A Long and Slow Surrender
It all started with a disagreement with a friend. She stated vehemently that all the Confederate Monuments needed to come down. Now. My gut reaction was, “No damn Yankee is going to tell me what to do with my statues!”
As a Southerner, I often felt that most Northern attitudes toward the South were misconceptions. Now I see those misconceptions have dark truths behind them. Being educated in the South ingrained in me the “Lost Cause Myth”, a narrative of the Civil War created by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. It implies that during the Civil War, the South was fighting for States Rights, Southern Heritage, Secession from the Union . . . anything but Slavery. While grappling with my relationship to Southern history and culture, I read the Letters of Secession from all the Southern States. Yes, States Rights, Secession, and Southern Heritage can be perceived in the texts, but the core of those letters points to the South’s pro-slavery beliefs and their desire to fight for those beliefs.
The Mississippi State Letter of Secession sums up the South's relationship to slavery concisely:
"Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery -- the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun"
As a visual artist, I have been compelled to re-examine the history and culture in which I was born and to investigate the current day dissensions that inspired the creation of this project, A Long and Slow Surrender, which was initially inspired by the 2017 Unite the Right protests in Charlottesville, VA. The violence of that event compelled me to re-examine the history and culture in which I was born and to investigate the current day dissensions that Confederate monuments represent. Through this work, I have deconstructed my Southern education and confronted my discomfort with my Southern Heritage. The experience has been cathartic and at times unbearable. It is my hope that this body of work will encourage Southerners to question their beliefs about heritage and that it will promote alternative discussions of racial, rural, and religious tensions that Southerners experience living among Confederate Monuments.
Wendy Young
Protecting Our heritage, Weatherford, TX, 2017
At first, I was disappointed to see this monument in a box. Then I saw the sign that speaks of Heritage. Apparently, people got alarmed at the monument being boxed. The sign was placed to ease their worry.
Monument to Lt. General A.P. Stewart, Chattanooga, TN, 2018
Alexander P. Stewart, was a graduate of West Point, a professor at several Southern Universities, and a commissioner of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park in Tennessee. Initially, he was an anti-secessionist Whig, but was persuaded to fight when Tennessee seceded from the Union. This monument in front of the Hamilton County Courthouse was dedicated by the Daughters of the Confederacy in 1919.
Move the Statue, Denton, TX 2019
Willie Hudspeth has been championing the removal of this Monument since 1999. On Sundays, from 4pm-6pm, he sits in the town square and talks to passersby about their thoughts on the monument. Most are not even aware of the monument until it is pointed out to them. Mr. Hudspeth is patient and diligent. He welcomes dialog, but is firm in his conviction that the monument needs to be moved. I last visited with him in 2019. This monument was removed in June of 2020.
Jesus Is Alive, Longview, TX, 2017
I spoke with this street preacher in Longview, TX. When I asked him where he was from, he told me he was from a small town in Alabama that I wouldn't know anything about. He was from Florence, AL where my Great-Grandmother lived.
Roadside Memorial, Georgetown, LA, 2018
Half and Half Confederate Flag, Bernie, MO, 2022
God Guns and Guts, Atmore, AL, 2016
You really can't discuss the South without speaking of God, guns, and guts.
Courthouse and Monument, Ellaville, GA, 2017
Confederate Monument, Dedicated in 2012, Dallas, GA, 2017
Jevsus Saves, Cherry Valley, AR, 2018
Light in the Pines, Georgetown, LA 2018
Among the Magnolias, Livingston, AL, 2021
Justice Court, Waynesboro, MS, 2019
Courthouse Door, Carnesville, GA, 2018
Confederate Steps, Pensacola, FL, 2017
This monument is one that I have a personal connection with. These steps lead from the Lee Park to the parking lot of my hometown church in Pensacola, FL. This is where my friends and I would hide out when we skipped church activities on Wednesday nights at First Baptist Church. The monument is a 30-foot monument to "our Confederate dead" was erected in the park and featured a large granite sculpture of a Confederate soldier, modeled after a painting by John Adams Elder, entitled, After Appomattox. The figure atop the pedestal is a confederate soldier, hat in hand, and head slightly down. It's considered a submissive pose.
The south face inscription reads: “The Uncrowned Heroes of the Southern Confederacy, whose joy it was to suffer and die for a cause they believed to be just. Their unchallenged devotion and matchless heroism shall continue to be the wonder and inspiration of the ages.”
The east face is inscribed to :“Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America. Soldier, Statesman, Patriot, Christian. The only man in our nation without a country, yet twenty million people mourn his death.”
The west face is dedicated to: “Edward Aylesworth Perry, Captain of the Pensacola Rifes, Colonel of the Second Florida Regiment, General of the Florida Brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia. Among the first to volunteer in the defence of his adopted state, faithful in every position to which his merit advanced him, his life and deeds constitute his best monument.”
The north face was inscribed: “Stephen R. Mallory, Secretary of the Navy of the Confederate States of America.”
Growing up, I heard that the statue was placed facing south so that the figure's “ass faced north”. Another interpretation was that it faced south “as a symbol of looking towards home”. Reverend J.H. Curry, from First Baptist Church gave one of the dedication speeches during the dedication ceremony. The monument was removed in 2020 and has been the subject of a series of lawsuits involving the city and pro-monument groups since its removal. Lee Park was renamed Florida Park, the original name of the plot of land where the monument stood since 1891.
Half and Half Confederate Flag, Tumbling Shoals, AR, 2018
Convenience Store Taxidermy, Carriere, MS, 2017
Stages of Cotton Growth, 2017
Without firing a gun, without drawing a sword, should they make war on us we could bring the whole world to our feet. The South is perfectly competent to go on, one, two, or three years without planting a seed of cotton. I believe that if she was to plant but half her cotton, for three years to come, it would be an immense advantage to her. I am not so sure but that after three years’ entire abstinence she would come out stronger than ever she was before, and better prepared to enter afresh upon her great career of enterprise. What would happen if no cotton was furnished for three years? I will not stop to depict what every one can imagine, but this is certain: England would topple headlong and carry the whole civilized world with her, save the South. No, you dare not make war on cotton. No power on earth dares to make war upon it. Cotton is king.
–James Henry Hammond
James Henry Hammond's words on March 4, 1858, fostered a belief among Southern whites that they were economically invincible due to cotton being "the greatest material interest of the world." When the Civil War began, Southerners sought support from England and France, only to be turned away by both countries. The South enacted a self-imposed cotton embargo in hopes of persuading England and France to recognize their sovereignty. As a result, large quantities of cotton were left to spoil on docks while India, Brazil, and Egypt took over providing the global supply. Picking cotton in the American South was brutal. Enslaved people endured relentless sun, the sharp, cracked bolls tearing at their hands, and constant physical strain. Ferocious punishments for perceived slowness were a constant threat. Exhaustion and fear were daily companions, making life a grueling test of endurance and survival. Many did not survive the brutality.
USM Flaggers, Hattiesburg, MS, 2018
The USM Flaggers have spent over 200 consecutive Sundays protesting the removal of the Mississippi State Flag from the University of Southern Mississippi. They say they will continue until it flies on campus again. A new Mississippi state fag without the confederate icon was implemented in 2021.
Homecoming Parade, Tuscumbia, AL, 2018
The Confederacy lurks through these quiet, stone sentinels as Southerners go about their daily lives. They are constant reminders of a past that hasn't died.
Barbara Ann's Place, Eldridge, AL, 2018
Fear This, Palestine, TX, 2017
Hale County Public Library, Greensboro, AL, 2018
Early Voting, Alexandria, LA, 2019
Juneteenth Volunteer, Ft. Worth, TX, 2018
Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. On June Nineteenth, 1865, Union soldiers landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free . . . two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth was made a federal holiday in 2021.
Cajun J Gotreaux, Baton Rouge, LA, 2015
I first met Cajun J in 2015 . He was the first person to tell me that Trump would be President. I visited with him several times, once with my husband and son. He used to call me from time to time to let me know that he was praying for me. The roadside motel that he lived in housed many Confederate flags, a 911 Prayer Room, and a lot of water containers labeled, “Holy Water”. I have the privilege to meet all types of people when I travel to photograph and Cajun J holds a tender spot in my heart. I believe that I met him when dementia had started appearing in his world. In the last voicemail I have from him in 2017, he evidently thought he had called the Trump Headquarters to congratulate Trump for winning the election. Cajun J passed away in 2019.
Middle of the Road, Lake Village, AR, 2023
Fog and Sugarcane Field, Lottie, LA, 2017
Monument and Civil Rights Mural, Port Gibson, MS, 2018
In 1966, black citizens of Port Gibson, MS and the NAACP organized a boycott of local white owned businesses. The businesses sued and were awarded a settlement in a lawsuit held in Mississippi trial court. The case was taken to the Supreme Court and in a unanimous decision the ruling was overturned, reaffirming the rights of citizens to use free speech, assembly, and association to produce social change. Port Gibson is one of the few places where a Civil Rights mural is adjacent to a Confederate Monument.
The Wall of Firsts, Juneteenth Museum, Ft. Worth, TX, 2018
Sam, Juneteenth Museum, Gallery, and Theater, Ft. Worth, TX, 2018
Sam was so welcoming and happy to show me around his Juneteenth Museum, Gallery, and Theater. He was very proud of his heritage as an African American. I went to visit the Juneteenth Museum, Gallery, and Theater in 2023 only to find it still smoldering from a fire. It was completely burned down. I found out that Sam had passed away in 2022.
From My Cold Dead Hands, Benjamin, TX, 2017
Lone Wolf Taxidermy, Lonoke, AR, 2018
Confederate Bikini, Tumbling Shoals, AR, 2018
Crossing Signs and Jam, Lenoir, NC, 2018
Mike Taylor, VP Confederate Riders of America, Longview, TX, 2017
I found Mike on Facebook. He was protesting the removal of a monument. I was struck by the gentleness of his approach. When I met with him, he made a generous breakfast for me in his home. I found him to be very engaging and I was amused by his sense of humor and nervous laugh. He is the Vice President of The Confederate Riders of America, which is an organization that often delivers food and water to places hit by natural disasters.
This is the mission statement from their website:
To defend our Constitutional Freedoms and our Southern heritage, history, culture and way of life.
We welcome people from all walks of life, backgrounds and color.
We are a non-racist, non hate organization dedicated to defending the freedoms our forefathers envisioned.
Now is the time for all of us to band together as a UNITED people with a common goal.
That goal is to protect our flag, our way of life, our freedoms and our families.
The book in the image is, "The Raving Foe: The Civil War Diary of Major James T. Poe, C.S.A. and the 11th Arkansas Volunteers, and a Complete List of Prisoners”, written by one of Mike's ancestors. Mike told me that the book is always in his truck and since his ancestor never spoke of slavery as a reason for the Civil War, it wasn't a valid argument for the Confederate Flag to be considered a racist symbol. Mike is very attached to his Southern Heritage.
Pedestal of Nathan Bedford Forrest Monument, Memphis, TN, 2018
N.B. Forrest was a Confederate General and the first Grand Dragon of the KKK. The figure was removed in 2017 when Health Sciences Park was sold to Memphis Greenspace, a non-Proft organization. The site is also the burial place of Forrest and his wife, Mary Anne Montgomery Forrest. In 2021, the Sons of Confederate Veterans agreed to house the remains in their National Confederate Museum at the historic Elm Springs estate in Columbia, 200 miles away. Removing monuments can be a complicated situation with no easy answers.
Plantation House, Natchez, MS, 2021
Truth Will Prevail, Electra, TX, 2018
MLK Connection, Juneteenth Museum, Ft. Worth, TX, 2018
I stumbled upon the Juneteenth Museum, Gallery, and Theater in Fort Worth on June 16, 2018. This wall was the pride of Sam, who helped build and manage the museum. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. visited Fort Worth only once during his life, yet his brief stay had an enduring impact its black citizens. In October 1959, Dr. King delivered a speech at the historic Majestic Theater downtown, amid controversy including anger, hostility, and even a bomb threat. Dr. King was denied accommodation at local hotels, leading him to stay overnight at a Southside home with a friend. Several prominent African-American leaders bravely supported him during this remarkable moment in Fort Worth's history. Sam invited me to attend a Juneteenth Blues Music Show that evening. I was welcomed with open arms. Everyone introduced themselves to me and told me they were glad to have me present to celebrate with them.
Mowing Around the Monument, Greensboro, AL, 2018
This monument is located in Hale County, Greensboro, AL. Hale county is known for images made by Walker Evans and William Christenberry, both of which are inspirations to my photographic journey. It is named for Confederate officer Stephen Fowler Hale. Mostly controlled by whites, Hale County has a long history with voter disenfranchisement and Jim Crow Laws. Many African-Americans have to live their lives and perform their jobs around Confederate Monuments.
Covered Monument, Grenada, MS, 2023
There have been more than 718 monuments located throughout the south, with nearly 300 located among Georgia, Virginia, and North Carolina. The Washington Post reports that five Confederate monuments were removed in the aftermath of the Civil War, eight more were taken down in the two years following the Charleston church massacre, 48 were removed in the three years after the Unite the Right rally, and a staggering 110 were removed in the two years following George Floyd's murder.
This covered monument is located in Grenada, MS and has been covered since 2020 when the Grenada City Council voted to remove it. A Mississippi law passed in 2004 prohibits the relocation, removal, disturbance, alteration, renaming, or rededication of any war monument. However, the law allows the governing body to move the memorial to a more suitable location if it's deemed appropriate for displaying the monument. The estimated cost to relocate the statue, unveiled in June 1910 and sponsored by the Daughters of the Confederacy, ranges between $30,000 and $50,000. Moving monuments is an expensive endeavor, but it is necessary to bring racial justice to communities that have long been marginalized.
This particular monument has an interesting history due to its involvement in a storied civil rights march. As the Civil Rights Movement met significant legislative victories, Black Southerners grew more adamant about gaining their rights to vote and also to occupy public spaces that had long been off-limits to them under the shadow of Confederate statues. Registering Black voters, particularly in resistant states like Mississippi, was critically important. James Meredith—both a military veteran and a consummate warrior against white supremacy, having integrated the University of Mississippi a few years earlier—decided to lead a march from Memphis, Tennessee, through the Mississippi Delta. He was shot outside of Hernando, MS, but was not killed. Stokely Carmichael, Floyd McKissick, and Martin Luther King Jr. resumed the march and it became known as the Meredith March. When the Meredith March reached Grenada, Mississippi in mid-June 1966, the true significance of Confederate monuments as symbols of inequality became undeniable. On June 14, 1966, more than 200 marchers, both Black and white, streamed into the small town and proceeded down Grenada’s Main Street. They were joined by several hundred locals, and together they sang songs of freedom. After joining forces, the marchers headed straight for the Confederate monument located predictably in the town square. Grenada's monument, erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1910, depicted a solitary Confederate soldier atop a pedestal that featured a bas-relief of Jefferson Davis on one side. As stunned local white residents watched, Robert Green, representing the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, ascended the monument and placed an American flag above the likeness of Jefferson Davis. He proclaimed, "We're done with the rebel flags. Give me the flag of the United States, the flag of freedom."
Moving the monument to a local cemetery would allow it to remain a historic representative for the entire community instead of a memorial to supremacy culture alone.
Obama T-shirt, Blues Concert at the Juneteenth Museum, Ft. Worth, TX, 2018
Are You Lost, Side of the Road, AL, 2019
Sick and Tired, Eutaw, AL, 2018
Civil War Toys, Chickamauga Battlefield, TN, 2018
They Died and Wore the Gray, Natchez, MS, 2017
So White and Fair, Centreville, AL 2019
Emma Sansom Monument, Gadsden, AL, 2018
In Spring of 1863, Union Colonel Abel Streight burned the bridge across the flooded Black Creek near Gadsden, AL. Sixteen year old Emma Sansom’s home was nearby. Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was pursuing Streight, realized he would not be able to cross the creek. Forrest rode to the Sansom farm and asked Emma if there was another place to cross. With no time to saddle a horse for Emma, she rode behind Forrest to show him the narrowest point of the creek. This monument to Emma Sansom was dedicated in 1907.
Monument Moved to Cemetery, Huntsville, AL, 2021
Homemade Jams and a Lawn Jockey, Lenoir, NC, 2018
Lawn Jockeys have a conflicted history. Attempts to obscure their racial implications have led to many myths concerning their origins. None of the narratives have any historic corroboration. Many perceive them to be racist icons from the past.
Monument and Baptist Church, Opelika, AL, 2021
Paid For By Jesus, Boone, NC, 2018
Willie Hudspeth Protesting at the Courthouse Square, Denton, TX, 2019
Black Lives Matter, Montgomery, AL, 2021
Storm Clouds, Union, Neshoba County, MS, 2018
On June 21, 1964, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, Civil Rights activists, were murdered at the intersection of Rock Cut Road and County Road 284 in Neshoba County, MS. I took this picture at the intersection of Highway 19 and Cut Rock Road, where KKK members forced the activists off the road and drove them to their deaths. Southern landscapes bear the scars of their history.
Jefferson Davis Highway, Sunset Village, GA, 2017
Driving the backroads through the South reveals what I didn't see when I lived there. My struggle with my Southern Heritage is revealing itself.
Portraits of Lee and Jackson, Hamburg, AR, 2018
I stayed with family friends in Arkansas. I hadn't seen them in over 40 years. Jim passed away from cancer not long after my visit. Linda is still the sassy Southern woman I remember from my youth. This is the room I slept in.
Shadow of The Confederacy, Americus, GA, 2017
This Monument to the Confederate Dead was erected in 1901 in Americus, GA. It's an example of post-reconstruction monuments placed by Ladies Memorial Association, and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. It is a reminder of White Supremacy.
Confederate Flag and Taxidermy, Krotz Springs, LA, 2017
Monuments come in all forms. Taxidermy is a monument to power over nature. The Confederate Flag is a monument to power over others. The South is complex. I couldn't see the dark truths hidden in the monuments of the South until I moved away.
General Cleburne with Patriot Front Flyer Cleburne, TX, 2023
As I traveled to document monuments after the pandemic, I started noticing flyers and stickers for an organization called Patriot Front being distributed around them. Of course, it peaked my curiosity and I did some research. Patriot Front has been deemed a hate group by the Anti Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center. I understand that all do not agree with the labels bestowed by human rights organizations. However, I believe these organizations are legitimate and have done the due diligence needed to keep all Americans safe against groups formed to demonstrate supremacy over others. Supremacy culture is a dangerous and reprehensible presence in our country at this moment. It must be prevented from becoming the dominant culture represented by our politics. By visiting Patriot Front's website, I found that the ADL and SPLC have properly identified them as a hate group or at the very best, a supremacy group.
Here is their mission statement: “When our pre-Columbian forefathers left their European homes…they found a common cause and a common identity as Americans. From the varied nations and cultures of Europe a new nation was forged in the fames of conquest.”
“To be an American is to be a descendant of conquerors, pioneers, visionaries, and explorers. This unique identity was given to us by our ancestors, and this national spirit remains firmly rooted in our blood.”
“Our mission is a hard reset on the nation we see today – a return to the traditions and virtues of our forefathers.”
“America needs a generation of brave men to fearlessly rise to face all threats to their collective interests. A generation steeled in their effort to realize their grand vision of a new nation. This gathering of the faithful – the true inheritors of America – will urge our people onward.”
The merging of supremacy culture and the Confederacy is not new, but it is being reborn in a terrifying manner putting at risk all the hard-fought civil rights gains we've made for our most marginalized communities. Can we just make America great for once, and for all citizens, no matter their country of origin? History is pretty clear on this: looking backward has never proven well for any empire's longevity.
Monument Dedication, Cedar Bluff, AL, 2023
On October 14, 2023, my husband and I attended a monument dedication sponsored by the Cherokee Battlefield Preservation Corporation in Cedar Bluff, AL. The dedication was preceded by a battle reenactment depicting Union Colonel Abel Streight's surrender to Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, on May 3, 1863. After going over the pictures I took and remembering the words I heard, the items I saw for sale, and the prayer uttered during these events, I was saddened by my fellow Southerners' desire to cling to the past instead of reconciling their history and moving forward with love and compassion. Since I started this project in 2017, I've been on a journey of unlearning a history I was taught and discovering the veracity of why Confederate monuments have been erected throughout the South. One can say the Civil War was fought over states' rights, but that is an incomplete sentence. It was fought to preserve states' rights to own humans and extract free labor from them to the benefit of those that owned them. Period.
The Mississippi Declaration of Secession sums it up succinctly:
“Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun.”
The current climate of legislators attempting to twist the mistreatment of human beings into tolerable terms such as “involuntary relocation”, and changing history books to say that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit”, only adds insult to injury. These supremacist politicians are detrimental to the future of our society. I understand that some Southerners feel that their history is being erased. It isn't. The history they are clinging to is only half the history. That being said, the monument that was dedicated in Cedar Bluff is on private land paid for by private funds. It is a better solution than erecting monuments in public places as a reminder of white supremacy during post reconstruction and civil rights eras, but it is not positive progress.
Monument with Patriot Front Sticker, Florence, AL, 2021
I first visited this monument in 2018. My maternal grandfather is from the Florence area that is commonly referred to as The Shoals. It's not far from Muscle Shoals, the home of Fame Recording Studio which is responsible for the Muscle Shoals Sound. I have relatives in that part of Alabama, so Florence became a good “home base” for me. Florence is also the place where the song, Look Away, was written by Kate Campbell and Walt Aldridge. Look Away contains the lyric that I used to title this project. The refrain goes:
And it's a long and slow surrender
Retreating from the past
It's important to remember
To fly the flag half-mast
And look away
Kate says of her music, “My songs are a dialog with myself and the community of the South. So those words are important . . . remembering . . . but then surrendering enough to look away and move forward.”
The Confederate monument depicted here with a Patriot Front sticker on the flagpole is entitled “Eternal Vigil”, and is placed squarely in front of the Lauderdale County Court House. An organization called Project Say Something, founded by Camille Goldstone Bennette, has been trying to negotiate with the city and county to either move the monument to a local cemetery or to add context to tell both sides of the story of the civil war. In 2017, Governor Kay Ivey put in place the Alabama Monument Preservation Act, which “prohibits the relocation, removal, alteration, renaming, or other disturbance of any monument located on public property which has been in place for 40 years or more”. If a city or county moves a monument, it will incur a $25,000 fine.
Project Say Something has been pushing for racial justice in telling the story of “Eternal Vigil” since 2014. In 2019, PSS had an artist draw up a plan for a monument depicting Dred Scott and his wife pulling on the chain of slavery to place on courthouse grounds on an opposite corner from the monument. The compromise was shot down by the city council. In response to the Monument Preservation Act, PSS raised the $25,000 fine for moving a monument and paid to have a slab poured in a local cemetery so it would have a resting place. This compromise was also not acceptable. In 2024, PSS developed a marker denouncing the egregious words spoken at the dedication of the monument in 1903. That has also been shot down.
I don't know about you, dear viewer, but I was taught that words matter. They definitely carry weight when spoken aloud, especially in front of others. Words become prayer-like in such a scenario. I understand that the dedication speech was written in a “different era”, but putting up a marker to promote dialog around a historic object is NOT erasing history. It's actually painting a fuller picture of history that pushes us toward reconciliation. Preventing an equitable dialog between the present and the past reflects the lingering influence of supremacy culture from the Post Reconstruction and Jim Crow Eras.
Here is an excerpt from the original dedication speech spoken over “Eternal Vigil” in 1903:
In this our southland flows the purest Anglo-Saxon blood that pulses in any human veins. Isolation, a lack of immigration, fastidious taste and public opinion all have conspired to produce this result. In the Northern states public opinion leans in the opposite direction. Fellow citizens, we are all citizens of the same great country, worshipping the same God, sharing the same bright heritage of honor, loving and following the same bright, starry fag whither so ever it may lead us in that country’s cause. But binding and eternal as our union is and forever shall be, between our countrymen of the North and our countrymen of the South, there is drawn a line which must separate us in our beliefs and sentiments until it shall fade away in the light of truth and experience. Their civilization differs from ours in one essential that creates an impassable barrier. They look upon a Negro as a white man with a colored skin and believe education to be the one thing needful. We of the south know better. No other people know him so well or love him so well, but nowhere here is he accorded social equality. When the highest representative of Northern civilization invites the highest representative of negro civilization to sit at his table as his social equal, he digs a gulf between us too wide and deep for us to go to them or for them to come to us. Into the form of man God breathed the breath of eternal life and he became a living soul, so separate from the manlike forms around them that when the children of Adam, sons of God by virtue of that miraculous inspiration, saw that the daughters of men were fair and married them, he sent a deluge that destroyed the mongrel race. We are the sons of God. Let no second deluge be brought upon the world on our account. United Daughters of the Confederacy, into your fair hands your Creator has placed the power to prevent this degradation. Let no man, be he as learned as Socrates or as rich as Croesus, cross your threshold if he has bartered away this right. To you, fair daughters of the Confederacy, we return our thanks for what you have done and are doing for us and for the South.
I've presented my exploration of Confederate Monuments. It's now up to you decide if this country and all of its citizens are important enough to surrender the lost cause of the past and move forward to promote truth and reconciliation within communities throughout the South.