Preface: I usually keep this blog focused exclusively on stories related to Milliken’s Bend. However, the shocking events of August 12 at Charlottesville, VA and the ongoing debate over Confederate monuments compelled me to write this piece.

It’s not about the monuments, really, is it?

It can no longer be said that Confederate monuments are not about racism. The actions of the white supremacists at Charlottesville, Virginia has ensured that any discussion of the Confederacy must necessarily wrestle with and confront not just the past legacy of racism, but more importantly, the shocking presence, persistence, and violence of it in the present.

Indeed, it is the present that requires our undivided attention and our bold action. But this fight is not about monuments, and it is not even about the Confederacy. It is about our present.

I’m deeply concerned that the fight against Confederate monuments is (dare I say it?) misguided. Here’s why:

It’s History

First, as a historian, I have grave concerns about the removal of monuments of a historical nature, even if they memorialize a painful, even an offensive part of our nation’s past. I worry, quite sincerely, that by removing Confederate monuments, we are opening the way for the erasure of this history. I believe it is vitally important that this history must be preserved. Without acknowledging the history of the Confederacy, we are at risk of forgetting or minimizing the uncomfortable parts of our past. I fear that removing Confederate monuments in this generation could create a historical vacuum for future generations, who might argue, like Holocaust deniers, that “it never happened” or “it wasn’t that bad.” To be sure, some people already make those kinds of statements today.

Instead of removal, I argue for reinterpretation. We desperately need a public counternarrative, and that counternarrative should be in an equally prominent place.  These counternarratives can take many forms. It could be planting large trees to obscure a monument; letting it overgrow with ivy; turning it into a graffiti park; adding heavy chains to it; building a tomb around the monument to ensure that it is “entombed” in the past; literally opposing the monument by building one to former slaves who enlisted or fought in the region; or telling more about the circumstances (aka the Truth) of the Confederate monument itself. What was happening when it was originally erected? Perhaps – as this graphic shows – the monuments were not so much to slavery and the Confederacy as they were a way to advocate for and endorse Jim Crow, years after the war. As Kevin Levin tweeted:

Instead of describing them as Confederate monuments we should refer to Jim Crow-era monuments to white supremacy. #CivilWarMemory

— Kevin M. Levin (@KevinLevin) August 13, 2017

Knowing a Confederate monument went up shortly after Plessy v. Ferguson, for example, shows me a resurgent South, intent on taking (further) actions to impede civil rights, equality, and civic progress. And while this may not be anything to memorialize, in a laudatory sense, it is something that is critically worth remembering – so that we may never forget. Having something that made this connection explicit attached to a Confederate monument would tell me and teach me important lessons about my nation’s and my community’s history, lessons that apparently too many people have not been taught.

It’s Not Simple

I often believe that many of our historical interpretive troubles are caused by oversimplification, and I see that at work, here, in the monument debate. Confederate monuments by definition target the South – but surely no one in this movement would say that racism is or ever was a strictly Southern problem. Focusing on Confederate monuments leaves out vast swaths of the country, and in fact supports the falsehood that the rest of the country had and continues to have less of a race problem than the South. This does nothing to resolve the persistent issue of racism. Let us not forget that the man who drove the car in Charlottesville was from Ohio; that one of the largest neo-Nazi gatherings in America occurred in Indiana; that white supremacy knows no geographic boundaries.

While it is easy to believe that all Confederate monuments are de facto monuments to slavery, I respectfully, though cautiously, disagree. While it is true that the Civil War and the Confederacy absolutely came about because of slavery, some Confederate monuments on courthouse lawns and town squares are to the rank and file men from a community, and most of the time, only a small portion of these men owned slaves.  I see nothing wrong with a monument erected to a community’s loss during war, no different than the Bedford Boys monument to losses sustained by this one community on a single day, June 6, 1944, D-Day. It is a symbol of loss and mourning. Reinterpretation could also talk about the loss and mourning of those left out of that narrative – the loss of family and lives due to slavery and Jim Crow. That too should be marked, memorialized (in a solemn way, not a celebratory way), and recounted. That too is a significant loss to a community.

Monuments Are a Mere Scapegoat

It’s easy to make the Confederacy (of 150 years ago) a convenient scapegoat for our problems today. But is this really fair, historically speaking, and from a moral culpability standpoint? The Confederacy existed for a mere four years. Can we really pin the blame for all of our racial troubles on that one moment in time, or a few of its prominent leaders? The entire country is at fault, here, and the blame and responsibility has an expansive timeline, of more than 400 years.

Let us not forget that the Constitution of the United States, when the country was founded, left slavery intact; that countless legal decisions rendered slaves unpersons; and after the Civil War, for much of the twentieth century, “separate and unequal” was the law and custom of the land. It is not just the Confederate nation that held those perverse “truths” to be “self-evident” – our very country was founded on those offensive principles. It is a part of our national DNA, a genetic defect that our country was born with. Doing a little cosmetic surgery won’t change that, though it might make our handicap less obvious.

By singling out the Confederacy as the culprit, we can point the finger at “them”, and make ourselves feel good by tearing down a monument. But this  keeps the attention off of ourselves, and our complicity and responsibility. By attacking and tearing down a tangible, inanimate object, we can claim to have “done something” in the name of anti-racism. This is noble, but it is not enough. It enables us to conveniently and naively absolve ourselves of any part in today’s racist environment, and helps prevent us from having to look closely at ourselves and our own actions (or inactions).  But have we really done anything at all?  It might make us “look good” and feel better – but it didn’t stop white supremacists from marching and it doesn’t give the vote back to those who have lost it due to restrictive legislation. It doesn’t keep a noose out of the Smithsonian Museum of African American History.

I also believe that it is important for every Confederate monument to be viewed in its individual context. Perhaps one town square’s monument is to the dead of that county. Maybe a regiment of 1000 came back with only 70 survivors at war’s end. Maybe another monument, like that in Franklin, Tennessee, is located on an actual battlefield, even though it has a prominent place in the town square. Yet another may have a relationship in some form to a lynching or was erected to make a statement against civil rights legislation. To me, these circumstances cast these monuments in vastly different lights, and they need to be interpreted in their individual, particular contexts.

Let’s Focus on Our Present Danger

More motivating to me than all of these factors, however, is the recognition that removal of Confederate monuments ultimately changes the landscape, and little else. It does not remove racism. It does not actually fight against today’s white supremacists. Removing monuments is really just a way for us to feel like we are doing “something” – but it does little to address the real issues that need addressing. It is focusing on a single symptom, but leaving the disease untreated. Like a cancer patient worried about hair loss, and buying a hair rejuvenation cream. Sure, she might look good and feel a little better about herself, maybe even fooling her friends into thinking she’s making a full recovery. But inside, the cancer is untreated and continues to grow and spread.  Removing monuments is a “feel good” story. It is something concrete. We can post pictures, and cry out “victory” – but that victory remains very very hollow. It is, in fact, a “ceremonial” victory, and in the end, a nearly empty one.

We need to take this outrage, this measured but earnest action, and fight instead against the things that truly threaten our democracy and our country’s people today.  This is much more difficult, because the problems are large, systemic and abstract, involving policies, law, and institutions. Far more important to me, and I hope to you, are these threats:

Voting

• the undoing of the Voting Rights Act
• gerrymandering to restrict outcomes of elections
• fraudulent claims of “voter fraud”
• purging of voter rolls
• reduced polling places and voting hours
• restrictive Voter ID laws
• other efforts to impair, impede, and reduce voter turnout, particularly among the poor, elderly, disabled, and people of color
• the electoral college as a hindrance to truly democratic and representative elections; a true relic of the past that should be Constitutionally repealed
• the Citizens United decision which equates money with speech and grants corporations “speech” rights which suppress voices and actions of individuals

Police, Urban, Gun and Youth Violence

Mass Incarceration

Financial difficulties of Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Laws that seek to embolden and protect those who oppose equality, diversity and inclusion

Even such actions as an incredible proposal from this past year in the Tennessee General Assembly, disallowing civil claims if a car “accidentally” hits a protester. Thankfully, this measure failed, but the fact that it was proposed at all is deeply troubling and frightening.

The gathering of armed white supremacists is much more concerning to me than any monument to the Confederacy erected in 1890 or 1910. And it is much more a direct threat to my, my friends and colleagues, and my countrymen’s freedom than any cold statuary. Worst yet, is the language of our President and other people in positions of power that endorse these groups.

We could remove every Confederate monument in this country overnight, but what would we gain? Not a world without racism. Not better living conditions. Not equal and just access to medical care. Not a free and unobstructed right to the ballot. Not safer neighborhoods. Aren’t these the things we really want? Isn’t racism in the present what we really want to eliminate? Monuments are a distraction. We have infinitely more pressing issues. We need to take action, now. Our lives, all our lives – and our nation – depend upon it.

After these major victories are won, perhaps then we can concern ourselves with tidying up the landscape. But until then, don’t be distracted. Fight on. And make every protest bring about lasting and meaningful positive change.

Further reading:

Statement from National Museum of African American History and Culture

Kevin Levin in the Atlantic

Statement from National Council on Public History

Statement from American Association for State and Local History

A Monumental Discussion at Emerging Civil War

Multiple viewpoints at CNN

Compilations from Megan Kate Nelson