Thread by @karlajstrand

First up at @AsalhConvention for me is: "Must they All Fall Down?" Perspectives on the Removal of Monuments and Narratives of Historical Figures. Panelists include @lkimblejr @HilaryGreen77 @SassyProf @ScottSandage #asalh2020

Prof. Kimble is up first: What to do with Civil War or slaveholder monuments, not just in the US but globally? How do we use these monuments in public history? #asalh2020

Dr. Green @HilaryGreen77: From the beginning, African Americans rejected these monuments. White perspectives have framed historical memory, these monuments among them. Black people protested by any means possible. They voiced opposition in churches, schools, etc.

Green: Recalls Silent Sam and other monuments at universities. Black people have to alter their routes to avoid them on campus. Do not feel seen, cared about, had to deal with the violence each day. They continued to resist.

Green: Mapping 2020 monument removals including 84 white supremacist, 109 Confederate, and 65 promised monuments. Most of the monuments are still up and under no threat of removal. Need more projects remembering African American historical sites that have been removed.

Prof. Cox @SassyProf is next: Just completed a manuscript about the history of Confederate monuments that examines their role in the context of racial equality. Out in the spring with UNC Press.

Cox: Monuments are artifacts but also symbols of racial inequality in our own time. They are absolutely linked to voter suppression. 1890-1920 was the heyday of their building. This coincided with an epidemic of racial violence and disenfranchisement of Black male voters.

Cox: Monuments and the 1965 Voting Rights Act - More Blacks were registered to vote and elected other African Americans to office, who then challenged these monuments on government property incl. Confederate flags, etc. Black officials did call monuments into question.

Cox: 1965-1990s - more possibilities for removal. After this, there is increased pushback from Republicans. They began to redraw districts to create majority minority districts. "Affirmative gerrymandering" didn't violate VRA but restricted Black representation.

Cox: Also since the 1990s, white nationalism has grown. As we move into the 2000s, more monuments still being built. 2013 saw the gutting of the VRA. GOP has been passing state monument laws to prevent removal and undermining local government.

Cox: So even if you vote African Americans into office locally, they are unable to represent the will of the people because of state laws. So people left with little choice but to participate in protests against the monuments. The decision should be a local one with public input.

Sandage @ScottSandage will discuss making "good trouble" from "monument trouble". Discusses Lincoln Memorial and Freedom's Memorial. Protests this summer to tear the latter down and to keep it up. Black Lives Matter vs. Black monuments matter.

Sandage: Found a letter from Frederick Douglass re: Freedom's Memorial written April 19, 1976 which criticized the African American man naked on his knees. Suggested a new monument and in 1974 one of Mary McLeod Bethune was erected in Lincoln Park.

Sandage: Activists can remove monuments but they can also change monuments. Remaking vs. removing. Generational conflicts and styles of protests differ. "Monument trouble can be good trouble."

Green: Community should control decisions re: monuments. Sometimes they can be moved as opposed to completely removed. Is harm being done? Community should decide. Bottom up vs. top down. Look monument by monument; what are the power structures involved?

Sandage: Some monuments are irredeemable and should just be removed. But important African American narratives surround some of these like the Emancipation Memorial. Adding a statue of Douglass and Charlotte Scott in Lincoln Park may be a way to go.

Cox: The histories behind these monuments is important.

Green: Some can be relocated and then the narratives can be told within an African American, emancipatory framework.

Cox: Some monuments are beautiful with the spray painting, artwork, and voter registration tables around them. They are finally getting the context they deserve. The narrative has always been one of "the lost cause" but we can reframe those narratives.

Green: Broader more diverse groups are now calling for removals or changes to the monuments. Confederacy was a failed nation state, people are talking about this now. It will be an uphill battle because of heritage laws, textbooks, "patriotic" education, current administration.

Sandage: An interesting reversal of sides is happenng and some BLM members would like to keep certain memorials that they have taken and made into something else and changed the narrative.

Remaining questions include: Who controls the historical narrative? Who has the power? Who controls the spaces and has the power to create or remove historical memorials? #asalh2020

This was a fantastic conversation! Could've gone on for a long time. Thanks to @ASALH @AsalhConvention @lkimblejr @HilaryGreen77 @sassyprof @ScottSandage and, as always, Sister Natanya Duncan! #asalh2020