Confronting Hate: Ideas for Art Educators to Address Confederate Monuments

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Contemporary and Historical Resources for Teachers

Alexander Stephens's “Cornerstone Speech” in which he makes the goals of the Confederacy quite clear—to perpetuate slavery. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/cornerstone-speech

Americans for the Arts statement on Confederate monuments. www.americansforthearts.org/news-room/arts-mobilization-center/statement-on-the-intersection-of-the-arts-history-and-community-dialogue

Library of Congress, Chronicling America. Digitized newspapers from across the U.S. Many African American newspapers are included. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu's speech on race. www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/opinion/mitch-landrieus-speech-transcript.html?mcubz=1

NAEA statement in response to racial violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. www.arteducators.org/search?q=charlottesville

National Trust for Historic Preservation statement on how to approach Confederate memorials. https://savingplaces.org/stories/after-charlottesville-confederate-memorials#.WaiE1FPyt0t

On Monument Avenue. Resources specific to Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia. https://onmonumentave.com

Southern Poverty Law Center, Whose Heritage? A Report on Symbols of the Confederacy. www.splcenter.org/20160421/whose-heritage-public-symbols-confederacy

Teaching Tolerance guide, Teaching Hard History. www.tolerance.org/magazine/spring-2018/teaching-hard-history

Thomas Nast engraving, The Leaders of the Democratic Party. www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2008661705

Author Note

The author would like to thank Courtnie N. Wolfgang for reading a draft of this article and offering helpful comments.

Notes

¹ Since the earliest days of the widespread construction of Confederate monuments (starting around 1890), there were voices of dissent coming from the editors of Black newspapers. They offered many important points, including questioning why people who had committed treason against the United States would be revered in the form of monumental sculptures. For example, John Mitchell Jr., as editor of The Richmond Planet, (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84025841/) denounced the Lee Monument, reported widely on lynchings, argued for equality, organized a streetcar boycott, and many other resistance actions.

² Every school and every community has a unique context that will impact what an art educator can address in the classroom. Within the local parameters, I suggest that art educators find ways to address equality throughout their teaching as it is an important concern within the contemporary world and in the work of many contemporary artists. Further, some teachers have the protection of tenure and unions while others do not. Thus, I believe it is important to work together to generate a range of ideas for how art educators can address these topics in ways that are locally relevant and honor their particular circumstances, trusting that teachers will make choices that will work best in their setting.

³ Researchers suggest that this was an extemporaneous speech and an original hard copy has not been located. Thus, most sources cite the Cleveland text from 1886.

⁴ The Library of Congress Chronicling America website is a good resource with many digitized newspapers, including African American newspapers. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

⁵ John M. Coski's 2006 book, The Confederate Battle Flag: America's Most Embattled Emblem, published by Harvard University Press, provides a good history of the Confederate battle flag.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Melanie L. Buffington

Melanie L. Buffington is an associate professor of art education at Virginia Commonwealth University. Email: [email protected]