Trump making monuments a cause

President Donald J. Trump has been silent about the death of George Floyd and other black and brown victims who have died at the hands of police in the United States. Instead, he has doubled down on “law and order” threatening to send the U.S. military to end the protests. His latest cause raises questions about the heart and mind of the current president. His new cause is the preservation of monuments honoring men who committed treason against the United States and who slaughtered Native Americans in order to steal their land.

These Monuments preserve hate not history

In media interviews and especially in his rally speeches, Trump refers to these monuments as “our beautiful monuments” and our “heritage”. The men, and women, honored by so many of the monuments he wants preserved were part of our history just like many evil men were part of German history. This does not mean they must be honored.

The Confederacy began because the southern states rebelled against the United States, forming their own nation. Their cause was states’ rights, but the sacred right they wanted to protect was the right to continue slavery. They took up arms against the United States but lost. In other words, they were just like Japan and Germany in WWII.

Native Americans find some monuments offensive. These monuments make heroes out of men who slaughtered their ancestors and stole their land. At the top of the list is President Andrew Jackson, a Trump hero, whose claim to fame was the horrific “Trail of Tears” and slaughter of Native Americans in a quest to steal their land violating treaties. Others are honored for valor in the cause of “exploring and settling” the West, another name for theft and genocide.

While most monuments to heroes of the so-called “Indian Wars” were erected in the late 19th century most Confederate monuments were put up relatively recently. This was not a coincidence. It was part of the messaging that accompanied the rise of Jim Crow laws in the South beginning in the 1890s through the 1950s.

There is no dispute between reputable historians that the Confederacy was established on their belief in white supremacy. Their founding documents and statements confirm that. For instance, Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens said in an 1861 speech “Our new government is founded upon … the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition.” (Underscore added for emphasis.)

After Reconstruction, Southern whites, led by former Confederates including women, began a movement to restore white rule and values to the South. They gained political power by removing elected Black officeholders replacing them with segregationist whites. They enacted a series of laws segregating society including separate schools, entrances to public places, rest rooms, and even drinking fountains.

They were able to get a conservative U.S. Supreme Court to declare in the 1890s that segregation was lawful so long as facilities were “separate but equal”. They were never equal.

A big part of their messaging was to make god-like heroes out of the leaders of the failed coup known as the Confederacy. Statues were erected in the center of towns and cities throughout the south, and sadly, in some northern states as well. These monuments, along with propaganda in museums and libraries, were used to indoctrinate whites to believe the cause of segregation was right, and their leaders were heroes. Simultaneously they demoralized and intimidated African Americans, along with sanctioned lynching.

How prevalent are these monuments?

In 2016 the Southern Poverty Law Center did a survey and found that there were 1,747 monuments and place names honoring the Confederacy in the United States. These included 747 statues, 103 schools, 3 colleges or universities, 80 cities and counties, and 10 U.S. military bases named to honor Confederates. In addition, there are 8 state holidays paying tribute to Confederates. Until recently, many state flags included the Confederate flag. After the Charlottesville murders, 47 monuments were relocated, but 700 remain.

The Confederate flag became a symbol of white supremacy and segregation and was used by the KKK beginning in the 1890s up to the present. Hardly a flag pole in the segregationist South did not fly a Confederate flag usually, but not always, along with the American flag. Alabama governor George Wallace unfurled the flag above the state Capitol in 1963 shortly after vowing “segregation forever.”

Winds of Change

Due to national pressure, and the changes in demographics, Southern states have removed the Confederate flag from most state buildings. It is still seen as a symbol of white supremacy by many. Many Southerners now admit Confederate monuments are offensive to many and should be relocated to museums. Trump is moving in the opposite direction. Is Trump’s stance political or is it a glimpse into his mind and heart? I for one believe it is the latter.