The Good Darky

In the period 1890–1940, a second wave of Confederate statues was erected, coinciding with and supporting the "Lost Cause of the Confederacy" movement and the triumphal years of the Jim Crow laws.

[3]The statue depicts an older African-American man – perhaps a slave, or perhaps a citizen in post-emancipation times – in an obsequious pose, head bowed and hat in hand.

[1] The original inscription read In Grateful Recognition of the Arduous and Faithful Service of the Good Darkies of Louisiana[4]The bronze statue was commissioned in 1927 by Jackson Lee "Jack" Bryan, a cotton planter and businessman.

Time magazine said "[Jackson] had been lulled to sleep in his babyhood by Negro spirituals, and had played with little slave boys on his father's old plantation, so he recently felt the urge to do something big for the Negro",[5] while the New York Times said "Many white people in the parish have been nursed or served by the old-time 'uncles' and 'aunties', and a warm regard remains on each side.

[8] It was retrieved from the river (if indeed it was thrown there) and put into storage, and later donated by Ryan's estate to the Rural Life Museum[6] in 1974,[9] although the Smithsonian Institution had also asked for it.