Should We Have the Confederate Monuments Relocated?
Thursday, April 12, 2018, is the last day for the public to contact the North Carolina Historical Commission and share their opinion about the North Carolina Department of Administration's petition to have three Confederate Monuments relocated. Comments will be received until midnight on Thursday. I have provided a link below for anyone who wishes to send in their remarks.
Last year, the North Carolina Historical Commission decided to spend a year studying this petition before making a decision about whether or not to remove the monuments from the State Capital grounds and relocate them to the Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site in Four Oaks, NC.
The three monuments that are being considered for relocation are:
(1) The Confederate Women's Monument. It was erected in 1914.
(2) The Confederate Soldiers Monument. It was erected in 1892.
(3) The Henry Lawson Wyatt Memorial. It was erected in 1912.
As a historian, I have wrestled over this issue. Many people find the statues and monuments offensive. Others take pride in them and see them as an important part of North Carolina history. I agree that they are an important part of North Carolina history but I just want to be sure that the history about them is told more accurately.
In 2012, I was helping a friend with research on a historical writing project. Part of his research led him to study the Wilmington Race Riot of 1898; a highly disturbing and rarely told story from North Carolina's checkered history. At that time, he also learned that the real reason many of our Confederate Memorials were erected, was to make a statement of white supremacy throughout the South.
I could hardly believe it. I had not heard about this when I had studied North Carolina history. Then, I read a detailed apology and story that was published by the Raleigh News & Observer in 2006. It revealed that their long-deceased editor, Josephus Daniels, had been involved in a white supremacist plot that led to the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898. Many historians view that moment in American history as the beginning of government-sanctioned violence and prejudice towards black Americans.
I am not suggesting that the monuments were a direct response to the Wilmington Riot / Insurrection of 1898. I am suggesting that both the monuments and the riot were part of a real and overarching attempt by powerful white leaders to reassert their superiority and control over black Americans.
Do the people of North Carolina want these statues and monuments to continue to represent what we value, honor and stand for, as a people?
Personally, I think the monuments should be relocated to the Bentonville Battlefield State Historic site in Four Oaks so that the offense can be removed but the history can be retained. However, I also think that information should be placed with the statues to explain where and how they were originally placed and why they were relocated.
If the North Carolina Historical Commission chooses to keep the statues where they are, I propose that effort is made, across the state, to erect plaques that would tell a more accurate story of why these types of monuments were erected in the first place.
The deadline is Thursday, April 12, midnight.
To learn more about the Wilmington Race Riot / Insurrection of 1898, go here: The Ghosts of 1898: Wilmington's Race Riot and the Rise of White Supremacy
To learn more about why the Confederate Memorials were erected, go here: Confederate Statues Were Built To Further a White Supremacist Future
Last year, the North Carolina Historical Commission decided to spend a year studying this petition before making a decision about whether or not to remove the monuments from the State Capital grounds and relocate them to the Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site in Four Oaks, NC.
The three monuments that are being considered for relocation are:
(1) The Confederate Women's Monument. It was erected in 1914.
(3) The Henry Lawson Wyatt Memorial. It was erected in 1912.
As a historian, I have wrestled over this issue. Many people find the statues and monuments offensive. Others take pride in them and see them as an important part of North Carolina history. I agree that they are an important part of North Carolina history but I just want to be sure that the history about them is told more accurately.
In 2012, I was helping a friend with research on a historical writing project. Part of his research led him to study the Wilmington Race Riot of 1898; a highly disturbing and rarely told story from North Carolina's checkered history. At that time, he also learned that the real reason many of our Confederate Memorials were erected, was to make a statement of white supremacy throughout the South.
I could hardly believe it. I had not heard about this when I had studied North Carolina history. Then, I read a detailed apology and story that was published by the Raleigh News & Observer in 2006. It revealed that their long-deceased editor, Josephus Daniels, had been involved in a white supremacist plot that led to the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898. Many historians view that moment in American history as the beginning of government-sanctioned violence and prejudice towards black Americans.
I am not suggesting that the monuments were a direct response to the Wilmington Riot / Insurrection of 1898. I am suggesting that both the monuments and the riot were part of a real and overarching attempt by powerful white leaders to reassert their superiority and control over black Americans.
Do the people of North Carolina want these statues and monuments to continue to represent what we value, honor and stand for, as a people?
Personally, I think the monuments should be relocated to the Bentonville Battlefield State Historic site in Four Oaks so that the offense can be removed but the history can be retained. However, I also think that information should be placed with the statues to explain where and how they were originally placed and why they were relocated.
If the North Carolina Historical Commission chooses to keep the statues where they are, I propose that effort is made, across the state, to erect plaques that would tell a more accurate story of why these types of monuments were erected in the first place.
Go here to: Share your opinion about the relocation of the Confederate monuments.
The deadline is Thursday, April 12, midnight.
To learn more about the Wilmington Race Riot / Insurrection of 1898, go here: The Ghosts of 1898: Wilmington's Race Riot and the Rise of White Supremacy
To learn more about why the Confederate Memorials were erected, go here: Confederate Statues Were Built To Further a White Supremacist Future
