In the weeks since nationwide protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have erupted, dozens of monuments and statues celebrating the confederacy, Christopher Columbus, and other anti-Black and anti-Indigenous individuals and groups have been toppled across the country and around the world.
Today, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has issued a statement in support of these removal efforts, highlighting the fact that these monuments were originally erected "to glorify, promote, and reinforce white supremacy, overtly or implicitly."
The statement, one of several issued by the organization since the protests got underway, argues that the appropriateness of these monuments is no longer in question and that they should be removed to allow for their proper study and understanding in contexts outside of America's public spaces.
The National Trust's statement is published in full below:
In recent weeks, protests throughout America and around the world have sprung up in support of racial justice and equity, sparked by the horrific killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and others. The National Trust stands committed to support this fight for justice. We believe that Black Lives Matter, Black History Matters, and that historic preservation has a powerful role to play in telling the full story of our often-difficult history.
A critically important part of this work is elevating and preserving the enormous and important contributions that African Americans have made to our nation and carrying that profound legacy forward through places of truth, justice, and reconciliation.
This nationwide call for racial justice and equity has brought renewed attention to the Confederate monuments in many of our communities.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has previously issued statements about the history and treatment of Confederate monuments, emphasizing that, although some were erected—like other monuments to war dead—for reasons of memorialization, most Confederate monuments were intended to serve as a celebration of Lost Cause mythology and to advance the ideas of white supremacy. Many of them still stand as symbols of those ideologies and sometimes serve as rallying points for bigotry and hate today. To many African Americans, they continue to serve as constant and painful reminders that racism is embedded in American society.
We believe it is past time for us, as a nation, to acknowledge that these symbols do not reflect, and are in fact abhorrent to, our values and to our foundational obligation to continue building a more perfect union that embodies equality and justice for all.
Although Confederate monuments are sometimes designated as historic, and while many were erected more than a century ago, the National Trust supports their removal from our public spaces when they continue to serve the purposes for which many were built—to glorify, promote, and reinforce white supremacy, overtly or implicitly. While some have suggested that removal may result in erasing history, we believe that removal may be necessary to achieve the greater good of ensuring racial justice and equality. And their history needs not end with their removal: we support relocation of these monuments to museums or other places where they may be preserved so that their history as elements of Jim Crow and racial injustice can be recognized and interpreted.
We believe that communities have an obligation to take on this issue forthrightly and inclusively. We recognize that not all monuments are the same, and a number of communities have carefully and methodically determined that some monuments should be removed and others retained but contextualized with educational markers or other monuments designed to counter the false narrative and racist ideology that they represent, providing a deeper understanding of their message and their purpose.
We also recognize that some state legislatures have prohibited removal of such monuments, disallowing the rights of local communities wishing to remove these offensive symbols. Until such state laws are changed or overturned, contextualization may be the only option, at least for the present. Our view, however, is that unless these monuments can in fact be used to foster recognition of the reality of our painful past and invite reconciliation for the present and the future, they should be removed from our public spaces.
17 Comments
And they cut down and crane lifted out the 4,000# statue of Columbus at Coit tower in SF
Slavery existed throughout the world. It doesn't make it right, but we should have a more nuanced discussion about who bought and sold slaves throughout history.
Didn't they lose the war like 155 years ago?
Rev and Rick I always thought they must be French. Who loses every war they ever were in and has that much pride? The French.
it is weird to have statues of people that have lost the war and wanted to enslave their fellow men and women. it is weirder still that those statues were erected long after that war was lost and slavery already abolished.
but those who don't remember their past are doomed to repeat it, right?
the past in this case and in my opinion, is not the losing of the civil war but the erecting of statues remembering that "loss" half a century later, and honouring the people that fought to keep slavery...that memory will be lost when those statues will be gone.
i think it is good to remember that there were people in the 20th century that wanted to remember losing the civil war and those who fought to keep slavery so they erected statues to honour those people...i mean, how fucked up is that?
and now, in the 21st century, there are people who want us all to forget that this ever happened in the early 20th century by removing those same statues. nothing to see here people, move along please...
a missed opportunity to educate people about the civil war, the end of slavery but more importantly about the fact there were people not even a century ago that mourned that loss so much, half a century after the fact, that they had to erect some statues about it all to honour the people that lost the fight to keep slavery going.
but i do get why people want those hated symbols and objects of veneration (by some) gone...it is painful to be reminded of that dark past especially for the descendants of slaves and to realise not enough has since improved.
Well, if your pleasant burg doesn't have any Confererate General statues for you to deface and vandalize you can always deface and destroy statues of Christopher Columbus which seems to be the default option. I think it is quite possible to come up with a word-salad to justify trashing and destroying any statue.
well you only Deface Columbus if you hate the I'Talion. Which it appears both black and whites, do!
Columbus was a piece of shit even by the standards of his own time. I have no problem sending him to the hall of shame of world history.
waiting for the D.C. rename...I'm sure the Pharoahs of Egypt weren't that cool either. The Vikings, etc... all seems relative...I would suggest just rename it to "Italian American Day" problem solved.
In the late nineteenth century, when these statues were erected, there was a movement of civic pride and remembrance across the nation to put up statues of all stripes, including the green lady in NY. Which leaves the question as to whom exactly—and realistically—Southerners might have raised a statue of. Take away Civil War heroes, and there's no one left, other than many wretched politicians and a few presidents, if you want to count them. Polk, for one, isn't going to cut it.
This movement died out. There wasn't even a monument to FDR until a small one was built in 1991. There's much worth reflection here about public remembrance, public figures, and our society now, likely to lead to confusion and conflict. Which is where we are.
We believe that communities have an obligation to take on this issue forthrightly and inclusively.
It is worth paying attention to the National Trust's language. This is not a centralized mandate ordering wholesale change from above, but a moral and historical argument to persuade communities to change. The validity and integrity of the local community is respected. And that's the only way these changes will work.
"...Christopher Columbus, and other anti-Black and anti-Indigenous individuals and groups have been toppled across the country and around the world.
Today, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has issued a statement in support of these removal efforts,"
The National Trust for Historical Preservation supports toppling and destruction of statues some find offensive? Sure sounds like it.
"And their history needs not end with their removal: we support relocation of these monuments to museums or other places where they may be preserved"
So, yeah the opposite of what you said.
if you hate Columbus you hate I'talions...you're racist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Day
wait wait bruh...are you suggesting non-whites can be racist? Columbus and I'talion, half Hannibal cruise ship of fuckin' eggplants
Absurd.
Only White people are racist.
Define White?
Architecture. This bitch be a French White bitch.
she be doing Black Power like the little 'mexican olympics!
(it's ok to hate on latinos, they part white and only immigrants anyway, they ain't slaves but they work like 'em)
as a white social media fake - ain't this what the white bitch did that burned downed Wendy's (in honor of black people of course)
WHITE PRIVILEGE = WHITE BITCHES.
(brothers, I'm on your side ;)
toodles
Architecture. Right! hahahahahahahahah
Archinect, give it up already, no one cares. - qouting myself in seriousness
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.