The Monuments We Never Built

3 Responses

  1. Dennis papini says:

    Very timely and thoughtful contribution to the conversation. I appreciate the research and reasoning that went into this and have shared it on my Facebook page.

  2. Robert S. Emmett says:

    Thanks for this visually rich meditation on the painful absence of Reconstruction’s African-American leaders and the suppression of their memory. It would be fitting and proper to replace many monuments with a telling of those who waged peace for racial equality after the Civil War. I was reminded of this during a visit to the University of South Carolina a few years back, where an exhibit honored the black majority of students who attended the state university until the “Red Shirts” supremacist organization and state forces literally besieged the state Capitol. Having encountered similar commentaries from docents at Civil War sites here in VA, that moment in this essay rang true. Supremacist history cannot be allowed to become “common knowledge” and the dominant interpretation of battlefield landscapes.

  3. Tracy CHipman says:

    Just thank you…thank you for this. Crucial voice in this crucible….

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