My brother was born in Albany, New York and I was born in Richmond, Virginia where we grew up. He would play the Yankee and I would play Johnny Reb in our own war games completely oblivious to the nature or causes of the Civil War. Neither of my parents had deep roots in the south or its culture but for most of my youth I lived within a couple of blocks of Monument Avenue and regularly passed the Civil War monuments that have given it the reputation of being one of the grandest avenues in the world.
When I visited my sister in Richmond over the years I would take the slower route back to Durham by driving down Monument and picking up I-95 downtown, just to take in the monuments and the magnificent homes that line the avenue.
If I ever write my memoirs perhaps the most significant chapter will be about my personal awakening to the history of African-Americans in this country and especially in Richmond. One of the “Oh My God” moments was meeting a man by the name of Willie Lanier, who had graduated from one of the two “Negro” high schools in Richmond and eventually was inducted into the pro football Hall of Fame. We are the same age and how I met him is a longer story, but he shared with me some of the disappointment he and his high school teammates had felt when plans for a post- season game between my high school football team and his were stymied by city officials because of a fear of riots.
This preamble is to help me explain why I am very ambivalent about removing these or any other civil war monuments. During all those years growing up and waking up to the evils of slavery, I never heard anyone, black or white, attach much significance to these monuments. That’s true in Durham as well. I’ve been here over 30 years and never heard a word, pro or con, about the statue that was pulled down in front of the old court house. I passed it many times but never bothered to read the inscription on it. For all I knew or cared it could have been a monument to Revolutionary War soldiers.
I’d be willing to bet that if it had any significance at all to most people of all races in Durham over the years, it was just that of a relic of a bygone era. I had no idea it was a relic of the Jim Crow days erected long after the Civil War ended.
I don’t think I know anyone that will miss the statue in Downtown Durham although I’m a little embarrassed that a rowdy crowd pulled it down with the gusto of drunk vandals. There’s a right way to do these things and that’s not it. If any good came out of it, it pulled some history out of the dusty stacks to remind us that we were imperfect then and still have a ways to go to racial tolerance.
Richmond is a different story. The Lee monument is a real work of art and was erected before the turn of the 20th Century. I’m sure there are some that will still see it as an affront glorifying a terrible time in our history. Maybe there are still some who feel the same way about Stonehenge. Some may also think that the symbolism is important. I don’t. I would much prefer that the focus be less on symbolism and on more tangible problems such as affordable housing, community policing, equal education and job creation. And, of course, there’s the evil heir of Jim Crow, voter suppression. Let’s protest and attack that, not some relic of the old man.
But then again our heritage was not one of family slavery. I think they should be put in a park dedicated to works of art (maybe that one with the lakes further on down Monument Avenue).
I met a wonderful black woman from Richmond when I first moved to Northern Virginia. We were planning an outing with a group of folks and I said we should visit a local plantation garden show. She looked at me strangely and said “I don’t even go to restaurants with Plantation in the name.” Through the laughter that comment triggered, I saw a truth I had never seen. And I am still learning to see it.
The lakes? Do you mean at Byrd Park down at the end of the Boulevard, where the Christopher Columbus monument is? Now there’s one dude who probably doesn’t deserve a monument.
I remember standing honor guard for the Knights of Columbus ceremony at that statue on Columbus Day. Knights with plumes and swords, cadets with rifles and flags, the Bishop and city councilmen making speeches. I wonder if they still do that.
Nice reflection.
I too grew up in Richmond, am Black, and I lived maybe 20 blocks from Monument Ave. I too enjoyed the cobblestone street (I remember vividly Penny Tweedy lying down in the street to protect the cobblestones from the asphalt pavers who tried to make the street easier to sweep).
My doctor’s office was on Monument Ave. (my Mother refused to have Black nor White doctors touch her children – preferring Jewish medical care – true story).
I passed those Monuments several times a week, as we drove our street to the only Sears & Roebuck store in town, to pick my Sister up at Maggie Walker HS from cheerleader practice, and to go with our Dad to buy food for the wealthy families he catered for (he was a top-level chef in those days, at a skill level worth many millions today).
My parents always pointed out those monuments as we passed by, in our 1951 Studebaker (we got a “new” car in 1960 …. a 1957 Chrysler), and laughingly spoke about the revisionist history they were associated with. Dad talked almost every time about how the wealthy White (goes without saying!) people told him how those monuments were a joke, and how “ugly” they made the Avenue.
My opinion about those monuments, over time, was molded by not only Black, but even more so by White people.
And I don’t share the ambivalence about them, and I can’t seem to find other World monuments to compare them to (Stonehenge?).
I feel America these monuments further cloud a very disturbing history of the USA that needs to be fully exposed.
Maybe somebody could help me to understand the value of revisionism in history. It would have been a real ego boost to me had my parents raised me to believe I was the product of a virgin birth, and that my Dad was just a surrogate for my real Pop, who nobody had actually ever seen.
But at some point that might cause trouble for me.
Jay, I appreciate your hope that we could all focus less on symbolism and more on achieving affordable housing, community policing, equal education, job creation, and voter suppression. I guess that’s pretty much true with whatever statues are displayed on public property in public view. Still, I think the statues are doomed. It’s a rising tide, and it’s flowing hard against all the arguments for keeping them there, even for Richmond’s Monument Avenue. I was feeling hard regret at the thought of having them torn down (and “with the gusto of drunk vandals” was such a perfect description of how not to do it). When it started coming into mind with the removal of Confederate flags a few years ago, I thought it would happen and it would be “a damn shame” when they go. They’re History. I’ve mellowed, as I have on many old thoughts. I’ll carry a little scar of regret, probably, but even that would be hard to justify to Tena’s friend or to Bob.
Wow. I should introduce all you folks. Bruce is a friend and in my class at Benedictine in Richmond who went on to the Air Force Academy and then became an Air Force pilot. He also did a stint in the Peace Corps in Bulgaria and has written a book about the experience.
Tena is my brother’s wife’s sister who I’ve known since she was a vet tech in Richmond who smuggled an injured dog from the office to my brother who named her Tinker although my preferred name was Tripod since she lived a long and happy life with only three legs.
Bob is also an old friend from Benedictine too but younger because he was one of my students when I taught there. He’s younger but has an old soul and turned out a lot better than another one of my students from that era named Steve Bannon.
Mark is a friend in Durham who is from Durham but spent many years in Richmond living near the old Westhampton Theater just blocks from our first home in Richmond. He was the head flack for Vepco/Dominion Resources. He still has an active social life in Richmond. We have calculated that our time in Richmond overlapped for about 6 months when he was working for Vepco in the Hertiage Building in Downtown Richmond while I was across the street in the United Virginia building. Speaking of Monuments, he recently entrusted me with a family monument, his mother’s beloved 93 Cadillac Fleetwood.
It’s a privilege to have all of you chime in on this issue here on the site. Mark and I had a lengthy discussion about it on a quick round trip to Blowing Rock last week to pick up some furniture.