Bootney Lee Farnsworth
Diamond Member
FINE, THEN TEAR DOWN the monuments in places that DO NOT have a significant population of descendants whose ancestors fought in that war, to no benefit of their own!!!Many were placed as the most of the veterans were dying off (around 1900-1915). Others were placed on or about the 100th Anniversary.At what point, is it going “too far“ when it comes to these memorials?
There are some facts to consider:
Many of those ”memorials” were mass produced long after war, and erected during times During times of racial tensions. They were erected with no discussion.
Understanding the specific historical context of Confederate monuments in America is imperative to informed public debate. Historians who specialize in this period have done careful and nuanced research to understand and explain this context. Drawing on their expertise enables us to assess the original intentions of those who erected the monuments, and how the monuments have functioned as symbols over time. The bulk of the monument building took place not in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War but from the close of the 19th century into the second decade of the 20th. Commemorating not just the Confederacy but also the “Redemption” of the South after Reconstruction, this enterprise was part and parcel of the initiation of legally mandated segregation and widespread disenfranchisement across the South. Memorials to the Confederacy were intended, in part, to obscure the terrorism required to overthrow Reconstruction, and to intimidate African Americans politically and isolate them from the mainstream of public life. A reprise of commemoration during the mid-20th century coincided with the Civil Rights Movement and included a wave of renaming and the popularization of the Confederate flag as a political symbol. Events in Charlottesville and elsewhere indicate that these symbols of white supremacy are still being invoked for similar purposes.AHA Statement on Confederate Monuments | Perspectives on History | AHA
www.historians.org
Monuments were erected in states that played no part in the war or did even exist in the war.
Given this background, why are we fighting to retain them, when they, as intended, function as a reminder of enslavement, segregation, and loss to a siginfo ant proportion of American citizenry?
These aren’t monuments on historical sites and battlefields.
Hell, we JUST BARELY got a WWII war memorial in DC.
But don't let reality get in the way of a good narrative.
Speaking of “getting in the way of a good narrative” can you address why they were put in states that either did not exist or did not participate in the war? Why were they mass produced? Why did their placement coincide with major racial events? Why were only confederate monuments spread like this?
Thank you. I look forward to YOUR narrative
I.E. NOT CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA!!!