Something on monument avenue that does not reflect that segregationist past. The result was this arthur ashe statue, which is pretty big. Not as big as jeff davis, but its pretty big. Its pretty large. So moving away from virginia, though, im sort of curious yeah, matt . In doing a paper, i actually came across an article that was in the southern southeastern geographer, and the article explored the symbolic meaning of lee to the city. This is about richmond. It is now mostly africanamerican. And the argument was that, i guess they had redone the canal area. Theres this big mural of robert e. Lee there. And its like the africanamerican population demanded that it be taken down. And so it does seem like there is a real expression of political power in that city now. Well, its an interesting place. It does come up. If you go, i also highly recommend the museum of the confederacy. Its a fascinating place in its own right. Its bookstore is fascinating. It is not you might imagine being up
He gave a speech which i wont quote at length. But wallaces speech was very, very clear. The country should, quote, look to the south, end quote, as the true defender, quote, of the rights of states and individuals. Wallace also said that the country was on the brink of civil warfare. That also is a quote. And told his colleagues in the senate that if they passed a public accommodations bill, mandating that public accommodations be open, regardless of color, this is wallace, quote, you should make preparations to withdraw all our troops from berlin, vietnam, and the rest of the world, because they need to police america. Of course, we talked about the back drop. The civil war centennial occurred with the back drop of the Civil Rights Movement. And of the very violent repression that was sort of that africanamerican activists in the south. The freedom summer of 1964 when the three were murdered in mississippi, that is sort of just in the offing. The civil war centennial. If we then ask
At which the civil war is still very much a part of living memory. Right . There are livingductions of the war, people involved in combat who are still alive. In 1912, state of pennsylvania issued an invitation of honorably discharged veterans of the civil war to come to gettysburg for a reunion of sorts. And you probably have already seen pictures of this or read about it in David Wrights book. I want to spend a little time talking about that. That marked something of the high water mark. It was kind of the peak of their aspirations. They invaded the north. The defeat of gettysburg was in many ways the beginning of the end. It proved at least on the battles there was no way for the confederacy to take the war to the end. So here we have some pictures. This is actually a picture of new york veterans having a meal at gettysburg. If you were to look at the public narrative, the narrative you would find in newspapers and commemorative pamphlets in public pronouncements, the sentiments exp
The arsenal at harpers ferry. There is no mention of the there thought of freeing the slaves. T theres none of that. None of it does it imply. Does it imply that it was a good thing . Oh, no. Its almost encyclopedic. A its one of those entries like e let me get the facts down and lets be done. Done. In fairness, most were done like that. Its odd they would have fas commemorated that. The it, too, is part of john t brown is part of kind of a segregationist memory,ever white supremacist memory, as wa well, because everyone agreed that john brown was crazy, right . In my High School History rown d textbook, we had a picture of john brown and there was an aust article that studies pictures or john brown because there are fairly neutral pictures of john brown and then there are pictures that make him look crazy. My textbook had the crazy picture. And my picture had the caption, john brown, possibly a monomaniac. Nice neutral statement for your history textbook. So the booklet is fascinating
This class is about one hour and 10 minutes. Ok. So in getting ready for this, i wanted to do like a little background work on the socalled semicentennial of the civil war, which was of course 1911 to 1915. I found this quote. Ill tell you where it comes from in a little bit, but it seems to me to encapsulate the feeling of the early 20th century. The days of the civil war now belong to the historians, the poets, the writer of romance, in the dramatist. Now i think you would add the reenactor there, probably. But of course, this is a period at which the civil war is still very much a part of living memory. Right . There are livingductions of the there are living veterans of the war, people involved in combat who are still alive. In 1912, the state of pennsylvania issued an invitation to honorably discharged veterans of the civil war to come to gettysburg for a reunion of sorts. And you probably have already seen pictures of this or read about it. I want to spend a little time talking a