monuments

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• SOURCE: Bloomberg CityLab
  6/8/2021
  

  When Monuments Go Bad

  Chicago is engaging in a broad and unprecedented study of the city's monuments and the political and cultural implications of memorialization in public space. Will this help avoid the bitter controversies and protests that have erupted in other cities? 

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• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  4/12/2021
  

  Black Protesters Have Been Rallying Against Confederate Statues for Generations

  by Karen L. Cox

  The movement to remove monuments and memorials to the Confederacy and historical figures with ties to racism or slavery is not new; it should be recognized as part of a longstanding effort by African Americans to challenge the public veneration of white supremacy. 

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• SOURCE: WWLTV
  4/9/2021
  

  Jefferson Davis Memorial Chair Stolen from Alabama Cemetery Found in New Orleans, 2 Arrested

  The chair was recovered in New Orleans, and two suspects have been arrested with a third at large. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  4/8/2021
  

  Who are 'White Lies Matter’? Meet the Group that Says it Turned a Stolen Confederate Memorial into a Toilet

  "We are leaderless in a sense. There is no head honcho, and we keep it that way for a very good reason."

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  4/8/2021
  

  San Francisco Schools Will Keep Jefferson, Lincoln and Washington Names

  "In this case, officials said the reckoning had gone too far, with parents calling the decision to rename 44 schools embarrassing and 'a caricature of what people think liberals in San Francisco do'.”

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  4/6/2021
  

  Stolen Confederate Monument will Become a 'Toilet' Unless ‘White Lies Matter’ Demands are Met, Group Vows

  The group claiming responsibility has issued a ransom demand: the United Daughters of the Confederacy can secure the return of the chair by flying a banner quoting Black radical Assata Shakur over its Richmond, Virginia headquarters. 

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• SOURCE: Publisher's Weekly
  3/26/2021
  

  The Problem with Confederate Monuments

  by Karen L. Cox

  "I also believe it’s important that I, a Southern white woman, write and speak about this topic with blunt honesty. Monument defenders cannot dismiss me as a Northern liberal who has invaded the region to tell them what to do. I’ve grown up here, too."

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• SOURCE: Axios
  3/19/2021
  

  New Commission on Renaming Army Bases Gets Early Makeover

  "A new commission created to relabel U.S. Army bases named for Confederate leaders has quietly undergone a major shakeup as the Biden administration has replaced last-minute Trump appointees with a diverse panel."

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• SOURCE: WIS-TV
  3/9/2021
  

  SC Lawmakers Announce Legislation to Protect Monuments Statewide

  "Democratic Representative Seth Rose says the controversial monuments like Ben Tillman, who was the former governor and known racist, need to come down."

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• SOURCE: Governing
  3/8/2021
  

  History Matters: Debates About Monuments Reflect Current Divisions

  How should local governments approach the question of memorials? Historians can advise about the significance or meaning of historical figures, but community values and state laws are subject to partisan politics. 

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• SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
  3/5/2021
  

  A Monumental Error in the Making

  by Harold Holzer

  Daniel Chester French's statue "The Republic" is on a list of public monuments to be reviewed by the city of Chicago. Removing it would be destroying an important link to the city's past. 

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• SOURCE: KUNC
  3/2/2021
  

  Colorado Lawmakers Poised To Replace Capitol's Civil War Monument With Sand Creek Massacre Memorial

  Native American advocates say the Colorado state capitol is an appropriate place for the memorial to the massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho by the US military, but critics question whether it should replace a memorial to the Union Army. 

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• SOURCE: WHNT
  3/4/2021
  

  Alabama Lawmakers Reject Bill Allowing Flexibility On Confederate Monument

  The 2017 law, which was approved as some cities began taking down Confederate monuments, forbids the removal or alteration of monuments more than 40 years old. Violations carry a $25,000 fine.

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• SOURCE: Virginian-Pilot
  3/1/2021
  

  How a Wave of Segregationist Tributes, from Streets to Schools, Entrenched the Idea of White Supremacy

  Understanding the stakes of renaming public buildings, streets, or schools requires understanding the purposeful politics that attached the names of Confederates to public spaces a century ago, say Virginia historians Dan Margolies and Calvin Pearson.

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• SOURCE: National Parks Traveler
  2/25/2021
  

  Op-Ed | Confederate Memorials Serve A Role In National Parks

  by Harry Butowski

  "The removal of existing statues in our Civil War parks will not change our history, but make it more difficult to confront and examine our history. National parks are the great American classroom where American history is taught."

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• SOURCE: WABE
  3/1/2021
  

  Ga. Lawmaker Authors Bills To Abolish Confederate Monuments In Peach State

  Georgia state representative Shelly Hutchinson argues that while Confederate monuments stand,"there’s no healing that takes place there, and that means you are OK with where we are at as a country.”

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  2/23/2021
  

  SPLC: Over 160 Confederate Symbols Were Removed in 2020

  "The nonprofit organization, based in Montgomery, Ala., started tracking symbols of the Confederacy after a white supremacist killed nine Black worshipers at a storied African-American church in Charleston, S.C., in 2015."

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• SOURCE: Chicago Tribune
  2/22/2021
  

  Take Down Chicago’s Lincoln Statues? It’s Iconoclasm Gone Mad

  by Sidney Blumenthal and Harold Holzer

  Two biographers of Lincoln question the Chicago Monuments Project, which has placed famous statues of the 16th president on a list of public memorials subject to possible removal.

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• SOURCE: National Parks Traveler
  2/22/2021
  

  The Future Of Confederate Monuments

  by Kim O'Connell

  “The Park Service needs to ask, ‘Who’s coming to your site and who’s not coming to your site?’” says Denise Meringolo, a professor of public history at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. “Those monuments are a barrier to significant portions of the audience, for whom they are not simply inaccurate or annoying. They are traumatizing.”

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  2/2/2021
  

  Trump’s 1776 Commission and the San Francisco Board of Education Have a Lot in Common

  by Max Boot

  "It is no surprise that the 1776 Commission did not include a single expert on U.S. history and that the San Francisco school board also refused to consult historians."