Abstract
Abstract
 In recent years there has been ongoing controversy in the United States regarding monuments and place names commemorating the Confederate cause in the American Civil War. The following discussion focuses on Monument Avenue in the former Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. This was one of the most prominent locations of Confederate commemoration until statues along the avenue began to be removed during 2020. While also needing to be seen in the immediate context of events in mid-2020, these removals followed a process of investigation and consultation carried out by Richmond City Council. This produced a report which is now a useful resource for a case study investigating Monument Avenue and the broader issues its history helps to illustrate.
Highlights
Despite the widely accepted view that only victors get to write history, commemoration of the losing Confederate cause has been far more widespread in the United States than Union commemoration
Black American politicians, who had been elected to the post-Civil War
‘Gen. Lee had fought to keep him in slavery’, Moss reasoned, ‘he couldn’t vote to put his picture on these walls.’[2]. In 1890, when Confederate commemoration in Richmond began in earnest with the erection of a statue to Lee on Monument Avenue, black newspaper editor John Mitchell Jr was prescient in his understanding of the deeper ramifications: ‘The South may revere the memory of its chieftains
Summary
Despite the widely accepted view that only victors get to write history, commemoration of the losing Confederate cause has been far more widespread in the United States than Union commemoration. ‘Gen. Lee had fought to keep him in slavery’, Moss reasoned, ‘he couldn’t vote to put his picture on these walls.’[2] In 1890, when Confederate commemoration in Richmond began in earnest with the erection of a statue to Lee on Monument Avenue, black newspaper editor John Mitchell Jr was prescient in his understanding of the deeper ramifications: ‘The South may revere the memory of its chieftains.
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