C.S. Monuments Face Removal Threats

By Scott C. Boyd · Originally published March 2016 · p. 14

After-effects of the backlash against Confederate symbols, including the battle flag and monuments to Confederate icons like Gen. Robert E. Lee, continue. An upsurge in anti-Confederate sentiment swelled following the murder of nine African Americans during a prayer meeting in their historic Charleston, S.C., church on June 17 by a white gunman later seen in Internet postings with a Confederate battle flag. In the largest city of the former Confederacy, New Orleans, La., an effort to remove four Confederaterelated statues culminated in a 6-1 vote on Dec. 17 by the city council to declare the monuments a “public nuisance,” permitting the city to move the monuments to a warehouse pending a decision on a permanent new locations. The monuments are statues of Lee, P.G.T. Beauregard and Jefferson Davis, all more than 100 years old and two listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The fourth is an obelisk commemorating a Reconstruction-era street fight between the White League and the city’s first integrated police force called the Battle of Liberty Place. The contractor hired to remove the monuments received death threats and his car was set on fire, even after he turned down the job. On Feb. 4 The Georgia Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans, called for a New Orleans boycott by visitors and businesses. A coalition of groups opposed to the statues’ removal filed a lawsuit in federal court the same day as the council vote: the Louisiana Landmarks Society, the Foundation for Historical Louisiana, the Monumental Task Committee Inc. and the Sons of Confederate Veterans Beauregard Camp 130. A U.S. District Judge denied the motion to stop the statues’ removal on Jan. 26. A lawsuit was filed the next day in Louisiana state court to halt the statues’ removal. A hearing was scheduled for Feb. 5. A Baltimore, Md., task force recommended that the Roger B. Taney Monument and the double equestrian Lee and Jackson Monument be removed. As Supreme Court Justice, Taney wrote the 1857

REINFORCEMENTS MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE!!!

Dred Scott decision that slaves could not be U.S. citizens. The commission suggested offering the Lee-Jackson monument to the National Park Service at Chancellorsville and keeping the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument and the Confederate Women’s Monument, but provide context for both. In a different slant on monuments, The Washington Post editorial writer Charles Lane on Jan. 28 wrote that C.S. Gen. James Longstreet is a better subject to memorialize. He should be honored for his conduct after the surrender at Appomattox, “as the rare ex-Rebel to accept the South’s defeat, and its consequences. “ Lane wrote, “If and when New Orleans does take Robert E. Lee off that pedestal, it should put a statue of Longstreet on it.” It would help prompt reflection on broader truths, Lane said. “Longstreet risked his life for the worst cause Americans ever espoused, then for the best one. In short, he epitomized this nation’s saving grace, and humanity’s: the capacity to learn from our mistakes, and to change.” In Georgetown, Texas, the Williamson Museum’s “Old South Ball,” a fund raiser featuring period dances and refreshments, drew complaints after ticket sales were publicized. The dance was one of several events planned in conjunction with a Civil War exhibit. A petition said, “A grand Southern Ball with uniformed soldiers and ladies in grand antebellum dresses does not in any way accurately reflect the period or time in Williamson County.” Some of the signers had petitioned in September to remove the Confederate statue outside the Williamson County Courthouse. In Georgia, Sen. Vincent Fort of Atlanta filed a bill “to prohibit the recognition of public and legal holidays honoring, recognizing, observing, or celebrating the Confederate States of America, its history, or the military or political leaders thereof or the Civil War; to repeal the observing of Confederate History and Heritage Month.” Georgia state Rep. LaDawn Jones sponsored a bill that would allow Stone Mountain Memorial Association to change the mountain where Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson are carved under the requirement to maintain an “appropriate, inclusive and historically accurate” memorial to the Civil War.