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Here's an update on the #ConfederateMonuments situation in Raleigh after last nights #BlackLivesMatter 
protests. I'll be adding some stuff about related monuments at the end. All photos by me, which is why they range from terrible to meh. Thread! 1/
protests. I'll be adding some stuff about related monuments at the end. All photos by me, which is why they range from terrible to meh. Thread! 1/
This is the Soldiers and Sailors monument, dedicated "To Our Confederate Dead." Before and after. The two lower statues were removed and hanged on June 19th. I'm not sure who removed the Seal of the Confederacy, but "Deo vindice" was clearly not the case. 2/
The Monument to Confederate Women before. On the statue we see a Confederate matron, her face fixed in a mask of determination, steely gaze looking out. Beside her a child, holding on to a sword, destined to be the next defender of Southern womanhood or some such. 3/
And after. . @NC_Governor ordered the monument removed on the morning of June 20. Well done, sir. 4/
This was a monument to Henry Lawson Wyatt, the North Carolinan who was the first Confederate solider to die in the war. A small thing to celebrate, I suppose, but the monument itself has a big name attached to it—Gutzon Borglum, who created the North Carolina monument... 5/
....at Gettysburg & of Mount Rushmore. He was also the initial sculptor selected to create Stone Mountain & probably in the KKK. Wyatt laid down his life that others might keep their fellow humans as animals. Governor Cooper ordered its removal this morning. 6/
That's it for the overtly Confederate monuments, but let's see what else the grounds hold. This is dedicated to Confederate Veteran Samuel A'Court Ashe, but it's not ostensibly about his war service. This doesn't REALLY qualify as a Civil War monument, DOES it? 7/
Look closer. The third line of his CV lionizes him as the “Heroic defender of Fort Wagner,” a reference to the Battle of Fort Wagner in 1863, in which Union forces made a concerted effort to capture the strategic location, failing with heavy loss of life. 8/
Among the fallen were members of the 54th Massachusetts, the unit featured in the movie Glory, making him one of the bad guys in that movie. Hell, half of this is about his service to Confederates. You see this . @GovRoyCooper ? Get this mess out of here! 9/
Gov. Charles B. Aycock (1901-1905) Chiefly remembered for supporting education...for white people. When he became governor, per-pupil expenditures were roughly even for white and Black students; under Aycock they began to diverge, proving the lie of "separate but equal." 10/
Aycock became governor after the Democratic takeover of the legislature in 1899 on an explicit white supremacy platform. He helped lead 1898 the Wilmington Insurrection, overthrowing the Fusion governing coalition, killing possibly hundreds. Let's chuck Aycock. 11/
This monument is to presidents born in North Carolina. Each rose to prominence in Tennessee, which as far as I'm concerned can have 'em. On the horse is Andrew Jackson, 1828-1837 Bottom left is James K. Polk, 1841-1845. Finally, there's Andrew Johnson, 1865-1869 12/
Andrew Jackson ("He revitalized American democracy").
Sure, he was partially responsible for extending the franchise. Only white men could vote when he took office and when he left, more white men than before could vote. 13/
Sure, he was partially responsible for extending the franchise. Only white men could vote when he took office and when he left, more white men than before could vote. 13/
His entire public career after the War of 1812 was marked by a genocidal hatred of Native Americans, culminating in the Indian Removal Act, which allowed the Trail of Tears to take place. Fuck that guy. 14/
Polk ("He enlarged our national boundaries") Polk may be the topic of a catchy They Might Be Giants song, and it's hard not to love a guy who promises to seek no further office and sticks to it. But let's talk about those boundaries. 15/
They were extended by starting a war with Mexico, itself a pretext to seize much of the Southwest. To what end? Why, in order to give slave states room to expand, since they were bottled in by the Missouri Compromise. Yeah, fuck him, too. 16/
Do I really need to the list for Andrew ("He defended the Constitution") Johnson? Can we just summarize his fuckery as opposing any and all efforts to reconstruct the U.S. along lines equitable to African Americans? Cancelled. 17/
Here's a toughie. Once I started accepting that some statues needed removing, I knew uncomfortably conversations would emerge. Of course, the disingenuous outrage mongers on the right have been screaming that if we start with Confederates, we'd end with Washington. 18/
Problem is, I'm having an increasingly hard time thinking it's a bad thing. Up to a point. I mean, let's be honest, in some ways, Washington really was his legend. On the other hand, there's the slave-owning. Sure, his enslaved people were freed in his will, but... 19/
...in life, he was thoroughly a master. He hunted down runaways, even trying to recover from the British those of his enslaved people who had fled to the lines. As president in Philadelphia, he made sure to rotate his enslaved staff regularly... 20/
...to make sure none stayed long enough to be automatically freed under the laws of Pennsylvania. His dentures were made partially of teeth extracted from enslaved people. 21/
"But he was a man of his time!" So were opponents of slavery. So were other Virginians who freed thousands of enslaved people in the 1780s. So were the enslaved themselves, yearning to be free. 22/
How do we balance this against the positive good he did, for which he his memorialized? Probably by memorializing him less, maybe in places related to his positive accomplishments (always cognizant of his grievous faults). Yeah, I kinda feel like this random statue should go. 23/
And many more. We need to remove the relics of the past we imagine, one that is often false, and replace them, if at all, with emblems that point to the future we want to create. /fin
