Leesburg, Lemhi County, Idaho
Idaho–Lemhi County–Leesburg–Gold Mining Townsite–1866
Leesburg is an abandoned town located in Lemhi County, Idaho. It was named Leesburg after Confederate General Robert E. Lee. It was one of the first gold mining camps in Idaho.
On July 16, 1866 Frank Barney Sharkey led a group of four along the Salmon River, where they found gold in the Napias Creek. Napias is a Shoshoni word for “money.” An indigenous chief met Sharkey at his camp and questioned whether he had found any napias. The chief did not want more prospectors coming to the area, but his requests were ignored.
After the news of gold spread, many prospectors headed to Lehmi County in search of riches. Within a month, a stampede of prospectors reached the new mining town. The prospectors were Civil War veterans from both sides, but most were Confederate veterans. Each faction wanted to name the town after a military general from the Civil War. The groups settled on having two communities in one town: Grantsville and Leesburg. The Leesburg community grew larger and the Grantsville name was forgotten.
That winter, Leesburg residents almost died from starvation. Heavy snowfall closed roads and pack trains could not deliver supplies. A group of miners were selected to shovel a path for the pack train. This lasted from February to March 8, 1867. By spring, Leesburg grew to 2,000 residents. Leesburg residents also included Chinese miners. The town consisted of a one room school, business firms, two butchers, houses, and a mile long main street. The majority of the structures were log buildings. In 1870 the population dropped to 180 people due to low investment returns.
In 1926 there was a small commemoration of Sharkey’s gold discovery. Industrial hydraulic mining began in 1930 but by 1942 operations were ceased.
In 1975 Leesburg joined the National Register of Historic Places. Today it is a popular tourist destination for Ghost Town Adventurers.
Frank Barney Sharkey
Hunter, Makoto, Brigham Young University. “Leesburg and Grantsville, Idaho.” Intermountain Histories. 2023. https://www.intermountainhistories.org/items/show/492
Idaho State Historical Society: Reference Series. “Leesburg.” Idaho State Historical Society. 1982. https://history.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/0203.pdf
“Leesburg, Idaho.” Western Mining History. 2023. https://westernmininghistory.com/towns/idaho/leesburg/
Rees, John E. Idaho: Chronology, Nomenclature, Bibliography. Chicago: W.B Conkey Co., 1918. https://archive.org/details/idahochronologyn00reesrich/page/94/mode/2up?q=Leesburg
See publisher information for each item.
16 July 1866
Marbella Valeriano García
See rights information for each item.
The Lost Cause in the Far West
See format information for each item.
English
See type information for each item
HIST 402A Fall 2023
Salmon, Lemhi County, Idaho
'Talbot Boys' Confederate Monument, Easton Maryland
Monuments & memorials; United States—History—Civil War, 1861-1865; United States—Maryland—Talbot Boys Memorial
A young soldier stands with a C.S.A. flag on his left side, holding it with both hands. The flag curls behind him, covering his back. He wears a broad-brimmed hat and an open shirt. The youth is meant to represent youthful courage and enthusiasm, as portrayed in Longfellow's poem "Exceisior." The statue is mounted atop an inscribed pedestal, which is atop a base with plaques. A brass box containing the names of contributors was placed in the base.
After the Charleston Church shooting in 2016, residents of Easton rallied to reexamine the "Talbot Boys" monument. After a group called "Save the Talbot Boys" surfaced and received over 1,200 signatures, the city council voted to keep the monument up to respect the families of the Confederate soldiers who served. Years later, after George Floyd's death, the town called for a vote to take the "Talbot Boys" statue to be taken down. After a 3-2 vote in August 2020, the city council decided to keep the statute up.
Although, most recently, in September of 2021 another vote on the statue's fate in light of the George Floyd case concluded with a 3-2 majority on a compromise to remove the figure off public grounds. It is to be relocated to Cross Keys Battlefield, a private park in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
The monument was removed in March 2022. This was the last confederate monument on public property in Maryland.
United Daughters of the Confederacy
Cortez, Julio. "Maryland's last public Confederate monumnet removed." AP News<em>, AP News, </em>March 14, 2022. <span>https://apnews.com/article/maryland-easton-0e3e498c7b642fb9712f33fc78eea7b0. <br /><br />"Maryland Removes Its Last Confederate Monument on Public Land." Smithsonian Magazine, March 18, 2022. <span style="font-weight:400;">https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/maryland-confederate-statue-talbot-boys-180979755/.</span><br /></span><br />Moyer, Justin Wm. “Maryland County Votes to Keep Statue Honoring Confederate Soldiers.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 13 Aug. 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/local/talbot-boys-confederate-statue/2020/08/13/66db0830-dcd0-11ea-b4af-72895e22941d_story.html.<br /><br /><p>Oxenden, McKenna. “Talbot Boys Confederate Monument to Be Removed on Courthouse Grounds on Maryland's Eastern Shore.” baltimoresun.com. Baltimore Sun, September 15, 2021. https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/eastern-shore/bs-md-talbot-boys-statue-relocation-20210915-q63slcw6nzgkbbb6275pwj3vtm-story.html.</p>
Washington Times
July 1914 to present
Marcus Reveles, Samuel M. Cox, Delaney Kohler.
English
Statue: bronze; Pedestal: rough-finished granite; Base: rough-finished granite; Foundation: concrete.
HIST 402A. (Fall 2020), HIST 402A. (Fall 2021)
Easton, ML
"At Ready" Confederate Soldier Monument, Charlottesville
“At Ready,” also popularly referred to as “Johnny Reb,” is a Confederate soldier monument in front of the Albemarle County Courthouse in Charlottesville, Virginia. The statue was unveiled in 1909 by the City of Charlottesville and the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and represents the formation of the Monticello Guard, which was a militia company started in Virginia in 1857 that joined the 19th Virginia Infantry when they seceded from the Union in 1861. The statue was also accompanied by a time capsule containing Confederate memorabilia including a roster of the Albemarle chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a brief history of the erection of the monument, and a pamphlet containing the history of Charlottesville up until 1909. This statue is one of the many across the country removed following the Unite the Right rally in 2017, which was initially a protest against the removal of confederate monuments, but violent outbursts at the event actually helped to accelerate the movement to remove them. It was removed by unanimous vote by the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, and it was relocated for display at the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District in Waynesboro, Virginia in September of 2020 as the first area to remove a war memorial under new Virginia State law as of July 2020.
American Bronze Foundry Co.
"Albemarle County Accepts Offer for At Ready and memorials at Court Square." <em>Albemarle County</em>. https://www.albemarle.org/Home/Components/News/News/108/ (accessed December 13, 2020).<br /><br />"Watch: A Virtual Tour of Charlottesville’s Johnny Reb Statue." <em>University of Virginia</em>. https://religionlab.virginia.edu/news/watch-a-virtual-tour-of-charlottesvilles-johnny-reb-statue/ (accessed December 13, 2020).<br /><br /><div class="csl-bib-body">
<div class="csl-entry">Woods, Charlotte Rene. "Albemarle County Votes to Remove Its Confederate Monuments from Court Square." <em>Charlottesville Tomorrow</em>. August 6, 2020. https://www.cvilletomorrow.org/articles/albemarle-county-votes-to-remove-its-confederate-monuments-from-court-square/ (accessed December 13, 2020).</div>
<span class="Z3988" title="url_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fzotero.org%3A2&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Adc&rft.type=webpage&rft.title=Albemarle%20County%20votes%20to%20remove%20its%20Confederate%20monuments%20from%20Court%20Square&rft.description=A%20saga%20that%20began%20in%20Charlottesville%20City%20Hall%20four%20years%20ago%20is%20getting%20a%20new%20chapter%20added%20to%20it%20two%20blocks%20away%20in%20Albemarle%20County.%20Thursday%20night%2C%20followin&rft.identifier=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cvilletomorrow.org%2Farticles%2Falbemarle-county-votes-to-remove-its-confederate-monuments-from-court-square%2F"></span></div>
1909
Sally Hy, Jacob Sandusky
English
Sculpture
HIST 402A Fall 2020-2023
Charlottesville, VA
"Silent Sam," Confederate Monument, University of North Carolina
The Confederate Monument, or “Silent Sam,” is a bronze statue created by John A. Wilson and sponsored by the United Daughters of Confederacy (UDC) and University of North Carolina (UNC) alumni, who paid for one-third and two-thirds of the total cost respectively. [3] The statue was erected on June 2, 1913 “in memory of the Chapel Hill boys, who left college, 1861-1865 and joined our Southern Army in defense of our state” in UNC Chapel Hill’s McCorkle Place. [3] The sculptor John A. Wilson made the statue silent by not including an ammunition cartridge making him unable to fire his gun. <br /><br />Over the years, the statue was vandalized by paint, written on, and finally toppled over. In 2015, North Carolina passed a law (Senate Bill 22) that provided protection to monuments and memorials “commemorating events, persons, and military service in North Carolina history” from any removal, relocation or alteration. [4] Due to this law, students took action into their own hands. <br /><br />On August 20, 2018, students held a rally against the statue following the removal of another Confederate monument that once stood in front of the Durham County’s courthouse. Fliers for the event called for Silent Sam’s Last Semester,” which included a sit-in protest and ended with students putting ropes around the statue. [3] At 9:20 pm, the statue fell by being pulled off its base and the school issued an investigation. <br /><br />The UNC planted a tree in its place. The University made a settlement with the local Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) returning the statue to them with SCV agreeing to not display it on any University campus. The SCV sued the University, so the UNC offered to give them a trust fund of $2.5 million to care for the statue within minutes. Judge Allen Baddour approved the settlement at first but then denied after the Lawyer’s Committee for civil rights Under Law (on behalf of three UNC law students, two UNC undergrad students, and a faculty member) filed a motion to intervene followed by an appeal after the motion was denied. [5] The University changed the payment from $5.3 million in state funds to build a new center for Silent Sam to the $2.5 million of non-state funds. [6] <br /><br />In January 2019, the statue’s 9-foot tall base pedestal and its commemorative plaques were removed by the University. [7]
John Wilson, Sculptor
North Carolina Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and UNC alumni, Sponsors
<ol><li><span style="font-weight:400;">Warren-Hicks, Colin. “A Look at the Long and Controversial Life of ‘Silent Sam.’” </span><i><span>News Observer</span></i><span>, August 23, 2017.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight:400;">Wamsley, Laurel. “Judge Voids UNC’s Controversial Settlement Over Confederate Statue ‘Silent Sam.’” </span><i><span style="font-weight:400;">NPR</span></i><span style="font-weight:400;">, February 12, 2020.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight:400;">“A Guide to Resources about UNC’s Confederate Monuments: Timeline.” </span><i><span style="font-weight:400;">University Archives at UNC Chapel Hill</span></i><span style="font-weight:400;">, 2016. Accessed November 13, 2021. </span><a href="https://exhibits.lib.unc.edu/exhibits/show/silent-sam/timeline"><span style="font-weight:400;">https://exhibits.lib.unc.edu/exhibits/show/silent-sam/timeline</span></a><span style="font-weight:400;"></span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight:400;">“General Assembly of North Carolina Session 2015: Session Law 2015-170 Senate Bill 22.” </span><i><span style="font-weight:400;">North Carolina General Assembly</span></i><span style="font-weight:400;">, July 23, 2015. Accessed November 13, 2021. </span><a href="https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2015/Bills/Senate/PDF/S22v5.pdf"><span style="font-weight:400;">https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2015/Bills/Senate/PDF/S22v5.pdf</span></a><span style="font-weight:400;"></span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight:400;">Holcombe, Madeline. “Court reverses settlement that would give $2.5 million in university funds to protect Confederate monument.” </span><i><span style="font-weight:400;">CNN</span></i><span style="font-weight:400;">, February 13, 2020. Accessed November 13, 2021. </span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/13/us/silent-sam-university-of-north-carolina-reversal/index.html"><span style="font-weight:400;">https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/13/us/silent-sam-university-of-north-carolina-reversal/index.html</span></a><span style="font-weight:400;"></span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight:400;">Lam, Kristin. “University of North Carolina gives ‘Silent Sam’ statue, toppled by protestors in 2018, to Confederate group.” </span><i><span style="font-weight:400;">USA Today</span></i><span style="font-weight:400;">, November 27, 2019, Updated November 28, 2019. Accessed November 13, 2021. </span><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/11/27/silent-sam-university-north-carolina-confederate-statue/4323970002/"><span style="font-weight:400;">https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/11/27/silent-sam-university-north-carolina-confederate-statue/4323970002/</span></a></li>
<li>Thomason, Andy and Johnson, Steven. “UNC Chancellor Steps Down and Orders the Removal of Silent Sam’s Remains.” <i><span>The Chronicle of Higher Education</span></i><span>, January 14, 2019. Accessed November 13, 2021. </span><a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/unc-chancellor-steps-down-and-orders-the-removal-of-silent-sams-remains/?bc_nonce=e25wek9x0r3t6je49ios2&cid=reg_wall_signup"><span>https://www.chronicle.com/article/unc-chancellor-steps-down-and-orders-the-removal-of-silent-sams-remains/?bc_nonce=e25wek9x0r3t6je49ios2&cid=reg_wall_signup</span></a></li>
</ol><ol><li style="list-style-type:none;">
</li>
</ol>
June 2, 1913 to August 20, 2018 (-January 2019)
Patrick Michael (2020), Grislean Palacios (2021)
English
Bronze Sculpture
HIST 402A (Fall 2020, 2021)
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
"The Lookout," Johnson's Island Confederate Stockade Cemetery, Erie County, Ohio
An iron gate with the words Confederate Soldiers at the top is the entrance to a once Prisoner of War Camp turned cemetery. The Federal Government during the Civil War turned Johnson's Island into a prisoner of war camp, which held thousands of prisoners from 1862 to 1865. Many prisoners passed away due to disease, starvation and maltreatment. Beyond the entrance stands a strong 19 feet tall bronze confederate soldier. The sculptor is titled “The Lookout”, the soldier is gripping his rifle, his other hand up to his forehead over his eyes gazing over the hundreds of confederate soldiers' graves in the cemetery. The sculptor is a representation of how many southern generations watched over and memorializing the lives lost during the civil war. On the base of the statue, the year 1910 is proudly displayed for the date of erection in the cemetery, inscribed on the base of the statue reads <br /><br /><em> “Erected by The Robert Patton Chapter of the United Daughter of the Confederacy of Cincinnati Ohio. In Memory of the Southern Soldiers who died in the Federal Prison on this Island during the war between the States. Dead but Sceptered Sovereigns who still rule us from the dust.”<br /><br /></em><strong><strong>More on Artist/Funder/Owner:<br /></strong></strong>
<p><span style="font-weight:400;">Moses Jacob Ezekiel was an American born Jewish artist, confederate supporter. He was a proud southerner and contributed/sculpted many works to the Confederate soldiers, contributing to the Lost Cause movement. The Lookout statue is one of his lesser known works. The United Daughter of Confederacy Robert Patton Chapter raised funds by the leadership of Mary Patton Hudson for the sculptor. Her chapter had bought the cemetery from private owners. Once the cemetery became in her possession, she took the responsibility to maintain the cemetery until her death in 1920.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400;">The cemetery is now donated to the United State government. The Lookout Sculptor and cemetery is part of the National Historic Sites and Park.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400;">The Lookout is still standing in the cemetery to this day. </span></p>
Moses Ezekiel, Sculptor
Robert Patton Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), Funder/Sponsor
National Historic Sites and Park US Gov, Owner
<ol><li>Confederate Stockade Cemetery: <a href="https://www.cem.va.gov/cems/lots/confederate_stockade.asp">https://www.cem.va.gov/cems/lots/confederate_stockade.asp</a>; <a href="https://www.cem.va.gov/pdf/InterpretiveSigns/ConfederateStockadeCemetery.pdf"><span style="font-weight:400;">https://www.cem.va.gov/pdf/InterpretiveSigns/ConfederateStockadeCemetery.pdf</span></a> </li>
<li><span style="font-weight:400;">Historic American Landscapes Survey, Creator. Confederate Stockade Cemetery, Johnson's Island, Sandusky, Erie County, OH. Ohio Sandusky Erie County, 2000. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. </span><a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/oh1931/"><span style="font-weight:400;">https://www.loc.gov/item/oh1931/</span></a> </li>
<li><span style="font-weight:400;">Confederate Stockade Cemetery Johnson's Island Ohio National Park Service:</span><a href="https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/national_cemeteries/ohio/confederate_stockade_cemetery.html"><span style="font-weight:400;"> </span><span style="font-weight:400;">https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/national_cemeteries/ohio/confederate_stockade_cemetery.html</span></a></li>
</ol>
June 8, 1910 to PRESENT
Melinda Alviso (2020), Kayla Cortez (2021)
English
Bronze Statue
HIST 402A (Fall 2020, 2021)
Sandusky, Johnson's Island, Ohio
1. The Construction of Monument Avenue
The origin and dedication of the statues on Monument Avenue.
During the post-Civil War era, conservative Democrats in the South attempted to revive the fading passions for the Lost Cause. Robert E. Lee’s nephew, Fitzhugh Lee, led the charge to create the Lee Monument Association in 1886. In May 1890 the dedication of the Robert E. Lee monument was timed to coincide with a massive Confederate veterans’ reunion which drew fifty former Confederate generals, fifteen thousand uniformed Confederate veterans, and more than one hundred thousand onlookers. Following the dedication and placement of the Lee monument, statues to both General J.E.B Stuart and the Confederate States President Jefferson Davis followed in 1907. The monument to Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson statue was placed and dedicated in 1919, followed a decade later by the statue dedicated to Matthew Fontaine Maury.
An ominous new era of white supremacy had dawned which would last for seven decades, where Edwin J. Slipek stated that Monument Avenue was “more than a Confederate Valhalla.” The construction of Monument Avenue successfully revived the Lost Cause by drawing massive support across the Southern states for whites who touted their Confederate ancestry. Growing power among Southern whites forced African Americans to endure a new kind of abuse, both socially and politically, for another six decades. The success of Monument Avenue represented one of many examples of the revival of the Lost Cause narrative.
Baker, Donald P. “<i>Richmond's Monumental Centennial Celebration;The Statue That Shaped the Grand Avenue</i>.” The Washington Post, Washington D.C. 04 May. 1990.<br /><a href="https://search-proquest-com.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/docview/307264035?pq-origsite=summon">https://search-proquest-com.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/docview/307264035?pq-origsite=summon</a><br /><br />Edwards, Kathy, and Esmé Howard. “Monument Avenue: The Architecture of Consensus in the New South, 1890-1930.” <i>Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture</i>, vol. 6, 1997, pp. 92–110. <i>JSTOR</i>, www.jstor.org/stable/3514365. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020.
<div><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3514365?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">https://www.jstor.org/stable/3514365?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents</a><br /><br /><p>Lawler, Andrew. “The Origin Story of Monument Avenue, America’s Most Controversial Street.” National Geographic. 27 Jul. 2020<br /><a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/07/origin-story-monument-avenue-america-most-controversial-street/#close">https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/07/origin-story-monument-avenue-america-most-controversial-street/#close</a></p>
</div>
1890-1929
Yuan Chiang , Monique Garcia, and Kareem Khaled
English
Historic Avenue with Statues
HIST 402A - Fall 2020, Fall 2021, and Fall 2023
Richmond, Virginia
1. The Idea Behind Stone Mountain
The surrounding area of Stone Mountain has always attracted human settlement for thousands of years. Native Americans from the nations of the Cherokee, Creek and Muscogee had long settled the area at around 8,000 years before white settlers moved in in the early 19th century. White settlers eventually drove the Native American settlers out and by the 1830s established a series of quarries to mine the mountain’s granite. After the Civil War Stone Mountain was sold to the Stone Mountain Granite Corporation for $45,400 in 1867. Then nine years later it was sold again for $70,000 to the Southern Granite Company, owned by the brothers Samuel and William Venable.[1]
After the Civil War a group of former Confederate officers in Pulaski Tennessee, formed themselves into a fraternal social club, named the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). This small club gained popularity and spread throughout the American South during Reconstruction, spreading fear and terror targeting former black slaves. Eventually, by the mid-1870s through Federal action the Klan declined and evaporated.[2]
Early in 1915 a controversial film directed by D.W. Griffith, was released, “The Birth of a Nation”, adapted from the 1905 novel, The Clansman, by the white supremacist politician and Baptist minister Thomas Frederick Dixon Jr. The film depicts a romanticized heroic view of the Ku Klux Klan, the “Lost Cause” and depicts African Americans as brutes and sexual predators. This film was one of the first to be screened at the White House, under President Woodrow Wilson. The president received backlash for the screening, his official response was the screening "...was a courtesy extended to an old acquaintance." His "old acquaintance" was no other than Thomas Frederick Dixon Jr.[3]
Inspired by the film a former religious teacher, William Joseph Simmons, decided to reform the KKK. With a founding membership of 15 individuals on Thanksgiving night on top of Stone Mountain, with permission from the Venable brothers who were also members, a cross was set on fire to commemorate the second founding of the Ku Klux Klan.[4] According to reports of the day the ceremony could be seen all the way to Atlanta. By marking Stone Mountain as the site of the second founding of the KKK, this large granite mountain has became a de facto sacred site of the American white supremacy movement.[5]
1. Powers, Benjamin, “In the Shadow of Stone Mountain: The past, present, and future of the African-American community are nestled beneath the country’s largest Confederate monument”, Smithsonianmag.com , May 4, 2018, <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/shadow-stone-mountain-180968956/">https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/shadow-stone-mountain-180968956/</a>.<br />2. Michael Martinez, Carpetbaggers, Cavalry, and the Ku Klux Klan: Exposing the Invisible Empire During Reconstruction. (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007) p. 24.<br />3. "Dixon's Play is Not Indorsed by Wilson", The Washington Times, Apirl 30, 1915, P. 6,<a href="https://www.newspapers.com/paper/the-washington-times/1607/"><br /></a><a href="https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30252267/wilson-and-birth-of-a-nation-at-the/">https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30252267/wilson-and-birth-of-a-nation-at-the/</a><br />4. McKinney, Debra "Stone Mountain. A Monumental Dilemma". Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Report, Spring 2018. No. 164, <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2018/stone-mountain-monumental-dilemma?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIvLDD9KrJ7QIVQxatBh2BPwpoEAAYASAAEgIxB_D_BwE">https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2018/stone-mountain-monumental-dilemma?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIvLDD9KrJ7QIVQxatBh2BPwpoEAAYASAAEgIxB_D_BwE</a>.<br />5. Loewen, James W., Lies Across America: What our Historic Sites Get Wrong. (The New Press, 1999).
Fernando L. Lopez
HIST 402A Fall 2020
1915-1916
2. Carving Stone Mountain, 1918-1972
<p>In 1914, the carving of Stone Mountain faced financial issues while turning a mountain into a memorial, William H. Terrell, an Atlanta attorney along with "the United Daughters of the Confederacy's Atlanta chapter leader Caroline Helen Jemison Plane," planned and promoted the project. In two years, the Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial Association (SMCMA) contracted the well-known sculptor Gutzon Borglum.<a href="http://www.jstor.org.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/stable/40583695" name="_ftnref1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">[1] </a>In 1915, the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) leased the land from Samuel Venable the owner of Stone Mountain, and Borglum began the project in June 1923.[2]</p>
<p>In November 1915, Borglum traveled throughout the South, promoting the unfinished project and seeking financial support to complete it. In 1923 a group of businessmen took control of the project, creating the Stone Mountain Association. In January 1924, Borglum unveiled a partially carved head of Lee on the general's birthday in front of a multitude of about 20,000. After a falling out between Borglum and the UDC, Augustus Lukeman took over the project but could not complete it because the UDC lease ran out in 1928. The financial hurdles faced by the creators of the relief sculpture of Stone Mountain State Park were a lack of funding. On January 21, 1925, the U.S. Congress under the direction of President Calvin Coolidge authorized "the U.S. Mint's coinage of five million silver half dollars," especially created by Borglum to raise money and memorialize the engraved soldiers. Similarly, the Stone Mountain Confederate Monument Association (SMCMA) made and sold songs and poems to support the project. Besides, Borglum, the UDC, and Samuel Venable, the mountain owner, accused SMCMA of mismanagement of funds, theft, corruption, and involvement with the Ku Klux Klan.<a href="#_ftn1"><span>[3]</span></a><br /><br /><a href="#_ftnref1"><span></span></a>For the next 30 years, the memorial was incomplete, and the Venable family owned the property. By 1958, Georgia created Stone Mountain as a tourist attraction and commissioned Walter Hancock to continue the memorial's carving and create a park. George Weiblin worked to complete the carving along with Roy Faulkner as a chief carver facing extreme weather.<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469616704_wilson" name="_ftnref2" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">[4]</a></p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref1"><span></span></a></p>
<p></p>
Gutzon Borglum 1916- 1925, Augustus Luckman 1925-1928, Walker Kirkland Hancock in 1963-1972; commissioned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy
<p><a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1"><span></span></a><a href="#_ftnref1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">[1]</a> Grace Elizabeth Hale, "Granite Stopped Time: The Stone Mountain Memorial and the Representation of White Southern Identity," <em>The Georgia Historical Quarterly, </em>82, no. 1 (1998), 22-44, <a href="http://www.jstor.org.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/stable/40583695">http://www.jstor.org.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/stable/40583695</a> (accessed December 10, 2020).<br /><br /></p>
<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469616704_wilson" name="_ftn2" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">[2] </a>Charles Reagan Wilson, “Stone Mountain,” <em>The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture,</em> 4, (2006), 264-66, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469616704_wilson">https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469616704_wilson</a> (accessed December 8, 2020), 264-66.<br /><br /></p>
<p><span>[3]</span> Grace Elizabeth Hale, <em>Making Whiteness: The Culture of Segregation in The South, 1890-1940</em> (New York: Vintage, 1999), Kindle, 5109-5130.<br /><br /></p>
<p> <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469616704_wilson" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">[4] </a>Charles Reagan Wilson, “Stone Mountain,” <em>The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture,</em> 4, (2006), 264-66, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469616704_wilson">https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469616704_wilson</a> (accessed December 8, 2020), 264-66.</p>
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1918-1972
Dominic Guerrero
English
Granite -Base Relief
Hist 402 [FALL 2020]
Stone Mountain, Georgia
2. Monument Avenue in the Civil Rights Era and After
The practice of memorializing Virginia’s central role in the American Civil War emphasized Lost Cause ideology while simultaneously avoiding the issues of racism and the ongoing harm to the descendants of the formerly enslaved population of the state. The Civil Rights Era signified a shift in the debate over the role of Monument Avenue in the former Confederate capital city. The centennial of the Civil War renewed Monument Avenue’s role as a preserver of Southern heritage and legacy. Subsequently, the mobilization of African American political organizations coupled with the flight of the white population away from the city, and towards the suburbs, initiated a fear of an African American political majority among the white elites in Richmond. These political elites believed that the rise of an African American majority would result in the tearing down of both the monuments and the ideology which the avenue had come to represent over the decades. Such a fear influenced local politics in 1965 when the Richmond City Planning Commission (CPC) examined plans to modernize Monument Avenue and centralize the city’s Confederate iconography.
These proposals were laid out in the December 1965 pamphlet, Design for Monument Avenue. The plan to remove the brick surface lining the avenue and instead replace it for an asphalt surface, as a traffic-friendly corridor, created significant controversy. There was a fear that the historical look of Monument Avenue would be erased in favor of a more modern image. Out of these fears grew a political coalition of like minded preservationists called the Monument Avenue Preservation Society (MAPS). While the CPC had attempted to streamline and extend the marketable imagery of the Confederacy on Monument Avenue, MAPS prevented modernization and kept the statues where they had originally been dedicated.
The society for preservation described Monument Avenue as a “bridge from past to present,” and reasoned that it was “incumbent upon the community today to be aware of this heritage and the artifacts which preserve it, so that our activities reinforce rather than obscure those elements of our heritage which we value.” Instead of modernizing the avenue, MAPS convinced the CPC to add more statues, both significant and relevant, to the Lost Cause narrative. One such statue was the project of sculptor Salvador Dali who had been commissioned to create a monument dedicated to Sally Tompkins. Known as the “Angel of the Confederacy,” Tompkins operated Robertson Hospital which regularly treated Confederate soldiers. The furor over Dali’s proposal ultimately defused the 1965 and 1966 efforts to expand the memorial strip since it would possibly alter the public’s familiar perception of Monument Avenue.
While the CPC and the Virginia General Assembly did extend protection over the avenue, ensuring the statues could not be removed by an African American majority, attempts to introduce new statues ground to a halt.
The addition of another statue would not come until the 1990s with the death of beloved Virginia activist and athlete, Arthur Ashe. After his passing, the Richmond City Council looked for a way to memorialize the local hero. The proposed statue, designed by local sculptor Paul DiPasquale, and approved by Arthur Ashe prior to his passing, was originally intended to be placed outside of the Hard Road to Glory Hall, a never realized hall of fame for African American athletes. The 24-foot bronze and granite statue was hotly debated for a potential spot on Monument Avenue. The opposition to Ashe’s placement on Monument Avenue argued that the statue would tarnish the Civil War theme established by the original monument association. However, calls for inclusivity prevailed, and the statue was dedicated on July 10th, 1996. The monument to Ashe remains to this day on the far western edge of Monument Avenue.
Barbee, M. M. Race and Masculinity in Southern Memory: History of Richmond, Virginia's Monument Avenue, 1948-1996. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2014.
1960-1996
Art Hernandez, Sean Ghafourian, and Kareem Khaled
English
HIST 402A Fall 2020, 2021, 2023
Richmond, Virginia
3. Stone Mountain Opening and Public Reception
The Confederate Memorial Carving at Stone Mountain was originally to be unveiled on the centennial of the Civil War in 1961, but the carving was not completed in time.[1] Stone Mountain Park officially opened on April 14, 1965, the centennial of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.[2] The following Sunday, an estimated 600 people hiked to the top of Stone Mountain for a 5 a.m. Easter service.[3] The official commemoration for the monument was held on May 9,1970 to an anticipated crowd of over 100,000. In attendance were Governor Lester Maddox, U.S. Congressmen Sen. Richard Russell, Sen. Herman Talmadge and Rep. Ben Blackburn, and Vice President Spiro Agnew dedicated the monument (originally scheduled for President Nixon who cancelled due to Vietnam War). Governor representatives from all 50 states accepted invitations in addition to consuls from the Great Britain, Germany, Iceland, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, and South Africa. [4]
Public perception of the monument was overwhelmingly positive. Protests to the monument were few. KKK Imperial Wizard James Venable protested unsuccessfully to having Rev. William Holmes Borders give the commemoration benediction because he was “a member of the negro [sic] race” and it “is not in good taste and repugnant to a sense of respect due the memory of the confederates [sic] veterans.”[5] Other protests came from having Agnew dedicate the monument. Public perception was that he had “the grace of a drill sergeant and the understanding of a 19th century prison camp warden” and was in contrast to the “honorable men” on the monument. Despite this, “Southern hospitality” and “a courteous hearing” was to be given by the audience.[6] Other protest came in the monument itself. At a protest with over 800 students following the Kent State shootings, Dr. Eugene Bianchi, religion professor at Emory University, said that civil rights leaders and not “military men riding their steeds” should be carved on Stone Mountain.[7] Stone Mountain has steadily grown into one of Georgia's premiere tourist attractions.
1. Richard Fausset, “Stone Mountain: The Largest Confederate Monument Problem in the World,” U.S., The New York Times, October 18, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/18/us/stone-mountain-confederate-removal.html;
Rebecca Onion, “Hatred Set in Stone,” History, Slate, July 8, 2020, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/07/stone-mountain-georgia-confederacy-history.html.
2. Joni Zeccola, “Stone Mountain Timeline,” Things to Do, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 11, 2012, https://www.ajc.com/entertainment/celebrity-news/stone-mountain-timeline/R2luAvMz783IXvblS7TmZP/.
3. Dale Curry, ”Religious Spirit Proves Itself At Crowded Sunrise Services,” The Atlanta Constitution 97, no. 259 (Atlanta, GA), April 19, 1965, https://www.newspapers.com/image/398418904/.
4. Gene Stephens, “100,000 Due At Stone Mtn. Ceremonies,” The Atlanta Constitution 102, no. 277 (Atlanta, GA), May 9, 1970, https://www.newspapers.com/image/398887401/; ibid., https://www.newspapers.com/image/398887450/.
5. Ibid.; ibid.
6. Reg Murphy, “Shame and Disgrace,” The Atlanta Constitution 102, no. 277 (Atlanta, GA), May 9, 1970, https://www.newspapers.com/image/398887422.
7. Terry Adamson, “March On Here Today,” The Atlanta Constitution 102, no. 277 (Atlanta, GA), May 9, 1970, https://www.newspapers.com/image/398887441/.
Clay Kenworthy
English
HIST 402A Fall 2020
Stone Mountain Park, Georgia