I was talking to a friend one day. We were discussing (arguing) about Confederate memorials and statues and whether they should remain up or be torn down. I wanted them all taken down, but she didn’t, so we argued. Fed up with talking in circles, I finally snapped something like “if you owned slaves you just don’t get a statue! Period!” My friend then looked me dead in my eyes and said, “well, then we need to take down the Washington and Jefferson memorials too.”
Well, needless to say that shut me up.
And it made me think. I knew that I didn’t feel that the Washington and Jefferson memorials should come down, though I felt that for the many Lee and Jeff Davis statues. So, what was the difference? Was it simply because they were presidents and founding fathers? Did that excuse the fact that all four men were slave owners? Were Lee and Jeff Davis more reprehensible because they were fighting for slavery, not simply participating in it, and (honestly) did it matter?
I had to think about that for a long time, but the honest truth was that it DID matter.
As a people, as Americans, we commission statues and raise monuments, not really to commemorate the man (or woman), but to celebrate the person’s positive societal contributions. Everything is on a continuum. People will always do both good and bad things, so it becomes important to determine which is more impacting, which is more important to history – the good or the bad. Dr. King was a major icon and leader of the civil rights movement. A good thing. He was also an adulterer. Bad thing. Why is he celebrated? Because his contributions toward racial equality easily outweigh his personal failings as a husband. Hitler improved Germany’s economy, educational system, and infrastructure. His regime made large breakthroughs in science and technology. All good things. Hitler also created the holocaust, committing acts of depravity, torture, and genocide. Some very, very bad things. Why is Hitler not celebrated? Simple, because the good he did is smothered under the weight of the great evils he perpetrated.
There is a limit and Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and the Confederacy itself crossed it when they chose to spill blood in order to keep people as property. It’s not the loss of the war or even the whole treason thing that seals the deal. It’s the slavery thing.
And before I hear the uproar of “the Confederacy wasn’t about slavery,” let me say this. I’m not saying the states seceded for slavery, the states themselves said it. I’m not saying that Jefferson Davis thought enslaving black people was their God given right, he said that himself. I’m not saying the major reason the South went to war to keep slavery alive, the South said that in many, many, many of their letters, speeches, articles, and legislative papers.
That’s why Confederate statues and memorials are inappropriate and should be removed, while the likes of Washington and Jefferson get to keep their memorials.
The question is simply, did the good they did outweigh the bad? And for the “heroes” of the Confederacy, the answer is no.
Dalia C.
Vicksburg, MS