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
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16 July 1866
Marbella Valeriano García
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The Lost Cause in the Far West
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English
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HIST 402A Fall 2023
Salmon, Lemhi County, Idaho
Robert E. Lee Bust, Fort Myers, FL
The Robert E. Lee bust in Downtown Fort Myers, Florida was sculpted by Aldo Pero and installed on January 19, 1966. This bust was commissioned by the Laetitia Ashmore Nutt chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). Fort Myers is located inside Lee County, Florida. The county was named after Robert E. Lee in 1887 despite Robert E. Lee never visiting the offshoot of Monroe County. Lee County seceded from Monroe County after a dispute regarding funding for a local high school that burned down. The namesake was decided by Francis Asbury Hendry, a politician, cattle rancher, and military officer for the Confederacy in Ft. Myers.
At the base of this monument, there was a time capsule provided by James William Clifford, a member of the Civil War Commission in 1966. The time capsule held Confederate and Union bullets, union shell fragments, a Confederate buckle, a Confederate sword guard, and other memorabilia.
The Robert E. Lee bust has faced vandalism in recent years; it has been completely removed from its pedestal and thrown on the ground. The monument's controversy and affiliation to white supremacy have caused internal debates among the Ft. Myers communities. It has since been removed by the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) for “polishing and retouching” but it is unclear who owns the statue. The statue has been removed twice from its pedestal to be refurbished in its history. However, Robert E. Lees bust was permanently removed from downtown Ft. Myers in June 2020 after peaceful protests, work with the NAACP, and following discussions about racial injustices within the community.
This bust sits in opposition to the Union memorial “Clayton” that sits facing the water at Ft. Myers Centennial Park. Originally “Clayton” faced toward the city-center but was rotated towards the river in 2020. Many have seen this rotation as disrespectful and unbecoming of the city.
Inscription:
"The erection of this monument was sponsored by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Fort Myers chapter, and completed in 1966 A.D. with the assistance of the citizens of Lee County in honor of the man for whom this county was named."
Aldo Pero and Laetitia Ashmore Nutt chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy
Calligan, Tara. “Robert E. Lee Bust.” South Florida Times, March 26, 2019. https://www.sfltimes.com/news/robert-e-lee-bust.
Hall, Tom. “Robert E. Lee Bust.” ArtSWFL.com. Accessed December 1, 2023. http://www.artswfl.com/public-art-2/fort-myers-river-district-public-art-2/robert-e-lee-bust/robert-e-lee-bust.
Montoya, Melissa. “Robert E. Lee Statue Removed from Downtown Fort Myers.” Press, June 2, 2020. https://www.news-press.com/story/news/local/2020/06/02/robert-e-lee-bust-removed-fort-myers-post/5316700002/.
Perdomo, Andrea. “Robert E. Lee Bust.” ArtSWFL.com, August 18, 2020. http://www.artswfl.com/public-art-2/fort-myers-river-district-public-art-2/robert-e-lee-bust/robert-e-lee-bust.
“Robert E. Lee Bust.” South Florida Times, March 26, 2019. https://www.sfltimes.com/news/robert-e-lee-bust.
Erected: Janauary 19, 1966
Vandalized: March 2019
Removed: June 2020
Madison Hardrick
English
Bronze bust on Gray Georgia granite.
HIST 402A 2023
Fort Myers, FL
Robert E. Lee Monument/ Lee Circle, New Orleans
The Robert E. Lee Monumental Association was established in 1870 upon the Confederate general’s passing. Led by William Perkins as president, this group of New Orleans citizens, many of whom were Civil War veterans, assembled for the sole purpose of erecting a monument to commemorate Lee. Although cultural struggles between Reconstruction and the Lost Cause narrative delayed plans for the memorial, sculptor Alexander Doyle was commissioned to create the statue [1], while John Ray was to construct the base. The bronze statue was 16 and a half feet tall, weighing in at almost 7,000 pounds. The pedestal on which it stood consisted of a 12-foot granite base and a 60-foot marble column [2]. <br /><br />The monument was unveiled on February 22, 1884 [3] . Its grandiose nature and placement on a traffic circle at St. Charles and Howard Avenues [4] inevitably made the monument a centerpiece in the city. It equated the honor with which the Association wanted to bestow onto their respected leader. The plaza, Tivoli Circle, was subsequently renamed Lee Circle and became a site for future civic celebrations [5]. The dedication day included distinguished guests, from Jefferson Davis and his daughters, Lee’s daughters Mary and Mildred, senators and foreign consuls, to justices of the supreme and state courts, and military officers. <br /><br />Much like other Confederate monuments, the removal of this statue was prompted by domestic tragedies carried out by white supremacists. New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu advocated for removing Confederate monuments in the city after the 2015 massacre of nine Black churchgoers in Charleston, SC [6], citing the harmful sentiments of racism, slavery, oppression, and the Lost Cause that they represent. For a couple of years, legal barriers prevented the swift removal of the monument. The Robert E. Lee Monument was taken down on May 19, 2017, one of four statues removed in New Orleans.<br /><br /><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/csMbjG0-6Ak?start=451" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Alexander Doyle, John Ray
1. “Lee Circle,” R.E. Lee Monumental Association, accessed December 2, 2021, https://www.releema.org/lee-circle.
2. “History and Description of the Robert E. Lee Statue at Lee's Circle in New Orleans, Louisiana from the 1930s,” Louisiana Digital Library, 2007, https://louisianadigitallibrary.org/islandora/object/state-lwp%3A7939.
3. “Robert E. Lee,” The Times-Democrat, February 22, 1884, p. 4.
4. “Asset Detail,” National Parks Service (U.S. Department of the Interior, March 13, 1991), https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/AssetDetail?assetID=8037cbec-19ee-4c8f-abaa-d7ec61fd6d09.
5. Shelby Narike, Amber Nicholson, and Herbert Spurlock, “Robert E. Lee Monument - Stop 1 of 4 in the Confederate Monuments in New Orleans Tour,” New Orleans Historical, May 12, 2016, https://neworleanshistorical.org/items/show/1279.
6. Richard Gonzales and Amy Held, “New Orleans Takes down Statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee,” NPR (NPR, May 19, 2017), https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/19/529130606/new-orleans-prepares-to-take-down-statue-of-gen-robert-e-lee.
1884
Julia Vargas, Samuel McMillan (2023)
Sculpture
HIST 402A Fall 2021
New Orleans, LA
Robert E. Lee Giant Sequoia
<p><span style="font-weight:400;">The giant Sequoia is a marvel of nature. These are some of the largest trees in the world and they reside in Kings Canyon National Park in California. Each of these grand giants is named for historical figures. In this region, called Ulysses S. Grant Grove, there was a tree named after a slave owned by Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The tree was named by a former Confederate lieutenant around 1875 [3], only ten years after the South was defeated. Ironically, the sequoia tree was found in the Union General Ulysses S. Grant section because these two generals fought each other late in the war with Grant prevailing. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400;">However, after the country experienced protests over the police murder of George Floyd, Robert E. Lee's name was removed from the tree. This does not mean General Lee has left California forests. At least two other giant sequoias--located in Yosemite and Sequoia national parks-- currently bear Lee's name [1]. The name removal would only be ceremonial because trees cannot be officially renamed without government involvement. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400;">The Kings Canyon tree was given a formal dedication by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1937 keeping the Lost Cause narrative alive in California [4]. It took 83 years for the park to decide to remove the defender of slavery's name from other public places [2]. There is sentiment for renaming the tree after the opposite of Lee, like African American abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass [2]. These majestic trees are a symbol of strength and by naming this one after a high-ranking member of the Confederate military, the Lost Cause narrative fused politics with nature. </span></p>
Park Concessionaire John Broder
1. Alexander, Kurtis. “National Park Service Removes Robert E. Lee's Name from Giant Sequoia.” San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco Chronicle, June 24, 2020. https://www.sfchronicle.com/nation/article/National-Park-Service-removes-Robert-E-Lee-s-15361079.php.
2. "Letters to the Editor: Four California Giant Sequoias are Named After Robert E. Lee. that's a Disgrace." Los Angeles Times Communications LLC, last modified Jun 19.
3. Grossi, Mark. 2009. "Robert E. Lee Giant Sequoia Labeled as Hazard." McClatchy - Tribune Business News, Aug 05. https://www.proquest.com/wire-feeds/robert-e-lee-giant-sequoia-labeled-as-hazard/docview/465387801/se-2?accountid=9840.
4. Moffitt, Mike. 2020. "Sequoia, Kings Canyon to Erase Robert E. Lee's Name from Trees." TCA Regional News, Jun 23. https://www.proquest.com/wire-feeds/sequoia-kings-canyon-erase-robert-e-lees-name/docview/2416024848/se-2?accountid=9840.
Named in: 1975
Signage removed: June 2020
Art Sotelo, Madison Hardrick
English
Natural Structure
HIST 402A Fall 2021-2023
Kings Canyon National Park, California
The Injustice of Stone Mountain
The Fight to remove the Confederate Figures.
After the protest of the murder of George Floyd, many of the Conferate flag and other confederate symbols. The enormous monument at the center of the park - Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson carved into stone as a Confederate equivalent to Mount Rushmore - is not going anywhere (4). The website for Stone Mountain has no images of the Confederates or the main attraction, the 90 foot tall carvings of the Confederate Generals. They representeda massive symbol of hate and slavery. The fight to remove the monument has become very difficult because of the size and cost to destroy it. The pro Confederate history people believe the monument is a symbol of their history and must be protected. On May 24, the board of the Stone Mountain Memorial Association voted to move Confederate flags away from the base of the huge granite outcropping, located east of Atlanta (1). The Coalition has also homed in on language requiring that Stone Mountain Park be maintained as an “appropriate” and “suitable” monument to the confederacy (2). House Bills 237 and 238, filed by Hutchinson earlier this week, would not only remove the protections for Confederate monuments in current Georgia law but expressly prohibit tributes that are “related to the Confederate States of America, slave owners or persons advocating for slavery on public property (3).
Gutzon Borglum 1916- 1925, Augustus Luckman 1925-1928, Walker Kirkland Hancock in 1963-1972
1. Davis, Stephen. 2021. “Stone Mountain Standoff.” America’s Civil War 34 (4): 8. https://search-ebscohost-com.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=151324430&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
2. Estep, Tyler. 2021. "Stone Mountain Park Official: Confederate Flags Protected by Law." TCA Regional News, Jan 15. https://www.proquest.com/wire-feeds/stone-mountain-park-official-confederate-flags/docview/2478072507/se-2?accountid=9840.
3. Estep, T. (2021, Feb 03). New bills target stone mountain, confederate monuments across georgia. TCA Regional News Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/wire-feeds/new-bills-target-stone-mountain-confederate/docview/2485527533/se-2?accountid=9840
4. Timothy Pratt, and Rick Rojas. “Giant Confederate Monument Will Remain at Revamped Stone Mountain.” New York Times (Online). New York: New York Times Company, 2021.
Stone Mountain Park Opens: April 14, 1965 (monument not completed)
Monument Dedication: May 9, 1970 (Figures on the sculpture are complete, official commemoration)
Construction Completed: 1972
Art Sotelo
English
Base-Relief Sculpture
Hist 402A Fall 2021
Stone Mountain, Georgia
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
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
3. The Impact of Charlottesville on Monument Avenue
<p><span style="font-weight:400;">On August 12, 2017, the “Unite the Right” rally was held by white supremacists and white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia to protest the removal of a Confederate statue of Robert E. Lee. Counter protests ensued and the protest culminated in violence which lasted for several days. The horrific violence in Charlottesville was televised and it left an enduring wound in the US and dramatically affected Monument Avenue in Richmond. Mayor Levar Stoney spoke candidly about Charlottesville and its relationship to Monument Avenue, “Let me be clear: we will not tolerate allowing these statues and their history to be used as a pretext for hate and violence, or to allow our city to be threatened by white supremacists and neo-Nazi thugs. We will protect our city and keep our residents safe.”<br /><br />In the Monument Avenue Commission Report (MAC) of July 2018, it was stated that the Richmond City Council already had plans to remove all the confederate monuments prior to the tragic events of Charlottesville which led to the creation of the MAC. Charlottesville provided Mayor Stoney and MAC with a sense of urgency to remove the monuments as stated in his response to the rally. The “Unite the Right'' rally provoked the MAC to hold a public forum in August 2017 and over 500 people attended. Discussing the matter a year after the incident, </span><a href="https://abcn.ws/2MhgFvY"><span style="font-weight:400;">ABC News</span></a><span style="font-weight:400;"> journalist Meghan Keneally interviewed Richmond residents about the impact of the protests and the violence on the city.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">As of July 10, 2021, the City Council of Charlottesville, removed the statues of both Confederate Generals, Robert E. Lee, and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson who were the major galvanizing figures of the deadly “Unite the Right” rally. Charlottesville Mayor Nikuyah Walker said, “Taking down this statue is one small step closer to the goal of helping Charlottesville, Virginia, and America, grapple with the sin of being willing to destroy Black people for economic gain.” </span><a href="https://demo4hist402a2020fall.omeka.net/items/show/43#_ftn1"><span style="font-weight:400;">[1]</span></a><span style="font-weight:400;"> The Charlottesville’s statues of Lee and Jackson were erected in the 1920s and were celebrated with ceremonies including Confederate veteran reunions. Their erection coincided with the agenda of the South to validate the Confederacy and suppress Black communities.</span><a href="https://demo4hist402a2020fall.omeka.net/items/show/43#_ftn2"><span style="font-weight:400;">[2]</span></a><span style="font-weight:400;"> Following the “Unite the Right” public responses, the city council voted on August 20, 2017 to shroud both Lee and Jackson statues in black.</span><a href="https://demo4hist402a2020fall.omeka.net/items/show/43#_ftn3"><span style="font-weight:400;">[3]</span></a><span style="font-weight:400;"> Following the city council’s decision, both statutes were vandalized repeatedly with politically motivated graffiti.</span></p>
"Mayor Stoney's Full Statement on Monument Avenue." Richmond Times-Dispatch. August 16, 2017. https://richmond.com/news/local/mayor-stoneys-full-statement-on-monument-avenue/article_a6cd40c3-60ea-5209-81be-dcd9f87d98d2.html.
"2018 Monument Avenue Commission Report." July 02, 2018. https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/9/8d/98dfbab1-3a10-52d4-ab47-f4a2d9550084/5b3a9346537e5.pdf.pdf.
Keneally, Meghan. ABC News. August 03, 2018. https://abcnews.go.com/US/richmond-addressing-debate-confederate-monuments-year-charlottesville/story?id=57009869.
“Charlottesville Removes Robert E. Lee Statue That Sparked A Deadly Rally” Ben Paviour. NPR. July 10, 2021. https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/npr/2021/07/10/1014926659/charlottesville-removes-robert-e-lee-statue-that-sparked-a-deadly-rally/
"Charlottesville's Confederate statues shrouded in black". fox5ny.com. August 24, 2017.
2020-2023
Melanie Vigil, Max Bezanilla, and Kareem Khaled
English
HIST 402A Fall 2020, Fall 2021, and Fall 2023
Richmond, Virgina
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>
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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
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