Civil War Memory

Gender and the Civil Rights Movement

My Women's History course is moving along nicely.  This past week we discussed issues relating to black feminism and the Civil Rights Movement.  I offered a few reflections yesterday morning on our tendency to see the Civil Rights Movement along gendered lines.  Most of our images are indeed centered on men such as Martin L. King, Malcolm X, Stokeley Carmichael, etc.  I suggested that even the prominent place of Rosa Parks in our national narrative is in part a result of the fact that it led to King's emergence as a national leader.  Would we remember Parks if her arrest was not followed by a city-wide boycott of the buses?  I enjoyed our discussions because it gave me a chance to think a bit more about the connection between gender and race as factors in how our national narrative has been constructed throughout much of the twentieth century.  I've never thought much before this class about how gender has shaped our understanding of this particular event.  Luckily our textbook does a fabulous job of providing an overview of both black and white women and the issues that they faced in various organizations such as the NAACP, SNCC, and the SCLC.  I supplemented the text with a few readings including a primary document authored by Mary King who reported on the position of women in SNCC in 1964.  We also discussed a short article by Beverly Guy-Sheftall titled "African American Women: The Legacy of Black Feminism" which is contained in a collection edited by Robin Morgan called Sisterhood Forever: The Women's Anthology for a New Millennium.

Specific women that were discussed include Ella Baker who was active in the NAACP and was later appointed "acting" executive director of the SCLC.  She was one of the founders of SNCC following the Greensboro sit-ins and organized numerous voter registration drives throughout the South.  Diane Nash also worked with SNCC and organized the Nashville sit-ins; she is best known for pushing for  continued Freedom Rides following the violence of Anniston and Birmingham in 1961.  One of the most interesting stories for me involves Fannie Lou Hamer who grew up on a large cotton plantation.  Although she only managed to work through the sixth grade Hamer eventually joined SNCC and succeeded in registering to vote in 1963: "We just got to stand up now as Negroes for ourselves and for our freedom, and if it don't do me any good, I do know the young people it will do good."  Hamer organized voter registration drives in Mississippi.  She died in 1977 as a result of a brutal 1963 beating she received as a result of her political activism.  We also talked about the challenges posed by the presence of white women in these organizations such as Virginia Foster Durr and Anne Braden. 

The final group of women we discussed were those who took the initiative to break the  color barrier in colleges and universities throughout the South.  They include Autherine Lucy who became the first black student to be admitted to the University of Alabama in 1956.  She was expelled three days later "for her own protection" against threats from white students.  Seven years later Vivian Malone and another male black student were admitted to the school.  Charlayne Hunter took the important step of integrating the University of Georgia in 1961.  There are, of course, others. 

One of the interesting questions for discussion centered on the unique challenges that being both black and a woman posed for those interested in political activism in the 1960s.  Mary King states the following in her evaluation of SNCC in 1964: "Most men in this movement are probably too threatened by the possibility of serious discussion on this subject.  Perhaps this is because they have recently broken away from a matriarchal framework under which they may have grown up."  Guy-Sheftall lists a number of points in an attempt to show that the perspective and challenges of black women in America are unique, and as a result, cannot be ignored:

1. Black women experience a special kind of oppression in this country, one that is both racist and sexist, because of their dual racial and gender identities.

2. This "double jeopardy" has meant that the problems, concerns, and needs of black women are different in many ways from those of both white women and black men.

3. Black women's unique struggles with respect to racial and sexual politics, their poverty, and their marginalized status have given them a particular view of the world.

Next week we move on to women and education.  I plan to show the movie Mona Lisa Smiles.  Now don't think tha I've sold out as I plan to use it as one perspective on this topic.  We will read some primary sources as well as excerpts from Lynn Peril's book, College Girls: Bluestockings, Sex Kittens, and Coeds, Then and Now. 

What I Don't Want For Christmas: Part 2

Edward Bonekemper's latest book on George McClellan would make the perfect gift for fellow blogger Dimitri Rotov.  In all seriousness this study looks like a complete disaster which would at least be consistent with his earlier books on Lee and Grant.  I probably sound overly harsh, but I absolutely cringed when I tried to get through his earlier book on Lee, which was nothing more than a poor rehashing of Alan Nolan's argument.  While I disagreed with Nolan's evaluation of Lee's generalship at least he was able to put forward an argument in a clearly articulated manner.  Bonekemper's latest book is titled, McClellan and Failure: A Study of Civil War Fear, Incompetence and Worse.  Here is a description:

Promoting his own ideas and career regardless of the consequences, McClellan spent his Civil War command defying his superiors and attempting to avoid battle, eventually becoming a thorn in the side of President Lincoln and the Union cause. Removed from command on November 5, 1862, McClellan's overly cautious attitude nevertheless permeated the Army of the Potomac for years. From West Point to Antietam, this volume examines his Army career. The main focus of the work is McClellan's Civil War service and the ways in which the man and his decisions affected the course of the war. The Union Army's invasion of northern Virginia, the Peninsula Campaign and the Second Battle of Bull Run are examined in detail with special emphasis on the roles which McClellan played--or did not play. Through a combination of incompetence and paranoia, McClellan managed to throw away numerous chances at a Union victory and, consequently, a quicker end to the war.

Going back to the title of the book one has to wonder what Bonekemper means by "and worse."  Maybe we will learn that McClellan beat his wife.  It is hard to imagine any study by Bonekemper being worth a purchase price of $45.  Do yourself a favor and spend the money on Ethan Rafuse's new book, McClellan's War: The Failure of Moderation in the Struggle for the Union. 

The Inflatable Lee, Jackson, Grant, Lincoln...

Since I am so tired of reading story after story about Confederate flags and statues I thought this commentary by John Kelso was just what the doctor ordered.  Kelso, who writes a weekly column for Austin American-Statesman, has come up with a solution to the problem of the removal of Confederate statues:

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. UT has been trying to decide what to do with four bronze Confederate figures on campus, among them Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee. The House debate got so contentious that Reps. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, and Beverly Woolley, R-Houston, nearly went roller derby on us and had to be separated.

Why is Robert E. Lee's statue at the University of Texas anyway? Lee never gave money to the athletic department. Was he ever a member of the Longhorn Foundation? Rich lawyer Joe Jamail rating a statue inside Royal-Memorial Stadium I can understand. He keeps writing checks to keep the football team in the Top 10.  Until Lee gets his own skybox, I'm not sure why he rates recognition. They should put a Jamail bronze on horseback on UT's South Mall and stick Lee in front of Posse East. 

OK, so here's my main plan. Instead of statues, why not switch to big blowup dolls? When the public decides it's time for some notable to disappear, you just walk up with a pin and, pop, they're history. Besides, inflatables are a lot cheaper than a $400,000 statue.  I know because I called Alvimar, a New York company that makes inflatables, to ask about prices.  "A 15-foot-tall what inflatable?" the gal on the phone asked. "A Robert E. Lee," I said. She didn't seem to recognize the name.  A minute later, this guy named Dan got on the line.  "A ballpark figure, probably $7,000 or something like that," said Dan, when I asked him how much a 15-foot helium Lee blowup would cost. "And it would take five to seven weeks to make it. You'd have to send me all the pictures and artwork."

So would it be a realistic Robert E. Lee? "They would be more cartoonish characters," Dan said.  OK, so it's a Robert E. Lee that looks like Elmer Fudd. I'm cool with that, as long as it keeps the Legislature from squabbling.

Thanks John.

Simply del.icio.us

I finally got around to setting up an account over at del.cio.us which is a social bookmarking service.  Many of you out there are already familiar with this site, but for teachers who do not have their own web pages this is a great place to save websites for classroom use.  Of course you can use the bookmarking options on your internet service provider, but de.licio.us allows you to manage these sites by attaching tags.  Once saved you can see who else has tagged a particular site.  If you browse my page you will only see a few websites listed.  Most of them are videos that I've been showing in my survey and women's history courses.  I've always found it difficult to keep track of websites that I use in the classroom throughout the year.  Best of all, students have access to your bookmarks which makes it possible for them to take advantage of the material on their own time.

The site also makes for an efficient research tool.  How many times have you printed something and forgotten to write the URL?  Again, you can categorize everything and it's there at your fingertips.  If you haven't explored this site it is well worth your time.  I'm sure there is a lot more that I can do with de.licio.us, but give me some time.

I may be slow, but I eventually get there.

Mary Anna Randolf Custis: Artist

Apparently the wife of General Robert E. Lee painted one of the family's slave girls around 1830.  From the Washington Post article:

Before Mrs. Lee gave the portrait to West Point cadet James Ewell Brown Stuart, class of 1854, while her husband was commandant, she inscribed "Topsy" on the dress in pencil, a reference to the slave child in Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin." The novel roiled the conscience of abolitionists such as Mrs. Lee, who had earlier defied strictures against teaching slaves to read.  According to historical background provided by the gallery, Stuart pasted the watercolor onto the back of a drawing of a cavalry soldier on horseback slashing a watermelon with his sword.  "Whether the attachment was a conscious act or whether Stuart was oblivious to its meaning, it fails to diminish the significance of pairing an innocent slave with the highly trained soldier a few years before the outbreak of war," the documentation says.  The real name of the child in the portrait isn't recorded, but she is known to have been one of the slaves at the 1,100-acre Custis family plantation spread out along the Potomac River within view of Washington, D.C.

The painting went on sale in January for $400,000 and was purchased more recently by Colonial Williamsburg for an undisclosed amount. 

A New Vision

Yesterday instead of classes we had a school-wide meeting to discuss the future of the school.  After roughly 25 years my school has a new headmaster.  He is young, energetic, and passionate about schools.  I've had a chance to get to know him as he teaches a section of U.S. History in my classroom.  He proposed and helped organize the two-week interdisciplinary seminar on the Civil Rights Movement which we wrapped up last night.

I've sat through a number of these meetings in years past and was not optimistic about this one.  Those of you in the teaching profession know what I am talking about. Basically, you sit around, throw out some abstract feel-good/Oprah-esque concepts about the ideal school and what kinds of students you hope to shape.  In the end, however, you rarely follow up to put the terms of the mission statement into practice.   No wonder that some of us walked in having stuffed ourselves with danish and coffee, anticipating lunch and a chance to head out early. 

Well, I was pleasantly surprised by what our new leader had to say.  With the help of a committee made up of faculty, parents, students, and former graduates our new headmaster laid down a bold vision that includes goals that will hopefully change the overall atmosphere.  First and foremost we hope to make this the greenest school in central Virginia at some point in the near future.  We are already making changes related to physical plant issues and major changes are in the works.  The other goal that stood out was the intention to mandate that every student spend time overseas on work-related projects in a developing country.  What I like about both goals is that they are student-centered.  Our students are disciplined and respectful, but very self-centered and privileged.  Many of our students are grossly ignorant about current events or issues in their own backyards.  Given the quality of education at my school it is inexcusable that students can graduate without having the opportunity of experiencing the rewards and challenges involved in service.   

I am excited about the direction of the school. 

More Reasons for the Museum of the Confederacy To Stay in Richmond

The Roanoke Times today reports on the growing divide in Lexington and Rockbridge County over a petition that offers the Museum of the Confederacy a new home.  While Waite Rawls, the museum's director along with Brian Shaw, chairman of the Rockbridge Area Tourism Board, are convinced that Lexington and the surrounding area would benefit economically there is skepticism just below the surface. 

"I'm not sure it's going to be as income-producing for our citizens as people think it is," said Lexington City Council member Mimi Elrod, who voted against the city submitting a proposal to attract the museum. "I have real questions about the numbers."  Elrod is among those who view the museum's focus on the Confederacy, which fought to preserve slavery, to be as divisive now as it was during the Civil War.  "My concern with the Museum of the Confederacy is it is celebrating a cause that was established to maintain the enslavement of people," she said. "I don't want to celebrate the Confederacy."  Elrod said the museum would be more acceptable if it were a Civil War museum that represented both sides of the war.

There are two issues to consider in Elrod's comment.  First, Elrod expresses concern that the museum will not attract the kinds of numbers that will make the move economically worthwhile for the community.  I am not convinced either.  I don't see how anyone can argue that Lexington will attract more visitors compared with Richmond.  There are more schools in the Richmond area that could be brought to the museum as well as other organizations.  Tourism and population in the Richmond-Petersburg-D.C. corridor reinforce this point.  The second problem is much more significant and will stay with the MOC regardless of whether it moves or remains in Richmond.  The MOC has an image problem that must be addressed head-on.  If a city councilwoman has a distorted view of the mission of the MOC than what can one expect from the average citizen?  Rawls seems to think that the MOC does a competent job of outreach and education: 

"It's therefore vital that our educational mission be emphasized," he said. "I think we do a very good job of making people understand better the causes of the war, the aftermath of the war, how it was conducted, who fought it, what they believed in at the time."

I simply disagree with Rawls here and it seems clear that the MOC's predicament is a direct result of that message not getting through to the general public.  Rawls and the rest of the staff must make educational outreach their number one concern, and it should do so in the former capital of the Confederacy.

The public misconception surrounding the MOC's mission along with the very emotional debates surrounding the Confederate flag will surely take place in Lexington and this could lead to problems.  Is the city of Lexington prepared for this?  Ted DeLaney, a history professor at Washington and Lee University and a Lexington native who is black, said such a prominent display of the Confederacy at the museum would create division in the community.

"Even during the days when Lexington was a segregated community ... Lexington was a civil place," he said. "I don't see anything that is positive in the museum relocating to a community like this. The tenor of the debate so far indicates to me that there is great potential for a lack of civility."

I recently talked to a restaurant owner here in Charlottesville who is moving operations to Lexington.  She hinted that there are more people who have expressed concern than what is making it into the newspapers.  The Roanoke Times includes a statistic showing 80% of respondents to a local poll supported the relocation of the MOC to Lexington.  I am not surprised by this poll given that most of the museum's supporters would be more likely to declare their approval compared with those who have doubts. 

I continually come back to two essential points when thinking about this complicated issue.  First, it is not clear to me at all that the Museum would enjoy a noticeable increase in visitors if it moved to Lexington.  Second, but more importantly, its mission is best understood in Richmond where it can address the tough questions that continue to divide us surrounding issues that stem from our Civil War.

Something Worth Celebrating

This week England acknowledged 200 years without the slave trade.  The church in England is considering some kind of reparations for the slave trade and a church in East Lancashire held a special service marking this important moment:

Church and civic leaders marked abolition at an Ecumenical Evensong and heard a sermon from Archbishop Gomez.  He said: "I am pleased to give thanks for the abolition of slavery 200 years ago. The trade of slaves deprived between five and 20 million of their dignity, their freedom and ultimately their lives, something which is beyond imagination for us."

I can read over 250 online articles on this subject in contrast with next to no coverage when it comes to our own history of abolitionism.  Why is it that in a nation that prides itself on freedom and equality we do not focus more attention on certain dates?  There is rarely any acknowledgment of the Emancipation Proclamation, Thirteenth Amendment or other Reconstruction Amendments.  Instead we engage in debates as to whether Lincoln intended to free the slaves or whether Reconstruction was a violation of states' rights.   Perhaps we are ashamed of our history given that Emancipation and the end of slavery eventually led to Jim Crow.  To look at our history is to be reminded that freedom and civil rights do not always move inextricably in a more expansive or progressive manner, but sometimes takes a turn in the opposite direction. 

We do not necessarily have feel shame when looking at our national past as it is filled with brave men and women who worked tirelessly to bring about social and political change.  Sometimes the federal government worked to undermine that process, but at other times it did act admirably.  We can acknowledge those moments without becoming too self-congratulatory and in a way that provides perspective on how far or how little we've traveled since.

What's in the Hopper?

At about this time every year I begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel that is summer vacation.  Ideally speaking that means three months of research and writing.  I am hoping that this year will be more productive than last year, which included a trip to Europe for a funeral and an overall malaise.  It is very difficult to balance the demands of teaching and research; obviously the former takes priority for me.  I still don't see how Jeff Wert was able to remain so productive as a high school teacher, though I understand he hired out much of the archival research.  Now that's a great idea and I might be tempted to do it if I had the finances.  I say "tempted" because I actually enjoy snooping around in the archives.  As disturbing as it sounds I enjoy the smell of old documents.  I still remember researching Col. John Bowie Magruder of the 57th Virginia at the University of Virginia back in 2001.  Magruder wrote a letter home just after the battle of Fredericksburg describing the cold temperature and the fire that he was sitting next to as he wrote.  You can see the the little burn marks from the fire. 

So here is what is on tap.  First, I am finishing a chapter for an edited volume on the Petersburg Campaign.  Most of you probably know what series I am referring to, but I don't want to be specific until the paper has been submitted and approved.  The paper is pulled from my Crater manuscript and focuses on the memory of black Union soldiers between 1864 and 1937.  I am close to finishing this project.  I am also close to finishing the journal article on Confederate military executions.  This project has been the albatross of my existence for the past two years; however, my recent talk on the topic has reignited my determination to see it through to completion  Over the summer I am going to try to finish my edited project on Capt. John C. Winsmith.  The letters are transcribed and all that needs to be done is the editing and an introduction.  This is a big project. 

This summer I will also be working with my former advisor Robert Kenzer on an analytical essay on Ken Burns's Civil War documentary.  We are going to analyze a large amount of data pulled from the series in hopes of placing it within a larger historiographical context as well as to see whether criticisms of the series hold up.  There is a chance that this essay will turn into an interesting book.  Stay tuned.  Finally, I've been asked to contribute to the online journal at the Ambrose Bierce Project, which is edited by Craig Warren.  This will be a special issue to be published in December 2007 that will focus on Bierce and memory.  I am excited about this project as I don't know that much about Bierce other than the few stories that I've read.   

Sometimes it is helpful to write things down in order to get a clearer perspective on what it will take to complete all of your commitments.  Now that I've done so I think I will go to the beach for three months.

Light Blogging with Jeb and Felix