This post is doing the rounds.
"As an archaeologist and a Virginian, I feel like I need to weigh in on the question of whether or not we should preserve monuments relating to the Confederacy. Sorry, its long.
In theory, the whole point of radical white nationalists, the KKK, and Nazis descending upon Charlottesville was to protest the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue from Emancipation Park (formerly Lee Park). These hate-filled groups consider this statue to be an important symbol of white heritage. Some less-radical folks, including some of my friends on FB, say that we should not erase America’s history simply because it is unsavory in contemporary times. President Trump made a similar argument about historic preservation in his remarks to the press on Tuesday and Thursday this week.
Here is the problem: the Robert E. Lee statue was commissioned in 1917 and dedicated in 1924. There is a history associated with that statue, but it is not the history of the Confederacy. Instead this statue is part of early twentieth century attempts to coalesce white power and terrorize non-whites. The Lee statue commemorates a resurgence in white supremacy not simply a general from a war in America’s national history. This historical context, not simply General Lee’s role in the Confederacy, refutes the President’s equivalence between statues dedicated to Lee and those dedicated to Washington.
The specific history of Lee statue is important. Paul Goodloe McIntire, a Charlottesville native, commissioned the statue and donated the park that surrounds it. McIntire donated generously to Charlottesville and the University of Virginia in the early twentieth century. There’s a deeper history here. McIntire’s father, George Malcom McIntire, was the mayor who surrendered Charlottesville to General Custer and his Union troops during the Civil War. It would not be too much to suggest that Paul McIntire had an interest in smoothing over this personal indignity. McIntire not only donated Lee Park. He also donated another park, named after Booker T. Washington, for “colored citizens” to use. While it might be possible to explain away these segregated parks as a “product of their time”, it is a bit more difficult to excuse the Lee statue when we consider what else was going on in Virginia at this time.
What else was going on in Virginia in 1924?
In 1924, the Virginia General Assembly passed two laws that were designed to re-affirm white supremacy in Virginia; “The Racial Integrity Act” and “The Sterilization Act”. The Racial Integrity Act (SB 219), popularly known as the “one drop rule”, defined “colored” persons on the basis of having any African or Native American Ancestry. It also criminalized marriage between whites and non-whites. Interracial marriage was only decriminalized in 1967 thanks to Loving v. Virginia, a landmark case that was the subject of a recent film, “Loving”.
The Sterilization Act (SB 281) provided for compulsory sterilization of those who were deemed “feebleminded”. It was used to control and reduce ethnic minorities and served as a model for subsequent eugenics acts across the country as well as in Nazi Germany.
Both of these laws grew out of strong lobbying. One powerful lobbying group was the Anglo-Saxon Clubs of America, which was founded by John Powell of Richmond in 1922. Powell was a firm believer in white supremacy and segregation. He also liked Appalachian folk music. One of the major goals of the club was to prevent the “amalgamation” of different ethnic groups through intermarriage. It also discouraged immigration to the United States from anywhere except for Northern Europe. Trump’s recent call to limit immigration to English-speakers echoes these sentiments.
Charlottesville is not alone in its Confederate heritage problem. The Southern Poverty Law Center found at least 718 confederate statues spread across the United States. 300 are in Virginia, Georgia, or North Carolina.