Page 6 - aruba-today-20180811

A6 U.S. NEWS
Saturday 11 auguSt 2018

Women's group behind rebel memorials quietly battles on

By ALLEN G. BREED ence extended beyond
AP National Writer the regional boundaries of
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — the Confederacy. Until last
On a glorious, late-spring August, when it was dis-
day, Maya Little strode mantled, there was a Con-
across the poplar-lined Uni- federate memorial foun-
versity of North Carolina tain in Helena, Montana.
quadrangle, past protest- A UDC-funded marker also
ers and a uniformed officer. stood on Georges Island in
She stepped onto the base Boston Harbor, until Massa-
of the Confederate soldier chusetts Gov. Charlie Bak-
statue that has stood there er, a Republican, called for
since 1913, and splashed its removal. Both are now in
it with a mixture of red ink storage.
and her own blood. In its heyday around World
The 25-year-old doctoral War I, the UDC was about
candidate was sending 100,000 strong, but in a
a message to Chancellor 2000 speech, then-Presi-
Carol Folt that the monu- dent General June Murray
ment — nicknamed "Silent Wells estimated there were
Sam" — was an affront to around 25,000 members
black students like her, "the In this Saturday, June 6, 2015 file photo, Holly Larkowski, left, and her mother, Sharon Edmondson, across 700 chapters in 32
both members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, wear Civil War-era mourning dresses
celebration of an army during the UDC's 149th annual Confederate Memorial Day Service at Stonewall Cemetery in states.
that fought for our ances- Winchester, Va. "I don't know if we've got
tors' enslavement." But Little Associated Press one more generation left
was also speaking to the in it," says historian Karen
group responsible for erect- the Confederate ancestors it has distributed literature After the war, the group L. Cox, author of "Dixie's
ing this memorial to "the honored by these memori- that claims most African- offered assistance to Con- Daughters: The United
Lost Cause" — the United als "were and are Ameri- Americans were "ready federate widows and or- Daughters of the Confed-
Daughters of the Confed- cans." and willing" to serve slave phans. But its most visible eracy and the Preservation
eracy. She issued a call of her owners and that northern legacy is one of metal and of Confederate Culture."
"There is no Silent Sam with- own: "Join us in denounc- nullification of Southerners' stone. The group, nevertheless, still
out black blood, without ing hate groups and af- rights forced the War Be- Members of the South's wields influence.
violence towards black firming that Confeder- tween the States. most prominent families, When Vanderbilt Univer-
people," Little said recently ate memorial statues and "I wouldn't put them on ... the Daughters dedicated sity decided to change the
as she sat in the statue's monuments are part of our hate group list," says themselves to telling what name of Confederate Me-
shadow, campus security our shared American his- Beirich. "But they are still they considered "a truth- morial Hall, the Daughters'
guards hovering behind tory and should remain in perpetuating some of the ful history" of the war. So Tennessee Division sued for
nearby trees and columns. place." vilest ideas in American adept were they at raising breach of contract. In 2016,
"I would say all that blood Most people might know history, and the ones that funds through bazaars and the UDC won a $1.2 million
is on their hands. And it will the UDC as that group of we've worked so hard to bake sales that when the judgment — the current-
continue to be until they mainly older women who get rid of." United Confederate Veter- day value of the $50,000
take a stand — until they dress in widow's weeds The national UDC — head- ans had trouble funding a donation the group made
... make an effort to take and gather on Confeder- quartered in Richmond, memorial to Jefferson Davis toward construction of the
these monuments down ate Memorial Day to lay Virginia, capital of the for- in Richmond, the Daugh- dormitory back in 1935.
and to be a part of actual wreaths of boxwood and mer Confederate States of ters took over the project. Last August, after the San
racial equality, racial jus- holly and sing mournful ren- America — did not respond The memorial, with its semi- Antonio City Council voted
tice." ditions of "Dixie" in honor of to requests for comment. circular colonnade and to remove a Confederate
But the Daughters had al- the estimated 260,000 Con- Founded Sept. 10, 1894, the 67-foot-high column, was soldier monument from
ready made their position federate service members UDC sprang from women's dedicated on June 3, 1907 Travis Park, the local UDC
clear months before Little's who died in the Civil War "hospital associations, sew- — the 99th anniversary of chapter sued, claiming
protest and arrest. Last . Seeing them arrayed in ing societies and knitting Davis' birth. that it owned not only the
summer, in the wake of riots their broad-brimmed hats circles" across the South The SPLC attributes some monument but the ground
over the proposed removal and red-and-white sashes, that worked to aid Confed- 450 monuments , markers, beneath it. That case is
of a monument to Confed- it would be easy to dismiss erate soldiers, according to buildings and other com- pending.
erate Gen. Robert E. Lee in the Daughters as a quaint its website. The group's arti- memoratives to UDC ef- Another lawsuit was filed
Charlottesville, Virginia, the anachronism. cles of incorporation list five forts. The memorials range in Louisiana after the
group issued a rare public That would be a mistake. key objectives: "Historical, from modest statues like Si- Caddo Parish Commission
statement. As memorials have toppled Benevolent, Educational, lent Sam to the soaring 351- adopted a resolution on
"We are grieved that cer- and Confederate place Memorial and Patriotic." foot concrete obelisk mark- Oct. 19 to remove a Con-
tain hate groups have tak- names have vanished in Membership is open to de- ing the Kentucky birthplace federate monument from
en the Confederate flag the year since the Charlot- scendants of those who of Davis, the Confederacy's its courthouse grounds.
and other symbols as their tesville riots, the Daughters served honorably in the only president. The vast ma- UDC's Shreveport chapter
own," President General have fought back with Confederate military or jority were erected during claimed ownership, based
Patricia M. Bryson wrote fol- lawsuits aimed at stopping "who gave material aid the late 19th and early 20th on a 1903 vote by the
lowing the Aug. 12 clashes the removal of rebel monu- to the cause." Applicants centuries — when states Caddo Parish Police Jury
that left one woman dead. ments from public spaces. cannot use an ancestor were enacting Jim Crow appropriating $1,000 for
But while Bryson insisted Heidi Beirich of the Southern who took the oath of alle- laws meant to disenfran- the monument's construc-
that the UDC condemns Poverty Law Center counts giance to the United States chise blacks — and amid tion and designating that
anyone who "promotes ra- the group among the lead- before April 9, 1865, when the civil rights movement of a portion of the courthouse
cial divisiveness or white su- ing proponents of the "cult Lee surrendered at Appo- the 1950s and 60s. square be reserved for that
premacy," she argued that of the Lost Cause" — noting mattox. But the Daughters' influ- purpose. q