In 2004 there was ugly opposition to a plan to erect a statue of Frederick Douglass outside the Talbot Cty courthouse in MD. White residents claimed the space was reserved to honor soldiers who risked their lives for our country. But what of the monument to Confederate soldiers?
White veterans' groups called the courthouse lawn "hallowed ground." Black community members argued that Frederick Douglass who was enslaved in Talbot deserved to be honored in that space. Indeed after he was free he returned & met w/the official who had once held him in jail.
I posed a different question. Who decided the courthouse lawn was hallowed ground? Why should a monument to Confederate soldiers who fought against our country be there? But more importantly, what of the 1919 attempt by more than 1,000 white ppl to lynch Isaiah Fountain there?
My book is called "On the Courthouse Lawn" because so many lynchings happened in those spaces, and yet there is no acknowledgment that these events took place. Our history hiding in plain sight. Who gets to decide how we tell the story of our country in the public space?
Some ppl see destruction in the removal of Confederate monuments. There is a dismantling, yes. But as Confederate monuments come down, we have a chance to tell the truth in our public spaces, to speak our values with who we commemorate and what events we recognize.
This is a moment for creativity & artistic expression; historical truth-telling, education & reckoning. Already we are seeing extraordinary artistic efforts at the site of some of these monuments. I hope we will embrace & create community projects to re-imagine our public spaces.
