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MU professor: Consider the fate of monuments case by case

By TAYLOR STUCK

The Herald-Dispatch

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — As the country debates what to do with Confederate, white supremacist and other statues and monuments, historian and Marshall University professor David Trowbridge suggests we analyze the history of each on an individual basis.

Trowbridge, associate professor of history and director of African and African American studies, said many of the monuments being labeled Confederate actually aren’t.

A good example is the Battle of Liberty Place monument, which was located in New Orleans until it was removed in April when the city removed Confederate monuments.

The monument was erected in 1891 to honor white supremacists who attempted to overthrow the government of Louisiana in 1874.

Following the victory of a Republican ticket composed of black and white candidates in the election of 1874, 5,000 members of the Crescent City White League attempted to seize control of the state government by force. The attempted coup led to an armed confrontation between members of the racially-diverse police force. The coup failed, but the event is still the most deadly attack on American police forces.

“The guy leading the police? James Longstreet, (Robert E.) Lee’s right-hand man,” Trowbridge said. “But because Longstreet defended the biracial government, he was hated for the rest of his life in the south. There is not a single monument to James Longstreet in the south. Not a single one. These monuments are not about military history, otherwise there would be James Longstreet monuments.”

Trowbridge said we care about monuments because of what they symbolize, and that can change over time.

“We have three monuments in Huntington,” Trowbridge said. “One is to Collis P. Huntington. If I told you that was taken down last year, you would go ‘Oh, OK. I never noticed.’ The statue of Carter G. Woodson would be different. It symbolizes something. The statue of John Marshall disappears. They wouldn’t be like, ‘I really liked his opinions of balance of power between the federal and state governments, and that’s a shame.’ They’d think that’s a symbol of Marshall.”

The Confederate monuments, Trowbridge said, symbolize an imagined past for white people.

“For these men, it’s minorities and women in their place,” he said. “That’s a phrase you’ll hear throughout the 20th century and today in their place It’s an imagined past, where white men didn’t have to worry about competing on equal playing field or being insulted. First of all, that world never existed. Look at the Civil War as an example. You guys really want to return to that? You would have been cannon fodder.”

Trowbridge said there is also a difference between a monument and a memorial.

“You’re a young man growing up in Louisiana, you’re 18 years old, you are going to join the Confederacy,” he said. “There’s no, ‘Well, Dad, I read about it and I think we might be on the wrong side.’ I fought a war for oil. I had a choice, but there is nothing in my letters writing home ‘We must maintain the status quo of this vital economic resource.’ I knew that’s what it was. I wasn’t alone in knowing that. You are a young man. You are in military. You are going to go.

“These aren’t memorials to terrorists. These are memorials to young men who lived in extremely difficult times and did the best they could, and many of them lost their lives because of this terrible tragedy of the Civil War.”

As West Virginia begins to debate controversial monuments, such as the Stonewall Jackson monument on the state Capitol grounds, Trowbridge’s advice is to analyze each monument individually, taking into consideration when and why it was built, but also the meaning it has today.

Trowbridge said we can’t erase history, but there should be alternatives other than just melting down a statue.

“There could be a memorial park and museums, but you can’t just ask a museum to take this on,” he said. “You need to cut a check for them, and it needs to be a big check so they can properly create an exhibit around this so people can go and say we created this monument. We shouldn’t forget that.”

The Clio App, which was developed by Trowbridge, is a virtual museum that can be used in the meantime. The app gives more information than can be found on a plaque, and directs users to books and videos for even more information.

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