On monuments recently erased and removed, and one never erected
In a surprise move Wednesday night, the Memphis city council voted to work around a state law forbidding them from (re)moving historical monuments by selling two parks to a private non-profit corporation — which quickly (re)moved prominent statues of Nathan Bedford Forrest and Jefferson Davis to “a place nobody can find.”
As the “investigation” and outrage over this latest so-called attempt to “erase history” proceeds, let’s not forget about the (geological and cultural) history that may literally be erased at Bears Ears. Monumental mistakes do occur, but Memphis isn’t even on my list.
Neither is Shelby, North Carolina. In 1916, history was created — not erased — when this local community refused to erect a monument to another Klansman. While the plan to erect a statue of Leroy McAfee was “hailed with delight” initially, Thomas Dixon, Jr. “stirred up a hornets’ nest” when he announced that the statue of his uncle would be wearing a Klan hood.
“Let us forget it,” pleaded a local civil war veteran who recalled an incident of Klan violence in what he described as a “reign of terror” and a “blot on [the] memory of man” (Charlotte Observer).
Dixon’s “insult to [McAfee’s] comrades in arms as well as to the common intelligence of Cleveland County” was eventually thwarted, but he would continue to promote a glorious narrative about the Klan through well-attended showings of The Birth of a Nation — including a private showing in the White House for his former college classmate, Woodrow Wilson.
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