MONUMENTALLY SPEAKING - A Discussion about Monuments and the Feelings they Elicit

MONUMENTALLY
SPEAKING
A Discussion about Monuments and the Feelings they Elicit

TRIBUTE TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN AS
                                    THE GREAT EMANCIPATOR

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/todaysdebate/2020/06/29/use-   https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/06/12/metro/tear-
confederate-monuments-place-names-educate-editorials-                 down-lincoln-statue-petition-says/
debates/3282736001/

ROBERT E LEE, AMERICAN HERO
                              OR TRAITOR?

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/06/09/racism-
history-statues-rizzo-confederate/

IS IT THE PERSON OR THE
                            DEPICTION THAT IS THE PROBLEM?

Known as "America’s first composer," Foster’s
contributions to music include composing the songs
"Oh! Susannah" and "My Old Kentucky Home.”

SAVIOR OR ASSIMILATOR?

  Detail of Pioneer Monument in San Francisco, California,
  dedicated in 1894. Native Americans see it as a symbol of
  the forced conversion and assimilation of Southwestern
  tribes by Spain and the Catholic Church beginning in the
  16th century.

     https://www.voanews.com/usa/not-just-
     confederacy-historic-statues-monuments-native-
     americans-cite-racist

CONTENT, LOCATION, IDENTITY?

https://www.voanews.com/usa/not-just-
confederacy-historic-statues-monuments-native-
americans-cite-racist

A HISTORY OF HURT

  Jackson oversaw the forced removal of Creeks
  and Cherokee from their homelands in
  Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and
  Tennessee along a westward “Trail of Tears” in
  which thousands of tribal people died. His
  action paved the way for the cotton industry in
  the South, built on the backs of African slaves.
  “And is it supposed that the wandering savage
  has a stronger attachment to his home than the
  settled, civilized Christian?” Jackson asked at
  the time.
https://www.voanews.com/usa/not-just-confederacy-historic-
statues-monuments-native-americans-cite-racist

HALLOWED HALLS

 “America’s resurgent white-nationalist
 movement thrives on the power of imagery
 and symbolism, especially the symbols of the
 Confederacy. And right in the United States
 Capitol, there’s a collection of monuments to
 their cause.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/confed
erate-statues-congress/536760/

MONUMENT AVENUE, RICHMOND, VA,
                                            CAPITOL OF THE CONFEDERACY

                                                                                                            A monument to Confederate
                                                                                                            General Robert E. Lee was
                                                                                                            erected in 1890 next to a tobacco
                                                                                                            field planted as an exhibition
                                                                                                            garden of Virginia's leading cash
                                                                                                            crop. The statue gradually
                                                                                                            became the center of a
                                                                                                            fashionable all-white
                                                                                                            neighborhood along Richmond's
                                                                                                            tree-lined Monument Avenue.
                                    https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/histori   https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/07/origin-story-
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/30469 c-registers/127-0174/                  monument-avenue-america-most-controversial-street/
6731008839209/?nic_v2=1a5wUiVwB

OLD STORIES, NEW REMINDERS

                                                            https://www.britannica.com/event/Greensbo
                                                            ro-sit-in

National Memorial for Peace and Justice

More than 4400 African American men, women, and
children were hanged, burned alive, shot, drowned,                                                      National Civil Rights Museum
and beaten to death by white mobs between 1877
and 1950. The National Memorial for Peace and Justice                                                   https://civilrightstrail.com/attraction/national-
is a sacred space for truth-telling and reflection about                                                civil-rights-museum/
racial terror in America and its legacy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_National_Me
morial_for_Peace_and_Justice
                                                           International Civil Rights Museum