The enduring shame of North Carolina’s Confederate monument law

by | Jun 9, 2020 | Features, Politics | 6 comments

On a lonely North Carolina highway bordered by soybean fields and rusting tobacco sheds, the Sons of Confederate Veterans put up a billboard. “Save your family history!” it exclaims over a picture of the Confederate Battle Flag. In the real world, that blood soaked banner flew above an army of traitors. Of course, many families in eastern North Carolina are African-American and have a radically different stake in the enterprise of common memory. Whose history, exactly, is the motorist supposed to save?

In 2015, directly in the wake of a brutal and pitiless instance of race terror, the NC legislature passed a law to require approval by the state Historical Commission before public monuments could be removed. In the process, they placed onerous restrictions on when the Historical Commission could permit removal. Clearly trying to preempt the removal of Confederate monuments, they banned the transfer of these objects to museums and insisted that they be returned to their original place within sixty days of removal, which could only happen for maintenance or for narrowly defined public safety reasons. Republicans got their way in 2018 when Governor Roy Cooper tried, and failed, to move five Confederate monuments from the Capitol grounds to Bentonville Battlefield.

When Cooper announced that he wanted to remove the monuments, Republican Senate leader Phil Berger dropped any pretense that the monument bill was not about protecting Confederates. In an impassioned letter to the governor, he paid homage to “regular North Carolinians who died during the Civil War” (making no mention of the North Carolinians who fought for the Union) and the “sacrifices of North Carolina women during the Civil War” (for the Confederacy). Having previously described the bill as an effort to cool the passions of the moment, he now stood foursquare behind the pseudo-historical Lost Cause myth and those who would venerate it with monuments.

Because of the legislature’s devotion to the Confederate mythos, our state now has no realistic chance of removing Confederate monuments. To be clear, those objects send a public message that the Confederacy represented something in our history that is worthy of honor and respect. As British historian David Olusoga observed, “statues are about saying ‘that was a great man who did great things.'” That message is on display in 140 places throughout our state and cannot be legally revised. As even the Deep South begins to change its landscape of memory, North Carolina will be forced to publicly endorse a dishonorable cause until the Republicans’ monument law is repealed.

The shame of the Confederacy is inarguable; the purpose of monuments to it is to elevate that dishonor into an object of veneration. North Carolina’s monuments scarcely hide this reality. One memorial, in the town of Columbia, reads “In appreciation of our faithful slaves.” Another, in Sampson County, celebrates “a cause still just.” Louisburg’s monument originally had separate “White” and “Colored” water fountains. This is what our forbears invested the prestige of government in. The law that our legislature passed only five years ago to keep this message in place is a stain on North Carolina.

6 Comments

  1. Patricia Campbell

    Until the law changes and we can remove the monuments, we add the information that these people fought to keep a system that brutalizes other human beings. And attach it to the monuments.

  2. Cary Johnston

    I agree with Mike Leonard;s comment, but I cannot call those who fought for The Confederacy traitors. Robert E. Lee was offered the position as head of The Union Army and turned it down to head The Confederate Army. He said he could not fight against Virginia. I oppose the law the republican legislature passed and want it repealed. I’m glad the UNC students overturned Silent Sam, but don’t tag all the confederates with the words “traitors,.” That is an inaccurate overstatement. Today we are one country, thank God!

    • j bengel

      US Code Section 2381 disagrees with you:
      “Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason…”
      If that isn’t a textbook definition of a traitor I’m not sure anything is.

    • Ellen Jefferies

      ” Today we are one country, thank God!”
      You delude yourself. The U.S. is as divided as it was during the civil war and we are heading rapidly toward another one. I’m a “yankee” relocated in retirement to NC for the weather. I keep my head down,my mouth shut, And pray. My neighbors and Trump are 100% racist

  3. Mike Leonard

    Traitor-loving Republicans need to be booted from office in November, starting with Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Lindsey Graham.

  4. Howard FIfer

    Having helped to spearhead an effort last year which led to the removal of the Confederate monument in Pittsboro, NC (in a peaceful way, permitted by State law) I want to encourage folks and make sure they understand that it can be done where the monument is privately owned (usually by the UDC) and on public property. Thank you Mr. Jones for your well researched and well written article.

Related Posts

GET UPDATES

Get the latest posts from PoliticsNC delivered right to your inbox!

You have Successfully Subscribed!