The history of bygone days can sometimes divide a whole nation, bring to life the ghosts of past wars. The planned demolition of the monument to General Lee, who was one of the commanders during the Civil War in the United States, caused a series of mass protests and demonstrations in the provincial town of Charlottesville, in the state of Virginia. It is rather difficult to understand the reasons for such grandiose clashes over the centuries-old monuments. Why demolish the monument to General Lee - a question that has deep roots.
Historical reference
In 1861, the U.S. Civil War broke out between the industrial North and the agricultural slave South. Despite the presence of more talented commanders, among whom General Robert Lee stood out, the patriarchal and conservative southerners lost the Yankees because of the technical superiority of the latter, and also thanks to their slogan to free the black population from slavery, which replenished the ranks of northerners with a mass of soldiers.
In fact, initially the North did not set as its goal the liberation of slaves - the war began after the southern states formed their own confederation, deciding to secede from the Yankees.
The civil war, caused by economic reasons, dragged on for a long time, the southerners acted unsuccessfully, which caused the need for help from the disenfranchised black population. The war ended with the capitulation of the leaders of the Confederation and the abolition of the slave system in the United States.
The conquered and the winners
It should be borne in mind that in the middle of the 19th century both southerners and northerners did not differ diametrically opposed to African Americans, sharing racist prejudices about the superiority of the white race.
Many of the supporters of the abolition of slavery did not consider the successful coexistence of two different races possible and offered to return a huge army of former slaves to their historical homeland, as a result of which the state of Liberia was created in Africa.
Monuments to Broken Heroes
General Robert Lee himself was considered one of the best generals and was equally respected by both the conquered and the victors. The latter added to the asset that he did not prolong the meaningless massacre and capitulated to General Grant in time, recognizing the defeat of the Confederation.
Southerners resigned to defeat, but continued to identify with the leaders of the Confederation. In subsequent years, civil war monuments began to appear on the territory of Louisiana, Virginia, Florida and other southern states, among which the most common was the monument to Confederate General Robert Lee.
Exacerbation of an old disease
Towards the end of the 19th century, the course towards mutual reconciliation and national unification of supporters of the South and the North became popular in Washington. After all, then both of them were supporters of the segregation of African-Americans, especially not differing in their views. In 1898, President McKinley held a ceremonial meeting with Confederate army veterans, where national reconciliation was announced, which was not superfluous during the war with Spain.
However, the struggle for white and black equality continued in the United States in the twentieth century, causing serious opposition from the most reactionary and racist circles in the South. As a result, it all ended with the dismantling of the principles of segregation and legislative inequality between the black and white population of the country.
Accordingly, by the end of the twentieth century the question arose of the admissibility of idealizing the supporters of the slave system in the south of the country, which positions itself as a model of democracy. The aggressive raids of racists began to add fuel to the fire. In 2014, a certain Dylan Ruf staged a massacre in an African American church in South Carolina, shooting nine people. The arrow was executed, but this was not the end of the matter.
Fighting flags
The Dylan Roof act provoked a response from civil society, a company was launched across the southern states against the symbols of the Confederation. There were quite a few of them, because on the flags of some southern states there were elements of the Confederate banners. This caused a violent reaction among the Rednecks, the conservative-minded inhabitants of the South.
Among them were both racists and simply regional patriots who did not want to forget their own self-identification. The slogans of the latter were calls for the inadmissibility of rewriting history and the violent eradication of former symbols. Numerous monuments to General Lee in the United States and other heroes of the Confederation became the following objects of epic confrontation. The degree of inadequacy of particularly irreconcilable activists on both sides began to roll incredibly.
Process start
The first demolition of the monument to General Lee took place in 2017 in Louisiana. It all started with the initiative of the mayor of New Orleans, who proposed demolishing monuments to the personalities of the Civil War, among which were the monuments to Generals Boregar and Lee, the President of the Confederation Jefferson Davis, and the Liberty Place memorial dedicated to the rebellion of undeveloped racists against the federal government.
In 2015, the City Council approved the proposal, and the notorious epic of the fight against the ghosts of bygone days began. In April 2017, the Liberty Place monument was dismantled, after which it was the turn to demolish the first monument to General Lee in the United States and other generals. New Orleans became a pioneer of the movement, which unfolded throughout the southern states. The eradication of the monuments continued in Florida, Missouri.
Charlottesville
The upcoming dismantling of the monument to General Lee provoked a particularly violent reaction in the small town of Charlottesville, in Virginia. On the night of May 14, supporters of the conservation of the monument held a torchlight procession, which provoked a response from opponents. The next day, a real battle broke out in the city between nationalists and supporters of the demolition of the monument to General Lee, which required emergency police intervention.
Later, a car drove out to the central square, where a crowd of people gathered, deliberately handing over several demonstrators, as a result of which one person died and another 19 were injured. Then a police helicopter crashed, the victims of which were two people.
The US president reacted distantly to what was happening, not taking either side, and only urged the protesters to go home. This caused a sharp condemnation of the liberals, who accused him of the hidden support of the racists.
You can talk a lot about the admissibility of the demolition of monuments, among which the monument to General Lee stood out, but the following should be taken into account. The decision to dismantle was not imposed on the local authorities from above - the final verdict was adopted in each case by city councils, elected by citizens in a democratic manner, that is, they expressed the opinion of the majority of people in one or another locality. In other words, the opinion that someone forcibly imposed his will on the citizens of New Orleans and Charlottesville is incorrect. Demolition of the monument to General Lee is the decision of the people themselves.