from the national landscape.īut the story of the monuments is even stranger than many people realize. The preservation of these monuments has likewise reflected a clear political agenda. The installation of the 1,000-plus memorials across the US was the result of the orchestrated efforts of white Southerners and a few Northerners with clear political objectives: They tended to be erected at times when the South was fighting to resist political rights for black citizens. The Confederate monuments in New Orleans Charlottesville, Virginia Durham, North Carolina, and elsewhere did not organically pop up like mushrooms. But let us linger on what history we’ll be preserving as long as Confederate memorials stand. The debate over Confederate monuments has been framed by President Donald Trump - and some who share his views - as a fight between those who wish to preserve history and those who would “erase” it.
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