Material Religion The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief

ISSN: 1743-2200 (Print) 1751-8342 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rfmr20

Soldier Statues and Empty Pedestals: Public Memory in the Wake of the Confederacy

David Morgan

To cite this article: David Morgan (2018): Soldier Statues and Empty Pedestals: Public Memory in the Wake of the Confederacy, Material Religion, DOI: 10.1080/17432200.2017.1418231 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/17432200.2017.1418231

Published online: 05 Mar 2018.

Submit your article to this journal

View related articles

View Crossmark data

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rfmr20 outlook soldier statues and empty heroes—Thomas Jefferson, third president of the USA, and Sidney Lanier, poet and musician (Figure pedestals: public memory in 1). Later that morning, Price circulated a memo to the wake of the confederacy the university community in which he stated that he had made the decision to remove the figure in order “to protect Duke Chapel, to ensure the vital Duke University, Durham, North Carolina safety of students and community members who Some images live an unpredictable life. They stand worship there, and above all to express the deep or hang quietly for a long while, inviting inattention and abiding values of our university.”1 The carving to the point that they waver on the cusp of invisi- had been vandalized only days before. He also indi- bility. Think of the virtually anonymous statuary in cated that the figure would be preserved for study. parks around the country. They were placed there Meanwhile, on the campus of the University to commemorate events or people that have grad- of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, another bronze ually slipped into municipal unconsciousness. The Confederate soldier still awaits the outcome of a figures collect bird droppings and only announce conflicted process of deciding if he will remain or their vague presence with the occasional thud of a be removed. “Silent Sam,” as he is known (Figure Frisbee. 2), stands atop a granite pedestal on a quad where But one day a forgotten image suddenly he was proudly installed in 1913 by the United awakens as crowds gather about it. A sun-bleached Daughters of the Confederacy and alumni of the soldier stands once again on a battle line, but an university in memory of “the sons of the university” encounter with militant protesters rather than mil- who served in “the war of 1861–1865,” read plaques itary forces. As the newly charged symbol of social on the statue’s base. But the speech delivered at conflict, the statue has become two things in one— the dedication of the statue by Julian Carr, a local contrary icons of two groups feverishly debating tobacco manufacturer, alumnus of the university, what the statue is doing there. This occurred on and veteran of the war, made very clear that the several occasions over the summer in the American purpose of the monument was as much about the South. On August 12, 2017, a rally of White suprem- present in 1913 as it was about those who fought acists on the campus of the University of Virginia at in the Civil War 50 years before. In what may be a Charlottesville clashed with students and activists. reference to the first generation of the Klan, organ- The rally consisted of a range of groups advocating ized by Confederate veterans in 1866, Carr claimed White supremacy and White American nationalism. that Confederate soldiers saved the South for Rally participants were angered by the city council’s Anglo-Saxons immediately following the end of the decision in February 2017 to remove a statue of war: “today, as a consequence, the purest strain of Robert E. Lee from a park in Charlottesville. On July the Anglo Saxon is to be found in the 13 Southern 8, the Ku Klux Klan had conducted a march in the States—Praise God.”2 city also protesting the planned removal. Violence Conflict centering on public monuments erupted among marchers and protesters on August associated with deep rifts in cultural history caused 12, and the confrontation turned deadly when one by civil war, slavery, and colonialism has erupted member of the rally drove his car into a group of around the world in recent years. In South Africa a protesters, killing one of them. bronze figure of Cecil Rhodes was removed from Two days later in Durham, North Carolina, a the campus of the University of Cape Town in 2015 crowd gathered around a Confederate soldier mon- after organized protest called for it, contending that ument in front of the city’s old county courthouse, the statue was a symbol of white supremacy as well eventually pulling down the bronze figure from its as a symbol of the slow efforts of the university to granite base. The figure had been erected in 1924 turn the corner on the legacy of racism. A different 2 in memory of Confederate soldiers. A few days after fate awaited another sculpture of Rhodes, poised the destruction of the statue, Vincent Price, the on the façade of Oriel College at the University of president of Duke University in Durham, authorized Oxford. The sculpture was not removed, but left the removal in the early morning hours of August in place by college officials, who determined after 19 of a stone carving of Robert E. Lee. The carving consulting with members, alumni, and donors that had stood for over 85 years at the main entrance the majority view endorsed keeping the figure to the Duke University Chapel, where Lee’s effigy where it was. A Wikipedia website, “Rhodes Must had perched between two other Southern culture Fall,” named after an international movement that began in Cape Town, lists several campaigns at universities in South Africa and elsewhere directed Material Religion against statuary that commemorates wars and personalities of colonial history and armed conflict, © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group from the Anglo-Boer War to the American Civil War. Outlook

FIG 1 Empty niche at the entrance to Duke University Chapel, Durham, North Carolina. Stone carvings by John Donnelly, 1932. Photograph by David Morgan. 3 For scholars, educators, and museum workers Leaders, heroes, battles, and wars are surely among engaged in the study and exhibition of religious the most common memorials of the past. That is material culture, these many events raise a host of because each of them marks the boundary of a issues. Among them are four whose interconnec- cultural or social regime. Leaders and heroes were tion is striking. I would like to touch briefly on each men or women of action whose deeds and force of of them. personality are regarded as agents that were critical First, objects such as statues are put in place in bringing about a certain state of affairs. Battles to secure memory—not just any memory, but one and wars likewise anchor a particular way of think- that serves the interests of a particular group and ing and feeling in time and place by marking before its ideology, or view of itself and the events that it and after, end and beginning. All four are powerful assembles in the stories that the group celebrates. narrative devices that create and transmit arche- Material Religion Material FIG 2 4 “Silent Sam,” Confederate soldier monument, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Sculpture by John Wilson, erected 1913. Photograph by David Morgan.

typal stories. Together, stories, objects, persons, and their purpose is to memorialize, they do not seem events compose the form and substance of what is very good at it. Maybe their material presence repeated again and again in schools, homes, and on operates most through invisibility. Perhaps these public occasions of ritual remembrance in order to anchors of tradition do not always need to operate promote shared ways of thinking and feeling. at conscious levels of thought to accomplish their Second, with these remarks on the form and task. If so, that does not mean they are feeble or content of public memory in mind, how is it that so unable to preserve memory. They stand there, on many of the statues in city parks commemorating the edge of awareness, waiting to come to life, to heroes and wars so easily fade into the back- regain visibility in ritual moments such as patriotic ground? What is their status as material objects? If parades or in episodes of crisis, when they polarize 5 Columbus in Manhattan’s Columbus Circle, Donald removing thestatue commemorating Christopher spate ofstatue removals, andaddressing thecallfor by what peoplechooseto honor. the after Speaking in thesymbolsitcherishes. gines that ofvalues itupholdsaheritage invested Eachpositionima- and protection ofcivilliberties? of onerace andreligion, ortheongoingexpansion agree what theirnation standsfor—the privilege clear that citizens, American for example, cannot present. thelastyear Over ithasbecome especially foundation for ofthe theideological constructions public imagination thepastwillnever beastable isforeverthat publicmemory fluid.In thearena of ous. thecauldron that means In ofsocialconflict and testing becausedoingsoisunpatrioticorimpi- consists of lore that israrely to suspicion subjected concerned withthepresumption ofneutrality. It isless them andtheirreaders. Butpublicmemory of theirown socialengagement inwhat matters to ple write, andwhat historians write from theturf other, adispassionate, neutral reality. iswhat peo It isnotanobjective cultural claims.History flicting they become politicized sharply intheclashofcon- imbued withintense feeling. Adored anddespised, and another’s idol, publicimagesare quickly the window ofthepresent. As oneperson’s icon offerobjects access to thepast, butonlythrough inattempting to anchorthem. perform objects The rolehistorical narratives that andtheimportant reveals South in theAmerican of theinstability assailing anidealasrightorwrong. asenseofbelonging bywho enact defending or worktheir ritual isto makegoodcitizens—those takes arally oraprotest to rouse them.Once awake figures slumber, It awaiting ceremonial re-ignition. marches therest andrallies). During oftheyear the parades andspeechesflag-raising (orprotest rites—the isdormantoutside ofitsauthorizing It patterns ofworship, civilreligion works episodically. institutional religions rites inregular that observe contrastthat putsthesestatues In to to work. and iconoclasm are two modesofthecivilreligion icate what theyholdto bedemonic. Veneration as holy, to erad- anddissenters theopportunity the material meansfor venerating what theyregard statue. Commemorative statues provide devotees and emendthat pastby destroying orremoving the contested pastor, for others, offer a way to reprove words, consists largely oftheway theysecure a action. roars to life, galvanizing publicopinionandpolitical flict. What appeared deadand forgotten suddenly aslightning rodspublic life ofsocialcon by- serving But “heritage” isshaped isnotonlyinherited. It Third, that played the conflict outthissummer The inother ofthesepublicobjects, materiality - public monuments withoutlegislative approval. inated legislature in2015madeitillegalto remove Carolina’sa law by enacted North - Republican-dom become thesite for a “Peace andJustice Plaza” since that publiclandacross thestreet from Silent Sam ument? Aformer mayor suggested ofChapel Hill monument bepaired withitscounter-monevery - best way to remember past?Should theconflicted of imagination, feeling, andpurpose. What isthe isaboutunifyinggroups insharedmemory forms discourses astheevidence canbemadeto support; admitsofasmany critical with memory. History pretive narrative. clashes Butthat iswhere history the neutral past, butevents inaninter portrayed isnot niches andunoccupied pedestals?History ogy over another. ofempty Isthesolutionaseries not to everyone, theresult isto oneideol- privilege endorsing thevalues theyrepresent to some, but history.” It’s ridiculous. The pastisthepast. You can’t rewrite there won’t beastatue orahistoric housestanding. was onthat scale,“Once rewriting history you start towering over Trafalgar Square inLondon, hisreply the massive monument to Lord Nelson,thecolumn Sir Roy Strong, heard someonecallfor dismantling former director ofthe Museum, Victoria andAlbert may also provide theoccasion for apublicconver alternative nicheorpedestal. to theempty They ofanimportant rienced. are Museums at leastpart were craftedandcameto beexpe which artifacts theideological settingsin work includespreserving ferent ofspace, kind butthetask ofgoodmuseum inadif- the move to amuseumplaces theartifact accessible, butinsomesensedefused. Inevitably, can remove themto aplace where theyremain that offendthe objects some, amunicipalauthority study, andconversation. thandestroying Rather museums provide space anenduring for debate, rather thanpoliticalinstruments, as artifacts are anddisplayedplaces preserved in which objects resource thepast. As invisioningorre-visioning like to consider. The museummay beahelpful museum? This usto brings thefinalpoint Ishould go? To landfill, warehouse, original donor, or to the anunwantedevoking heritage, where shouldthey nurses. monument to military afigural groupiconic earthwork, ofGIs, andathird in the National Mall Washington DC—Maya Lin’s components to the Vietnam Veteran on Memorial in theUSA.Onethinks, for instance, ofthethree There isatrack record for suchcounter-monuments next? It hasto bestopped; it’s It next? heritage.” to destroy statues ofChristopher Columbus. What’s our history, nottear itdown. Now, theyare trying Trump proclaimed, “We believe we shouldpreserve Yet ifleaving thingsinplace meanstacitly When statues are eventually removed for 4 3 When the When 5 -

- -

Material Religion Outlook

Volume XX Issue XX sation about those objects that remain in parks and that glorify the heritage of racism. But we should public squares, thereby treating the municipal land- resist the urge to expunge it from the historical scape as a kind of museum without walls, a domain record. We need the past to speak powerfully to the for civil discourse as well as for political speech and present so that we do not forget it. ideological disagreement. Museums and scholar- ship should be resources for public discourse. But the museum is a secondary space, where Notes things go to be taxonomized and shelved. Most of 1 President Vincent Price, Letter to the Duke Community, what museums possess, after all, lies quietly in stor- August 19, 2017. age. Keeping a few niches and pedestals empty is, 2 Julian Carr, “Unveiling of Confederate Monument at therefore, a good idea if there is a way to remember University,” speech delivered at the University of North what used to occupy them. Another possibility is Carolina, Chapel Hill; on June 2, 1913; University of North to replace images removed with others that offer Carolina Library, 14. an alternative sense of heritage. For example, some 3 Gabby Morrongiello, “Trump condemns effort to remove in Durham want to replace the figure of Robert E. Christopher Columbus statues: ‘It’s Heritage’,” Washing- Lee with a figure of the African-American architect, ton Examiner, October 22, 2017, online: http://www. Julian Abele, who designed the university chapel, or washingtonexaminer.com/trump-condemns-effort-to-re- a carving of the African-American Episcopal priest move-christopher-columbus-statues-its-heritage/arti- and civil-rights heroine, Pauli Murray, who grew up cle/2637834. in the city. Doing so would counter the prominence 4 Laura Freeman, “Everywhere he looks, the thumbscrews of white men in the history of American race and are tightening,” Sunday Times (London, England), Septem- religion, ousting a Confederate general with a ber 3, 2017, 18. representative of the people he and the South 5 fought to keep enslaved. Abele and Murray repre- Mark Kleinschmidt, “What we could do about Silent Sam, sent a less celebrated aspect of Southern heritage. the Confederate statue at UNC,” guest column, opinion page, The Herald-Sun, August 17, 2017, 9A. Replacing Lee with one of these figures, advocates insist, would challenge the normative force of the national heritage, the unspoken discourse of a preponderance of monuments to white men who fought a war of rebellion. david morgan We are trailed by our past, but not doomed to duke university, durham, north carolina repeat it. To avoid repeating its mistakes we need the empty niche, new statues, and the museum. DOI:10.1080/17432200.2017.1418231 Civil society need not tolerate public monuments

6