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Watching the live removal of the Confederate statue in Albemarle County's Court House Square in the city of Charlottesville. https://www.facebook.com/Albemarle.County/videos/318192269452093
I had concerns about the live removal when it was first announced. I didn't want to see any violence, but it is clear that Albemarle County made the right decision. The county is taking ownership of its decision in the name of the entire community. Hope other cities will follow.
As a former resident of Charlottesville I never thought I would see this day. I lived and taught in the city from 2000 to 2011. My understanding of the Civil War and Civil War memory took shape during this period. I spent countless hours with the Confederate soldier statue...
...as well as the monuments honoring Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson just a few blocks away. They served as classrooms for my students, who learned how to interpret the statues and what they can tell us about the war, memory, and the Jim Crow era.
Looks like a small crowd has gathered around Court House Square to witness the removal of the Confederate statue.
This Confederate statue was dedicated on May 5, 1909. The date marked the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Monticello Guards, which formed part of the 19th Virginia Infantry. The unit was ordered to Harper's Ferry in response to John Brown's raid in October 1859.
They were still in route when news arrived that Brown's plan to arm slaves had been put down, but it is a reminder that one of the many responsibilities of militia units was to help maintain the institution of slavery during the antebellum period. https://dailyprogress.com/125yearsofprogress/monticello-guards-ordered-to-harpers-ferry-but-not-in-time-to-help-quell-john-browns/article_a57dd98c-4219-11e7-a2c6-5fe75e2337ba.html
Like most dedication ceremonies this one involved a large number of the community's white population. The ceremony began with a parade from the University of Virginia to Court House Square. You can see a list of organizations involved, including 1200 children.
Children were absolutely essential to these ceremonies. The dedication of Confederate monuments helped to educate a younger generation of white southerners that did not live through the war or Reconstruction. These ceremonies served to unite white southerners during...
...the Jim Crow era. Audiences (especially children) were reminded of their role in maintaining the political and racial status quo moving forward. https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/media_player?mets_filename=evm00002464mets.xml
Workers are now removing one of two Napoleon cannon that sit on either side of the Confederate statue. The tubes were donated by the federal government and were used during the war, though the carriages are reproductions.
Back to the 1909 ceremony...
The parade that day also included former Confederate body servants or what I call "camp slaves" in my book SEARCHING FOR BLACK CONFEDERATES. They were a visual reminder of the Lost Cause myth of "loyal slaves." http://cwmemory.com/searching-for-black-confederates-the-civil-wars-most-persistent-myth/
The parade that day also included former Confederate body servants or what I call "camp slaves" in my book SEARCHING FOR BLACK CONFEDERATES. They were a visual reminder of the Lost Cause myth of "loyal slaves." http://cwmemory.com/searching-for-black-confederates-the-civil-wars-most-persistent-myth/
But the presence of these elderly former slaves also served a political purpose in 1909. As recently as the early 1880s black Virginians had voted in large numbers, served in state office and in other public capacities as a result of the Readjuster Party's control. This ended...
...in 1884. The work to disfranchise Black Virginians was accomplished through the re-writing of the state constitution in 1901-02. The sight of former body servants served to remind Black Virginians of their place in the racial hierarchy. But it also helped to erase Blk history.
The visual reminder of the Lost Cause's emphasis on "loyal slaves" during this ceremony helped to erase any memory of the roughly 240 Black men from Albemarle County who fought with the United States army during the Civil War against the Confederacy. https://news.virginia.edu/content/research-240-blacks-albemarle-county-fought-union-civil-war
Here is a photograph of the Confederate statue in Court House Square in Charlottesville that was likely taken in the 1920s. You can see the two cannon that are part of the removal process today.
The Stonewall Jackson monument dedicated in 1919 and sculpted by Charles Keck is located just a few feet from the Confederate statue on the Court House grounds. A row of homes occupied by black residents was removed to make room for this monument.
The population of Charlottesville/Albemarle County in 1860 was majority African American. One of the arguments made in favor of removing Confederate statues like the one today in Charlottesville is that they no longer represent the values and historical memory of the community.
But when we acknowledge that many of the counties in the Jim Crow South were majority African American when these monuments were dedicated, we can see that they NEVER represented the collective values and historical memory of the community.
Workers are now removing the pins that secure the statue to the pedestal.
For those of you counting, the removal of the Confederate statue today in Albemarle County, Virginia brings the total number of removals since June 1 to 76. http://cwmemory.com/recent-confederate-monument-removals/
His final moments overlooking the city of Charlottesville, Virginia before being removed.
The small crowd watching the removal of the Confederate statue is listening to Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come."
