Jimmy Carter Could Soon Replace Confederate Vice-President Alexander Stephens in Statuary Hall
Over the past few years a number of states have removed statues that honor Confederate leaders and segregationists from inside the Capitol Building. The National Statuary Hall was established in 1864 under President Abraham Lincoln, allowing each state to select two statues for display in the Capitol.
Change has been admittedly slow, but there has been some progress.
In June 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to remove Confederate statues from the National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol. However, the bill stalled in the Senate. The bill’s defeat in the Senate was predictable, but in my view any meaningful change needs to emerge directly from the individual states.
For example, on December 21, 2020, a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee representing Virginia was removed to be replaced by a statue of civil rights activist Barbara Rose Johns. Two years later, Florida's statue of Confederate general Edmund Kirby Smith was replaced by a statue of civil rights advocate and educator Mary McLeod Bethune.
These and other replacements reflect changing attitudes toward the Confederacy and a desire that a state’s representation in Statuary Hall more accurately reflect its shared history and values.
Two of the more controversial statues, including Mississippi’s statue of president Jefferson Davis and Georgia’s vice-president Alexander Stephens have largely evaded serious consideration for removal thus far.
An all-white Georgia Assembly selected Stephens to represent it in Washington, D.C. in 1927. The selection of Confederate leaders and segregationists by many southern states during the Jim Crow era reflected restrictions—enforced legally and, at times, through organized violence—over who could vote and exercise the rights of full citizenship.
In 2017, Stephens’ own descendants wrote an open letter to then-Gov. Nathan Deal, urging its removal so that "the descendants of enslaved people no longer walk beneath them at work and on campus." State officials have at one time or another suggested replacing Stephens with a statue honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. and former congressman John Lewis. One Republican recently suggested honoring baseball legend Hank Aaron.
Last week State Sen. Jason Esteves proposed a resolution that, if successful, would organize a committee to work on exchanging the Stephens statue for one honoring Jimmy Carter.
This is a game changer that has a real chance of succeeding.
First, there is no denying Carter’s popularity. He died an elder statesman, who was known and loved all around the world for his many humanitarian efforts, following his one term as President of the United States.
WHEREAS, the late President James Earl Carter Jr. was a distinguished Georgian who1 served as Georgia State Senator and Governor of Georgia; served as President of the United States; co-founded The Carter Center with his wife and equal partner, Rosalynn Carter; received a Nobel Peace Price; championed civil and human rights; and became the longest living United States President at 100 years old[.]
Enough Georgia Republicans should be able to get behind this effort.
As much as I hate to admit it right now, selecting Carter would also avoid the difficult conversation concerning race that King, Lewis, and Aaron would evoke and that could easily alienate most Republicans.
Finally, replacing Stephens might serve to at least temporarily overshadow the continuing stalemate at Stone Mountain—a problem that was created by Republicans, who passed legislation protecting Confederate monuments in 2019. Just this past week the largest Confederate memorial was once again in the news.
A new museum that, for the first time will offer an honest assessment of the history of the monument, including its white supremacist roots, is slated to open soon. The controversy, however, continues to fester.
Of course, anything can happen moving forward, but there is plenty of reason to be hopeful. As I’ve said plenty of times already, it would have been impossible for me to predict many of the changes that we have witnessed throughout this country’s monument landscape just a few years ago. We have witnessed steady progress on this front and despite our current divisive politics we will very likely continue to see progress.
I am going to go out on a limb and predict that within a few years we will see a man, who once clearly articulated the Confederacy’s “cornerstone” of slavery, replaced by a good and decent man.
And isn’t that the type of person who should represent the American people inside the very heart of our democracy?
Yes! Get Stephens out of there!
Great idea!