New Orleans has begun the process of removing Civil War monuments within the city. This has sparked protests and even violence with the promise of more. Recently, in an interview, Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State under President George W. Bush, opined that the monuments should be left to stand, that we should remember the Confederacy. In some respect I have to agree with her. We should not engage in historical cleansing. We need to remember the Confederacy. But let’s remember all of the Confederacy. We must keep the focus clear and bright on everything the Confederacy stood for.
We need to remember, first and foremost that the Confederacy was the first act of treason committed against the United States; the second since Benedict Arnold tried to hand over West Point to the British during the Revolution. It was a four year act of violent and bloody insurrection against the United States.
The claim is that the Confederacy was formed out of a need to protect State’s Rights; that the cause was economic in nature. But we must remember that the State’s Right the Confederacy sought to preserve was the “right” to own human beings as slaves and treat them like animals. We must remember that the South’s economy was based on the most inhuman treatment one person can inflict on another. So let’s remember the 750,000 that donned the grey and fought, killed, and died to defend that right. I, for my part, will remember the 2.75 million who donned the blue and fought, killed, and died to end that crime against humanity and stop the spread of that deep, abiding, red stain on our national soul.
And let’s not forget the after party, orchestrated by a man who might be a relative of mine, Nathan Bedford Forrest. The man who organized the Klu Klux Klan and galloped across the south committing acts of terrorism, kidnapping, and murder – the 19th century Boko Haram. We must remember the lynchings and the burning crosses.
We must also remember the era of Jim Crow that followed the Civil War. We must remember its rampant voter suppression and violent intimidation of blacks. Much of which still goes on today, subtler but still just as effective. It is ingrained in the genetic makeup of the South.
By all means, keep the monuments. Wave the Stars and Bars. Sing the songs. We must remember the Confederacy.