Bending Toward Justice: Falling Monuments and Rising Memorials

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Acknowledgments

The author acknowledges the work of the late Melanie Buffington for her research on Confederate monuments and art education. Written informed consent for publication of their details was obtained by these individuals.

Notes

1 Historically, Alabama has been ground zero for national change in the ongoing fight for racial justice. “Cities that had been citadels of the status quo became the unwilling birthplace of significant legislation. Montgomery led to the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960; Birmingham inspired the Civil Rights Act of 1964; and Selma produced the Voting Rights Act of 1965” (King, 1998, p. 289).

2 As noted in Buffington and Waldner (2012), the terms “monument” and “memorial” are sometimes used interchangeably, but have “different shades of meaning,” with monument connoting the commemoration and glorification of an event, person, or concept versus memorial evoking recollection and remembrance, often related to loss of life (p. 3). Following Buffington and Waldner, the author of this article acknowledges this fluidity of terminology and focuses on intent and the extent to which a memorial or monument promotes justice or “honest history.” The article title refers specifically to the ongoing removal of Confederate monuments and the EJI’s Community Remembrance Project, which partners with communities to memorialize victims of racial violence.

3 The SPLC is a nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights litigation, known for its legal cases against White supremacist groups, tracking of extremist hate groups and organizations, and promoting educational programs rooted in social justice.

4 See The Mothers of Gynecology Monument by Michelle Browder, which was dedicated in 2021 to Anarcha, Betsey, and Lucy, three enslaved women who were patients of J. Marion Sims, the “father of gynecology.” Sims’s former office is located nearby, and his monument currently stands next to that of Jefferson Davis outside of the Alabama State Capitol.

5 Edmund Pettus was a Confederate general who was also a U.S. senator from Alabama and Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.

6 See states’ declarations of succession, the Articles of the Constitution of the Confederate States focusing on slavery, Jefferson Davis’s 1861 farewell speech to the U.S. Senate, and the infamous Cornerstone Speech of Vice President Alexander Stephens, all referencing slavery as the reason for succession.

7 In 2023, the Florida State Board of Education released a controversial history standard that claims, “Slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit,” which appears to echo Pollard’s “Lost Cause” mythology (NEA, 2023, para. 1).

8 This statue is not to be confused with the more well-known Robert E. Lee Monument in Richmond, Virginia, that was removed in 2021 and put in storage.

9 The state’s flagship institution, The University of Alabama, accounted for the largest share of 2020 removals (SPLC, n.d.). In Montgomery, the Robert E. Lee statue in front of Robert E. Lee High School—a school that serves a predominantly African American student population—was illegally removed from its pedestal. This led to its permanent removal and renaming of Montgomery’s Robert E. Lee, Sidney Lanier, and Jefferson Davis high schools.

10 Fugitive pedagogy is a tradition of theory and practice of Black education in America (Givens, 2021).

11 The Alabama State Capitol became a National Historic Landmark in 1960. The Alabama Legislature no longer meets there, having moved to the Alabama State House nearby. The Capitol contains the governor’s office and functions as a museum.

12 The First White House of the Confederacy was relocated in the early 20th century from its original site in downtown Montgomery to its current location across the street from the Capitol.

13 King paraphrased this quote from Unitarian minister and abolitionist Theodore Parker. Former president Barack Obama often referenced the quote, even having it woven into a rug in the Oval Office (Kendi, 2021, pp. 439–440).

14 Across the street, west of the Alabama State Capitol, is the historic Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Three blocks west is the Civil Rights Memorial (created in 1989 by Maya Lin) at the SPLC headquarters. The memorial contains the names of 41 civil rights martyrs inscribed on a granite fountain. To the southwest (1.5 miles from the Capitol) is the NMPJ.

15 On March 27, 2024, the 17-acre Freedom Monument Sculpture Park joined the EJI’s Legacy Museum and the NMPJ to form the Legacy Sites (Memorial, Museum, and Monument).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mary Soylu

Mary Soylu, Assistant Professor of Art History, Department of Visual Arts, Alabama State University in Montgomery. Email: [email protected]