MONUMENTS TELL US LITTLE ABOUT OUR HISTORY

A public library is the most enduring of memorials, the trustiest monument for the preservation of an event or a name or an affection; for it, and it only, is respected by wars and revolutions, and survives them.

Mark Twain

I listened carefully to President Trump’s speech at Mount Rushmore on the evening before our July 4^th holiday. In between the cultural war comments to his base, he slipped in some historical facts concerning each of the four Presidents represented in the monument behind him. The factual descriptions were accurate though rudimentary.  A young person would have learned more American history by watching the film version of Hamilton, which was running at the same time on the Disney channel.

After the President concluded his remarks, I started reflecting on what historical monuments teach the American people about our past.  I concluded that these numerous slabs of well-designed granite fall into distinct categories. On the one hand, war monuments or those that memorialize a national disaster like 9/11 inspire us to reflect on lives taken too soon or in defense of the nation.  These monuments are universally beloved and often serve as a destination to a place of personal and spiritual significance.

 On the other hand, monuments of historical figures are crafted and set in place to invoke a specific feeling of national pride in celebration of a life well lived.  These edifices are tributes to individuals who in some significant manner moved the nation forward to a better place.

The problem with southern Civil War monuments is that many were erected in the 1930s, not to celebrate a national story, but rather to further the aims of white supremacy. The question is not why Southern States are finally getting around to taking down these symbols of civil war traitors, suppression of Black citizens and hate. The question is what took so long.

The monument at Mount Rushmore and those in in our nation’s capital are designed to invoke patriotism and national pride.  The President is wrong when he claims that the debate over historical statutes is a sign that: “Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children.”

Our national monuments were never intended to teach history in and of themselves.  Quite the opposite was true.  It was the hope that Americans would come to these symbols of the past with a comprehensive learning of what they represent including important milestones to be praised and mistakes not to be repeated.

The problem with Trump and his core of loyal followers is that they see the world in simplistic terms and have no desire to gain a more in-depth understanding of America’s history. For his supporters, monuments and the flag are themselves American history, the literal meaning of the Bible is true in every respect, evolutionary biology and climate/pandemic science are left wing lies and Fox News is all they need to hear regarding national and world events. 

Once an individual decides not to step outside this tight circle, all information received reinforces long held beliefs. Nothing new is learned and no opinion is challenged.  Well-respected historians that teach us American history, including the blemishes, are labeled as socialists or worse; history based Biblical scholars are heretics; investigative journalists propagate fake news and removing a monument makes it impossible for children to learn our national story.

Returning to Mount Rushmore, gazing at the monument tells one little about the complex lives of these four Presidents. The greatness of each was flawed because each was human.  George Washington was a slave holder and never a scholar or a brilliant general.  Thomas Jefferson could not keep his carnal urges in check to stay out of his slave quarters.  Abraham Lincoln was not an abolitionist and was cautious about freeing the slaves until the last years of the Civil War. Theodore Roosevelt was a colonial imperialist who wanted to plant the American flag around the world.

Does being exposed to the complete biography of American historical figures dampen our love of them or of our nation?  I think not. First, historical perspective is required.  It is important to escape from our own time and place to orient our thinking about past leaders to colonial America, or to the Civil War decades, or the age of American expansionism.  Second, knowing our important historical figures as human beings rather than superficial heroes helps us truly understand them and to make sense of our complex national history.

Modern America is blessed with some of the most gifted historians in the arc of civilization. Rather than build a national park containing pigeon perches of monuments representing American historical figures, as proposed by the President, why not drawn on their knowledge to build a national library and museum.  A building that expounds on the four themes of Mount Rushmore: the nation’s birth, growth, development and preservation.  

Let our gifted historians and museum curators fill the rooms with our national story. A place to discuss our founding, America’s original sin of slavery, manifest destiny and our military engagements, as we teach our children well.  Such a building would be a memorial for all of us to share together.

IT IS TIME TO LEARN MORE ABOUT AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY

“There is really nothing more to say—except why. But since why is difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how.” Toni Morrison

In 1968, a dedicated group of black students at the San Francisco State College staged a protracted student strike and were the first to demand a black studies program as part of their curriculum.  Since then such programs have become commonplace at colleges and universities across America. 

As a result of this trend to offer African American studies, many black graduates since the 1970s and a smattering of white students know Afro-American history well.  Many of them are now in the vanguard of the efforts demanding social change against all forms of racism. Unfortunately, much of white America has not been exposed to black history. Relying on secondary sources and historical myth, white citizens continue to have a misguided view of slavery, the political history of the civil war, reconstruction, white supremacy, white privilege and modern institutional racism.

 It is my view that before white Americans can effectively join the debate on the state of race relations and what to do to improve them, some education on our complex African American history is an imperative.  It is no longer acceptable to claim there is nothing to be gained by revisiting past injustices against black Americans without knowing the history.  It is equally wrong to argue the reverse, that reshaping public places by removing symbols of the civil war destroys our heritage without first having a working knowledge of the path from slavery to our present racial dilemma.

Learning about Confederate atrocities against Blacks helps one to understand the urgent call for removing southern symbols of the civil war. For example, Confederate leadership issued an edict to shoot captured  Black Union soldiers. Thousands of former slaves, captured in Pennsylvania during the Gettysburg campaign, were returned to slavery.

Post Reconstruction, a lack of political will on the part of the North failed to solve the sectional wounds from the war. The elimination of the freed slaves' newly gained civil liberties by Jim Crow laws guaranteed that long-term racial integration was impossible.

During the Jim Crow era, thousands of African American citizens were killed in public acts of racial terror to establish white supremacy and segregation across the South. The influence of the Ku Klux Klan extended well into the North with KKK rallies being held in Washington County into the 1990s.

Before as well as long after the Civil War northern states encouraged legal codes that promoted racial segregation and black disenfranchisement.  The New York Times conducted a poll in 1964 that found a majority of White New Yorkers thought the civil rights movement had gone too far.  Well into the 1960s, Washington County industrial concerns refused to hire Black workers, except as janitors.

The Federal Government was an active participant in perpetuating institutional racism.  Southern Senators, often with a wink and a nod from their Northern members, made sure that all affirmative action was “White.” Social Security benefits were denied to domestic servants and agricultural workers, many of whom were Black.  The Federal Housing Administration allowed banks to refuse mortgages to people who lived in black neighborhoods, a policy known as redlining.  The Federal GI Bill was locally administered which gave racist local officials every opportunity to discriminate against Blacks. 

American colleges and universities do not have clean hands when it comes to racism in America. Most American colleges founded before the Civil War relied on southern money derived from slavery to grow their campuses.  Yale University inherited a slave plantation, which it used to fund its first graduate programs.  The Jesuits of Georgetown University sold slaves to stave off bankruptcy.

The above examples offer a few illustrations of a complex and tangled history.  For those who wish to begin their personal journey of discovery, I will offer some possibilities. First, unlike efforts to modify uncomfortable history in other countries, hundreds of history books and thousands of articles have told the unvarnished truth about the Civil War, Reconstruction and the Jim Crow era.  Scores of them have been on bestseller lists and won awards. Many may be purchased for a pittance in the used book section of Amazon or are available at the local library.

Second, for those who prefer fiction as a path to learning about past abuses against Black citizens, the selections are plentiful.  My sister has found the work of Toni Morrison to be helpful in her journey to understanding black history.  

Third, there is the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C.  It is a place where all Americans can learn about the richness and diversity of the African American experience, what it means to their lives and how it helped shape this nation.  When we visited in May of 2019, most of the patrons were African American.  Hopefully, this will change as White America discovers a rich and thought provoking addition to learning about African American history.

The discussion over racism in America has never been more focused than in 2020.  A little history goes a long way toward being an informed participant.