North Carolina Mayor Bulldozes Veterans Memorial
On Sunday evening Mayor Mondale Robinson of Enfield, North Carolina livestreamed the bulldozing of a Confederate monument in his town. The mayor paid for the monuments removal and its destruction out of his own pocket after town officials voted 4-1 to remove the monument.
Mayor Robinson shared his thoughts about why it was justified during the livestream:
It was a broken history. It was a broken time for our country. Now, the monument in its many pieces looks more like the true history that it represented…
I think everywhere that there are monuments or odes to Confederacy or white supremacy, we should be thinking about how we alter them to reflect true history. That history is more broken than it is solid and standing straight…
I feel like these people elected me to be honest about what its like to be Black in America. That statue laying on its stomach speaks more about that experience than anything else…
I was born to ensure Black people are closer to whole when I die than when I got here. So, I feel like this too is a continuation of why I was put on this earth.
The town—eighty-two percent of which is African American—certainly has every right to make this decision, but neither the mayor or most of the news coverage has told the full story of the history of this particular monument.
The monument was dedicated in 1928 with the assistance of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, but it has been rededicated a number of times since then. On one side a Confederate flag is etched into the marble as well as an inscription honoring the men who fought for the Confederacy.
Later an American flag was etched on the opposite side as well as the following inscription honoring the men who fought and died in WWI:
IN HONOR OF / OF THE WORLD WAR / "COMRADES TRUE, BORN ANEW / PEACE TO YOU / YOUR SOULS SHALL BE WHERE THE HEROES ARE AND YOUR MEMORY SHINE / LIKE THE MORNING STAR." /
Since then, inscriptions have been added to the monument, commemorating World War II, the Korean Conflict, the Vietnam War, and the Persian Gulf War. I assume that not a few of the men who fought and died in these wars are African American.
A video taken on November 11, 2012 shows American flags flying over the monument. I do not know whether similar ceremonies are held to honor Confederates.
What I do know is that every year the Tabernacle Baptist Church each holds a Veterans Day service and afterwards places a wreath in honor of all veterans past and present.
I’ve said before that I have no problem with local communities choosing to remove monuments through their elected leaders. Monuments go up with their approval and ideally they should be removed the same way.
The title of this post is intended to be provocative, but not entirely. It is reasonable to ask whether this is best understood as a Confederate or Veterans Memorial given the extent to which it has been repurposed over the years.
Does the town of Enfield publicly commemorate the service and sacrifice of its citizens elsewhere, where families can go to remember?
Were there no alternatives to dealing with the history of this monument other than a mayor making the decision to have it bulldozed? Why not sand blast the Confederate flag and inscription off the memorial?
These are just a few of the questions I have. It’s complicated.
What do you think?
Can’t they just erect a new monument? One that is designed by an African American would have special appeal, I would think.
I agree that communities have a right to decide their own lawn art. So long as the process of dedication/removal is pursued in accordance with democratic practices, I have no real comment. That said, this is one instance that leaves me a little cold. As you mention, this monument has been repurposed several times since 1918 to include other conflicts. Whether the locals had African-American veterans in mind when they rededicated the monument each time following a United States conflict is impossible to say. However, it complicates this particular moment, and I do wonder if the mayor and citizens recognized that distinction as they reached their decision?