1. The Construction of Monument Avenue

1. The Construction of Monument Avenue

During the post-Civil War era, conservative Democrats attempted to revive the fading passions for the Lost Cause. The nephew of Robert E. Lee, Fitzhugh Lee, led the charge to assemble a memorial association in 1886. In May 1890 dedication was timed to coincide with a massive Confederate veterans’ reunion that drew 50 former generals, 15,000 uniformed veterans, and more than 100,000 onlookers. Following the erection of the General Lee statue, in 1907 the General J.E.B Stuart and Jefferson Davis memorials followed. The Stonewall Jackson statue were then erected in 1919, followed a decade later by Matthew Fontaine Maury. An ominous new era of white supremacy had dawned that would last seven decades, where Slipek called the Monument Avenue “a Confederate Valhalla.” The construction of Monument Avenue successfully revived the Lost Cause by drawing massive support across the southern states for whites and their Confederate ancestry. With the growing power among the southern whites, African Americans were forced to endure a new kind of abuse socially and politically for another six decades. The success of Monument Avenue represents one of many examples of the revival of the Lost Cause.

Baker, Donald P. “Richmond's Monumental Centennial Celebration;The Statue That Shaped the Grand Avenue.” The Washington Post, Washington D.C. 04 May. 1990.
https://search-proquest-com.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/docview/307264035?pq-origsite=summon

Edwards, Kathy, and Esmé Howard. “Monument Avenue: The Architecture of Consensus in the New South, 1890-1930.” Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture, vol. 6, 1997, pp. 92–110. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3514365. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020.

Yuan Chiang and Monique Garcia

English

Historic

HIST 402A (Fall 2020 and 2021)

Richmond, Virginia