Confederate monuments and memorials

Part of the commemoration of the American Civil War, these symbols include monuments and statues, flags, holidays and other observances, and the names of schools, roads, parks, bridges, buildings, counties, cities, lakes, dams, military bases, and other public structures.

"[1] This entry does not include commemorations of pre-Civil War figures connected with the origins of the Civil War but not directly tied to the Confederacy, such as Supreme Court Justice Roger B. Taney, congressman Preston Brooks, North Carolina Chief Justice Thomas Ruffin,[2] or Vice President John C. Calhoun, although monuments to Calhoun "have been the most consistent targets" of vandals.

[10] Many more monuments were dedicated in the years after 1890, when Congress established the first National Military Park at Chickamauga and Chattanooga, and by the turn of the 20th century, five battlefields from the Civil War had been preserved: Chickamauga-Chattanooga, Antietam, Gettysburg, Shiloh, and Vicksburg.

[10] Confederate monument-building has often been part of widespread campaigns to promote and justify Jim Crow laws in the South.

[12][13] According to the American Historical Association (AHA), the erection of Confederate monuments during the early 20th century was "part and parcel of the initiation of legally mandated segregation and widespread disenfranchisement across the South."

According to the AHA, memorials to the Confederacy erected during this period "were intended, in part, to obscure the terrorism required to overthrow Reconstruction, and to intimidate African Americans politically and isolate them from the mainstream of public life."

A later wave of monument building coincided with the civil rights movement, and according to the AHA "these symbols of white supremacy are still being invoked for similar purposes.

"[14] According to Smithsonian Magazine, "far from simply being markers of historic events and people, as proponents argue, these memorials were created and funded by Jim Crow governments to pay homage to a slave-owning society and to serve as blunt assertions of dominance over African-Americans.

"[1] According to historian Jane Dailey from the University of Chicago, in many cases, the purpose of the monuments was not to celebrate the past but rather to promote a "white supremacist future".

[13] Another historian from UNC, James Leloudis, stated that "The funders and backers of these monuments are very explicit that they are requiring a political education and a legitimacy for the Jim Crow era and the right of white men to rule.

"[16] They were erected without the consent or even input of Southern African Americans, who remembered the Civil War far differently, and who had no interest in honoring those who fought to keep them enslaved.

[17] According to Civil War historian Judith Giesberg, professor of history at Villanova University, "White supremacy is really what these statues represent.

[19] In a June 2018 speech, Civil War historian James I. Robertson Jr. of Virginia Tech said the monuments were not a "Jim Crow signal of defiance" and referred to the current trend to dismantle or destroy them as an "age of idiocy" motivated by "elements hell-bent on tearing apart unity that generations of Americans have painfully constructed.

"[20] Katrina Dunn Johnson, Curator of the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum, states that "thousands of families throughout the country were unable to reclaim their soldier's remains--many never learned their loved ones' exact fate on the battlefield or within the prison camps.

The psychological impact of such a devastating loss cannot be underestimated when attempting to understand the primary motivations behind Southern memorialization.

"[25][26] In the late nineteenth century, technological innovations in the granite and bronze industries helped reduce costs and made monuments more affordable for small towns.

The diffusion of courthouse monuments was aided by organizations such as the United Confederate Veterans and their publications, though other factors may also have been effective.

Third was the romanticizing of the Lost Cause, and the fourth was to unify the white population in a common heritage against the interests of African-American Southerners.

[42] At the same time, laws in various Southern states place restrictions on, or prohibit altogether, the removal of statues and memorials and the renaming of parks, roads, and schools.

[43][44][45][46][47] A 2017 Reuters poll found that 54% of adults stated that the monuments should remain in all public spaces, and 27% said they should be removed, while 19% said they were unsure.

The results were split along racial and political lines, with whites and Republicans preferring to keep the monuments in place, while Black Americans and Democrats were more likely to support their removal.

The Union Navy retained the names of these ships while turning their guns against the Confederacy: As of 24 June 2020[update], there are at least 122 public spaces with Confederate monuments in Alabama.

As of 20 August 2020[update], only two Confederate related plaques on public property remain in Phoenix and Sierra Vista, Arizona.

An August 2017 meeting of the Florida League of Mayors was devoted to the topic of what to do with Civil War monuments.

The settlement of Idaho coincided with the Civil War and settlers from Southern states memorialized the Confederacy with the names of several towns and natural features.

As of December 27, 2022 there is one statue on a large stone of General Robert E. Lee at the Antietam battlefield, visible from the road.

The "Talbot Boys" statue in Easton, Maryland was the last Confederate monument removed from public property on March 14, 2022.

[390] In July 2020 the Confederate flag was removed from the patch of Gettysburg South Dakota police officers.

Opening events included a picnic for veterans and families on June 20, 1902, and a statewide reunion September 8–12, 1902, with 3,500 attendees.

By 1924 the numbers [ sic ] of surviving veterans had greatly diminished, and the Confederate Park Association dissolved when its charter expired in 1926.Note: "There are similarly named streets in towns and cities across east Texas, notably Port Arthur and Beaumont, as well as memorials to Dowling and the Davis Guards, not least at Sabine Pass, where the battleground is now preserved as a state park" As of 24 June 2020[update], there were at least 241 public spaces with Confederate monuments in Virginia, more than in any other state.