History Revisited: The Whens and Whys of Statues

                                              
    When South Carolina was in the process of removing the Confederate flag after Dylan Roof, and while watching the politicians stumble over each doing it, I heard a man on TV say it had "proudly been flown since 1962". My first thought was, 1962? Why only since 1962? I figured it had flown there since before the war. Once I found out it was their way of protesting school segregation and the civil rights movement it got me looking a little deeper and remembering the monuments I've seen.
    I've traveled around a lot in the south, was even stationed in South Carolina for a couple years. One thing I noticed was all the monuments. In trips to Richmond and New Orleans you don't even have to look for them, when they're the size of a six story building they're pretty easy to spot. Not knowing the whens and whys they were put up I never gave them much thought other than their gaudiness and the oddity of wanting to memorialize a war lost. But then I found answers for the whens and whys.
    In 1896, 30 years after the Civil War there were only 44 monuments throughout the south, almost all in cemeteries honoring the locals lost in the war. 1896 was also the year Homer Plesseys case against the state of Louisiana made it to the Supreme Court. In 1890 Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act which said blacks could not ride in the same rail car as whites. Plessy, born a free man, was a mixed race Creole, 7/8 European and 1/8 African. In 1892 he bought a 1st class train ticket and upon boarding was immediately told he couldn't ride in the car. He resisted, was arrested and fined $25. His appeals went all the way to the Supreme Court where he lost his case in  a 7-1 decision. But the ruling stated that while races could be separated, they were also equal. While the southern states cheered the separate part, they weren't to keen on the equal part.
    Jim Crow laws were then put into place. Not only were states allowed to separate the races, in some states separation was written into law.. Any infraction could get you arrested and even sometimes lynched. Their dealing with the equal part of the ruling is where the statues and monuments come in.
    Although there were only 44 prior to 1896, in the twenty year span of 1900-1920, 515 statues and monuments were erected in the south, 188 placed at courthouses. City parks were also a favorite place, over 200 were erected in public places. Take the Lee statue in Charlottesville. I find it odd they waited until 60 years after the war to put a 26' tall statue on an acre of ground in the middle of downtown, about a half block away from the courthouse.
   75% of all monuments and statues were erected in those twenty years and then there was somewhat of a lull. Between 1940 and 1954 there were only 6 monuments erected. But 1954 saw another Supreme court case, Brown vs Board of Education and school segregation. In the next ten ten years 56 statues or monuments went up, 15 at courthouses. Renaming schools after Generals was common, 34 changed names. It also helped usher in the return of the confederate flag, as a protest of the Civil Rights movement.
    There are now over 200 statues or monuments on courthouse grounds in the south that memorialize the Confederacy. Some say it's to preserve history, but books and writings do a much better job. I could have researched this without the statues in front of courthouses, but then again, I wouldn't have had to. Others have said they're there to remind us of past sins so we won't repeat them, but Germany and the World have no statues or memorials to Hitler, but somehow he's still the most recognized person ever. (Sorry Elvis). Looking past the fact that, using memorials to men who took up arms against the United States of America as symbols of justice is just plain ludicrous, we need to realize and accept their true intentions. That while other courts may see you as equal, the blacks that enter here are seen by this court the same as the General on the horse out front sees them, as 3/5.
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While researching this I found it odd that they would honor Lee by doing something he was totally against. Before his death Lee was contacted and asked to attend a meeting in regards to erecting monuments at Gettysburg. He declined stating, “I think it wiser not to keep open the sores of war but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife, to commit to oblivion the feelings engendered.” When the 60' monolith of Lee was dedicated in New Orleans five years after his death all three of Lees sons chose not to attend.