No Common Ground: Confederate Monuments and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice by Karen L. Cox

Abstract

Reviewed by: No Common Ground: Confederate Monuments and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice by Karen L. Cox Meghan H. Martinez No Common Ground: Confederate Monuments and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice. By Karen L. Cox. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2021. Pp. xii, 206. $24.00, ISBN 978-1-4696-6267-1.) In his seminal work Black Reconstruction ([New York, 1935], p. 714), W. E. B. Du Bois confronts the consequences of the erasure of slavery in American history, stating, "Our histories tend to discuss American slavery so impartially, that in the end nobody seems to have done wrong and everybody was right. Slavery appears to have been thrust upon unwilling helpless America, while the South was blameless in becoming its center." In No Common Ground: Confederate Monuments and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice, Karen L. Cox explores the enduring truth of Du Bois's statement and provides insight into exactly how and why this false version of American history persists. In this slim volume, Cox offers an important and accessible history of white supremacist monuments and myths. Conversations about public spaces are becoming more commonplace, and this book parses the nuance. Cox challenges readers to take Lost Cause supporters at their word. Although such supporters are both defensive of the institution of slavery and insistent that the "peculiar institution" does not define them, she paints a portrait of a region that is as unwilling to surrender the battle over memory as it was to admit defeat in the war over slavery. She explains how white women were complicit in perpetuating racial inequality, carrying the banner of the Lost Cause almost immediately following the end of the Civil War, not only to absolve the men they loved but also to make sure those men retained social and political power. Regarding how we should contend with Confederate statues in the current era, Cox moves the conversation forward by discussing the shortcomings of "counter monuments" as an attempt to "balance" a landscape dedicated to Dixie, and by examining how political disenfranchisement has limited what action can be taken in opposition to Confederate monuments (pp. 134, 141). Perhaps most important, Cox effectively contextualizes the battle over public spaces as a microcosm of a fight for political power. If monuments could perpetuate myths about the alleged civility of the Civil War, then southern white communities were never forced to admit their true cause was white supremacy, no matter what Alexander H. Stephens may have said. As Cox points out, "for black southerners, the living and breathing Confederacy, with all of its related symbols, made it feel as though Dixie never fell" (p. 82). Confederate monuments both mythologized a false history of the Civil War and cast so-called southern heritage as exclusively white. Cox expertly employs [End Page 431] Black newspapers and personal interviews to explore the southern heritage often left out of Confederate memory—Black southern heritage. Cox's work centers Black opposition to Confederate memorials, telling a story of continued resistance to white supremacy. Black resistance was ever-present and inherently political. Some individuals defaced monuments, while others organized civil rights protests in the shadows of Confederate monuments. Cox argues that Black opposition has had an important impact on the narrative surrounding Confederate memorials. She documents how the protests that toppled Confederate statues in 2020 built on a century of Black protest and activism. Cox argues that after the gutting of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, southern states were empowered to pass legislation "protecting" Confederate monuments from removal, even in communities interested in reevaluating them. In gerrymandered districts, Confederate monuments were offered more protection than Black votes. These successful voter suppression efforts resulted in rendering Confederate monuments essentially untouchable. The author also takes care to document the amount of state money invested in Confederate monuments, highlighting the systemic nature of racial inequality. No Common Ground makes it clear why the contemporary battle over Confederate monuments and public spaces is so fraught. It is an important read for anyone seeking to deepen their understanding of the conversation. Meghan H. Martinez Florida State University Copyright © 2022 The Southern Historical Association