Monument Avenue

Richmond, Virginia, was the capital of the Confederacy for most of the Civil War. As such, one would expect to find many historical landmarks from that era in the city, such as monuments to prominent Confederate generals and to Jefferson Davis (the president of the Confederacy).

Probably no bigger concentration of Confederate monuments exists in Richmond than on Monument Avenue. According to the National Park Service:

Monument Avenue is the nation’s only grand residential boulevard with monuments of its scale surviving almost unaltered to the present day. The district is nationally significant for its architecture and as an example of city planning. A broad residential tree-lined street extending for some five miles from inner city Richmond westward into Henrico County, the avenue takes its name from the series of monumental statues that mark its major intersections, generally in the center of traffic circles.

“The nation’s only grand residential boulevard with monuments of its scale … nationally significant,” according to the National Park Service.

But now it’s modern times and we must obliterate the remnants of a past that offends us. A “Monument Avenue Commission” appointed last June by the mayor has just recommended to the mayor that the statue of Jefferson Davis be taken down. The removal of the statue of Davis may be the the camel’s nose, so to speak, and other removals may follow. If that turns out to be the case, it would be unfortunate because Monument Avenue is famous for its monuments as much as for its beauty and history.

The remnants of the Old South are being hurriedly cast aside. Elsewhere in Richmond, J.E.B. Stuart Elementary School was recently renamed after Barack Obama. (Stuart was a Confederate general.) That’s okay with me, but it reminds me of a quote from George Orwell’s novel 1984: “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”

Allow me to propose an idea. Instead of obliterating references to our past, why not add new references alongside the old? We could mix Civil War legends with reminders of the pain they sought to preserve. The contrast between the past as some would glorify it and the real past with its human abuses would be powerful, while a street cleaned of monuments would be, after all, just another street. Monuments depicting the suffering of slaves contrasted against bronze effigies of stern men on horseback make a compelling statement. A street laundered of its memories says nothing.