Lee Monument- Richmond, VA

It’s been several weeks (months?) since I’ve posted and I’m ashamed it took that long. In light of [semi-] recent events, the posts I had initially prepped no longer felt appropriate in that moment, so I decided to go a different direction. But, just like my awareness on certain issues, it took [way] longer to arrive at than it should have.

For those of you that don’t know (and if you don’t know, you’ve truly been living under a rock, haha), there have recently been protests across the globe regarding systemic racism, white supremacy, and police brutality, all of which are represented by the “Black Lives Matter” movement.

Today I thought I’d bring you to my new “hometown” and one center of debate: Richmond, Virginia. As the former capital of the confederacy, Richmond has many historical ties to the Civil War and even has a street full of monuments dedicated to several Confederate “heroes”. One of these monuments- and one of the biggest hubs in the city in the last several weeks- has been the monument dedicated to Confederate General Robert E. Lee and will be the subject of my postcard adventures today!

History

Lee & the Civil War

I’m not going to spend a lot of time talking about Robert E. Lee because this is about the statue, not so much the person. However, I think it is impossible to talk about one without the other, so, sorry, but you’re getting a mini Civil War lesson:

The Civil War was a bloody battle fought from 1861-1865. It was result of northern/southern tension and resulted in the Confederate army (comprising of the south who fought to keep slavery) fighting the Northern Union army (fighting to abolish slavery). Two of the key players were Union General Ulysses S. Grant and, the man in the hot seat today, General Robert E. Lee.

Robert E. Lee. Photo courtesy of: Library of Congress ¹⁾ *Lee, Robert E.* (1865). Encyclopedia Britannica. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-E-Lee/images-videos

To briefly summarize, Lee was born in 1807 to an affluent southern family. He attended military school (West Point Military Academy) and fought in the U.S. war against Mexico where he proved himself to be a smart and skilled leader ²⁾Robert E. Lee Biography. (2017, October 31). Biography.com. Retrieved July 26, 2020 from … Continue reading. When the Civil War was drawing near, Lee was actually being eyed as a leader in the Union Army, but he decided to stick with his home state (Virginia) and join the Confederate side instead.

The Civil War proved to be brutal, ending with around “620,000 of 2.4 million soldiers killed, millions more injured and much of the South left in ruin” ³⁾History.com Editors. (2009, October 15). Civil War. History.com. Retrieved July 26, 2020, from … Continue reading. The war ended in Appomattox, Virginia, with General Lee surrendering to General Grant.

Now, there are obviously many accounts that Robert E. Lee was a good man and, in many ways, he probably was. There are links below for several biographies and, from what I’ve read, he seemed like a decent dude (in some regards). But we’re not here to debate his humanity and who he was as a person because, sadly, that’s not what matters right now. What matters in this context is what he represents.

What does he represent, you may ask? Author Thomas Connelly wrote, “by the time of Appomattox, it remained in the future for the Lost Cause authors to mold Lee into the totally invincible leader of the Confederacy”.⁴⁾Connelly, T. (1977). The Marble Man: Robert E. Lee and His Image in American Society. Google Books. … Continue reading

The Lost Cause

The Lost Cause narrative is one that is, unfortunately, very widely accepted. Essentially, “in attempting to deal with defeat, Southerners created an image of the war as a great heroic epic”, or, a lost cause. ⁵⁾Marsala, C. E. (2018, May 11). Monumental Heist: A Story of Race; A Race to the White House. Google Books. … Continue reading By creating this epic, the Confederate generals and soldiers were hailed as heroes, the Civil War was apparently fought over “states rights” instead of slavery, the Confederate flag became a symbol of “patriotism” and “Southern culture”, and, as aforementioned, Robert E. Lee became the Confederate “poster child”. It’s also during this time that organizations like the Daughters of the Confederacy or Sons of the Confederacy began emerging and funding the monuments meant to celebrate the Confederate “heroes”.

Monument to the Past

Monuments have a way of celebrating or commemorating events and/or people. While it seems natural that monuments to the Civil War would be erected, considering it was a significant event, most statues didn’t start popping up until the 1880s, despite the war ending in 1865. One of the reasons this happened was because of that “Lost Cause” narrative of the Civil War.

The Lost Cause is not a product of the war. The Lost Cause is a product of the post-war period and, when we talk about things like monuments that are being put up about the Confederacy, we’re not learning about the Civil War. What we’re learning about is the period that they go up in , which is the Jim Crow era. And so monuments are a reflection of the time they were erected, far more than they are about the time they nominally commemorate.
Adam Domby ⁶⁾Professor Buzzkill (Host). (2020, June 16). The False Cause: Fraud, Fabrication, and White Supremacy in Confederate Memory [Audio Podcast Episode]. … Continue reading. Listen to his whole interview in the podcast below! It’s SO good.

Anyways. I bring this up because the Lee Monument fits into this monument-building period and, like anything, context is important.

The Lee Monument

History of the Monument

Talks about the Lee Monument began not long (not even two weeks) after the death of Robert E. Lee in 1870, yet the actual planning and execution of the construction didn’t officially start until 1887. The statue was commissioned in France and was to be built in two parts: the first part was the granite pedestal designed by Paul Pujol and the second part was the bronze statue created by Marius-Jean-Antonin Mercie.

After both pieces were completed, the finished products were sent back to the states on May 7, 1890. The four crates containing the pieces were offloaded and dragged from the railroad stations to the site it sits today in the intersection of Allen and Monument Avenues. Reports show that 10,000-20,000 people took part in the dragging of the monument and turned it into a parade of sorts, with people running alongside and helping pull the massive statue. Some even took pieces of the rope used to transport the statues as souvenirs. ⁷⁾Griego, T. (2015, June 25). Past and Present: The Many-Sided History of the Monument Avenue Debate. Richmond Magazine. … Continue reading

Construction of the Lee Monument. Photo from: Cook Collection, The Valentine ⁸⁾Lee Monument Unveiling. (1890, May 29). The Cook Collection, The Valentine. Retrieved from … Continue reading

The official unveiling of the newly constructed monument took place on May 29, 1890 and drew a crowd of over 150,000 people. People gathered from all over, parading, waving flags, and all excited for the big reveal.

Well, not all. Turns out, there were a number of people who were adamantly against the construction of the monument, a majority of them African-Americans (for good reason). But more on that later…

The Impact on Today

While thousands of people crowded in Richmond to celebrate the erection of the Lee Monument, many more were dreading it. What some people saw as a symbol of freedom, others saw as a symbol as oppression.

And, honestly? The sentimentality sticks today.

The historical record suggests that monument-building peaked during three pivotal periods: from the late 1880s into the 1890s, as Reconstruction was being crushed; from the 1900s through the 1920s, with the rise of the second Ku Klux Klan, the increase in lynching and the codification of Jim Crow; and in the 1950s and 1960s, around the centennial of the war but also in reaction to advances in civil rights.
Brian Palmer and Seth Freed Wessler, Smithsonian Magazine ⁹⁾Palmer, B. & Wessler, S.F. (2018, December). The Costs of the Confederacy. Smithsonian Magazine. … Continue reading

Now, I don’t know about you, but there are several things that stand out to me about when these monuments began appearing… the most notable one being the fact that they were constructed during crucial times of racial tension. The chart below can reinforce this hypothesis:

Photo from the Southern Poverty Law Center ¹⁰⁾Whose Heritage? Public Symbols of the Confederacy. (2019, February 1). Southern Poverty Law Center. … Continue reading(Check out their study, it’s very comprehensive and eye-opening).

While, yes, these monuments can be historic and “beautiful”, many of them were constructed to, essentially, establish fear and dominance over Black people. One good example of that is that most of the monuments were built in well-traveled public places or in front of government buildings. To some, it’s a reminder as you’re walking past these statues that this government wasn’t built for “people like you” and, in many places, still won’t stand with or support you.

While I could keep going on how the monuments are icons of fear to so many, I’m going to jump back to the Lee Monument specifically and I’ll include several articles below in case you want to read more on this to form your own opinions and not just read mine and/or to find where I got my research from!

Lee Monument in June 2020 (taken by me!)

The Modern Monument

In the last few months, the Lee Monument has the hub of many protests and the meeting spot of many marches and, in many cases, still is. It has been the center of several incidents with tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, frustrated protesters, and angry police; it has loomed over the speakers begging for justice and equality and onlookers crying because of injustice and fear; it has become a canvas for those wanting to be heard; it has been the backdrop of a movement in Richmond.

Where Does That Leave Us?

As people who live in a country built on the idea freedom, we should have a better understanding of what “freedom” is, and what it isn’t. To me, memorializing and idolizing people who fought for wrong beliefs and were, in fact, traitors to their nation isn’t a way to promote that freedom. Whether you want to admit it or not, there is injustice in our world, in our backyard. People are getting targeted solely because of the color of their skin all around our country and people are still trying to turn a blind eye. As the Hamilton musical states: “History has its eyes”¹¹⁾Miranda, L. (2015). History has its eyes [song]. On Hamilton: An American Musical [Album]. Atlantic.. And history has shown us spikes of racial tension and aggression in our country time and time again and, yet, it still continues. So history does have its eyes. It has eyes on all of us. What we do today can have a lasting impact for years to come.

But what does this have to do with a statue? A “historic” artifact that portrays “history”? Sure, statues portray something, but it’s rarely history. Instead, what you’re seeing is an image typically meant to idolize or symbolize a person or event. I mean, think about the statues you’d see… do any of them have plaques or signs or engravings that specifically tell you anything other than the person/representation that stands before you? The answer is, probably not. So, when you see a monument, are you learning anything other than the name of the person or dates of the event? Are you able to determine what the statue represents immediately? Do you get the full backstory? Again: no.

To say this “erases history” is to miss the point. Removing the statutes reflects a sea [of] change in who we, as a society, honor. In doing this, we are not turning away from history. We are turning away from those people on those pedestals — and what they represent — as models to be admired and fondly remembered
Frances Coleman ¹²⁾Coleman, F. (2020, June 19). Removing statues isn’t about ‘erasing history’. AL.com. … Continue reading

History can survive without the statues. History has survived without the statues.

I, like many other people, believe these statues need to be taken down. You can not agree, that’s fine. But these statues, whether you want to admit it or not, are symbols of oppression to so many. While these monuments may not personally offend you, think of our Black neighbors who may be genuinely upset and scared seeing them. So why, if we truly love and want to support all people (*cough cough* “all lives matter” people), would we want to keep that in place?

The Future of Lee Monument

So. What’s next? Well, for Richmond’s Lee Monument, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has declared that it is going to come down, buuuuut it’s not that easy. In June, multiple lawsuits were filed to halt the removal of the statue: the first filed by a man claiming to be a descendant of the family who sold the land the monument sits on and, the second, filed by Monument Avenue residents who claim it will decrease property value and that the city “has no right”. As of July 24th, 2020, however, the first lawsuit was dismissed by a judge so only the second remains.

The end plan for the statue, once/if the lawsuits are settled, is for it to be removed in several pieces and reassembled elsewhere. Where it will be reassembled is still an unknown, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Personally, my hope is that it ends up in a museum so that, with it, we can tell its story.

Photo Credit: John Biggs ¹³⁾Biggs, J. (2020). Retrieved from: https://twitter.com/_LSaunders_/status/1275268819297189888/photo/1

The story of this monument represents a story of racism and oppression from the time of the Civil War to modern day and it deserves to be told. But not where it is right now. Instead, I believe it belongs in a museum, with the spray paint still on it, with videos replaying the speeches given at the base speaking of hope and justice, with signs and exhibits sharing information about the Civil War, the Civil Rights movement, the BLM movement, and everything else in between. Let this statue educate future generations of the injustices it represent and has lived through. May this statue not evoke fear and oppression any longer, but instead encourage us not to repeat the sins of our past. As the years move on, so must we.

I’ll leave you with this: back in 1890, John Mitchell, Jr. was the editor of the Richmond Planet and was one of of those who opposed the statue’s creation. Mitchell himself was actually born a slave in 1863 and became editor of the Planet in 1884 ¹⁴⁾Born in the Wake of Freedom. (n.d.). The Library of Virginia. https://www.lva.virginia.gov/exhibits/mitchell/ajax.htm. In his 1890 article regarding the monument, he says that the Black man “put up the Lee Monument, and should the time come, will be there to take it down” (Richmond Planet, 1890. Read the full article here¹⁵⁾Mitchell Jr., J. (1890, June 7). What of Virginia. Richmond Planet. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84025841/1890-06-07/ed-1/seq-2/).

And, 130 years later, we’re closer than ever.

Dear…

We finally have another postcard with writing on the back! However, my cursive translation is lacking so I had my lovely father translate for me!

The following is inscribed on the back of the postcard:

Postmarked November 12, 1908:

“Sallie,
be sure and go home Sunday all of you go. I went to Rd. last week. How is Gladys? Love to all. Write soon.
Sister Sue”

Resources

As promised, here are some additional resources if you’d like to check them out. I broke them into topics to hopefully make it easier, but use them as a stepping stone to more research if you want.