In fact, the marker has only been back up for a little more than two weeks, and someone has already covered the Confederate battle flag twice with black material and duck tape, causing damage to the paintjob.
Mayor Todd Strange said that is tantamount to defacing public property.
The granite marker recognizes the historical importance of the site, but it's the flag marker that "tells the story," Strange said. And while that story may cause discomfort for some, Strange said there are other signs that make him squeamish. For example, Strange said it is the Montgomery Slave Markets sign in Court Square that makes him uneasy.
Even so, just as the Confederate government is a part of Montgomery's past, so are the slave markets in downtown, where humans were auctioned off alongside cattle.
"It's a fact of history. If people are in Montgomery, they want to see things," Strange said Wednesday.
The flag marker is different from a typical historical marker in that it is larger and includes color images. Whereas the front displays six different flag designs and the "great seal" of the Confederacy, the back prominently and singly portrays and pays homage to the Battle Flag of the Confederacy, an image that has spurred controversy for years when displayed publicly.
The sign, which was stored in the interim on the city's lot on North Ripley Street, has returned and is close to its original spot now that city officials have agreed to fulfill a promise that Confederate history advocates say the city made several years ago
The marker and a stone monument recognizing the site's historical significance were removed in 2005 because of the construction of the Renaissance Montgomery Hotel & Spa at the Convention Center, which now has been open for more than three years. They remained in storage, along with several other markers, until the city re-erected them recently in a downtown where revitalization has since firmly taken hold.John Napier, a local historian who was instrumental in the marker's original placement decades ago, said initially the "educational side" of the marker faced Court Square and the side with the Confederate battle flag faced the Alabama River.
But back then, the marker was in plain sight. That end of the block was a parking lot in front of what was then the civic center, and the marker and granite monument sat on a grass area just outside the asphalt.
Today, the granite monument is visibly displayed on the Bibb Street side near Wintzell's Oyster House, where the monument was even clearly factored into the landscaping. The flag marker, however, is tucked away in the shade of a small tree with the back of the marker out of the view of the casual passerby, making it unlikely that this side of the marker will find much of an audience.
But will the brightly colored images, and all that they represent, help or hurt tourism and the momentum that has been steadily building in downtown?
Commemoration or celebration?
When Richard Bailey, a local historian who is black, sees the marker bearing the Confederate flags, he sees more than the recognition of Montgomery's history. He sees a celebration of the city's past, for him a dark past that makes the celebratory tone offensive to those who have been historically oppressed.
As someone who has written the text for historical markers in Montgomery, such as the Montgomery's Slave Markets and First Emancipation Observance marker at Court Square, Bailey questioned the presentation of this marker's information. From his perspective, he said the marker seems to push an agenda.
"Nothing has changed in Montgomery, Alabama, if you are saying you wish for a return to 1861," Bailey said, standing next to the marker.Such a marker has a place at the location, he said, but the city should "de-politicize it" and not have a marker that he believes glorifies the Confederacy.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans presented the sign to the city in 1961 in celebration of the centennial anniversary of the Civil War, but it wasn't publicly displayed until 1979.
George Gayle, who is a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans' Cradle of the Confederacy Camp, noted that the war was 150 years ago and that for the first 100 years after, it was the city's Civil War history that mostly brought tourists into Montgomery. He believes the histories of the Civil War and civil rights can peacefully coexist in Montgomery today.
"The city has made lots of money on tourism and really, we want to keep the Civil War people coming back to Montgomery," Gayle said.
Beyond that, Gayle said he has trouble understanding why the marker would be offensive to anyone. He believes the sensitivity to the battle flag is born out of misunderstanding over what the Confederacy represented.
For one, Gayle argues that the Confederacy was not fighting to protect the practice of owning slaves, noting that the Emancipation Proclamation was not signed until 1863.
"What were they fighting about those first two years," Gayle asked rhetorically.
The marker stands in the general area where a three-story building, which had an open courtyard in the middle, briefly housed the Confederate cabinet offices. Since a large fire destroyed the building in the 1920s and the entire block was made over, the flag marker and granite marker are the only vestiges of the site's past significance.
It is not the granite marker, but the image of the Confederate flag that has incensed one Alabama lawmaker who is waging his own war to have the flag marker removed.
Rep. Alvin Holmes, a black legislator from Montgomery, said he intends to use every public forum available to him to ask Mayor Todd Strange to take the sign back down.
"It's a symbol of hate," Holmes said. "It's a part of their history of owning my fore-parents and having them in slavery and bondage; the part of history that represents black people is slavery; the part of history that represents (white people) as slave owners."Holmes said he plans to relentlessly pursue the issue until the marker disappears.
"The issue's not going to go away as long as that Confederate flag is up there on city property. It's going to hurt the recruiting industry here because when various organizations find out that the blacks of Montgomery, Alabama, are in an uproar over the city putting a Confederate flag on city property, it's going to hurt."
For some, it's the very image of the Confederate battle flag, which has become associated with hate groups, that disturbs them. For others, it's the presentation of the image that unsettles them.
Above the image are mournful, reverent words that make reference to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
"A century has passed -- the flag is furled -- /The sword is sheathed, the bugle stilled, and yet /A people's heart bows to the memory /Of when the man and his great hour met."
As director of the Rosa L. Parks Library and Museum, Georgette Norman represents the other major American movement for which Montgomery has become internationally known. It's not the image of the flag that so much bothered her -- after all, it was an integral part of the Confederacy -- but the words that gave her pause.
Specifically, it's the phrase "A people's heart" that she questioned.
Proud of heritage
But as is often the case with symbols, part of the issue is that the marker carries different meanings for different people. For Gayle, it's about his heritage and the personal sacrifices of his ancestors.
Gayle, who is 84 years old, is a grandson of two Confederate veterans and a member of the Sons of the Confederate Veterans, Cradle of the Confederacy Camp.
He feels just as strongly about the marker being publicly displayed as others feel about it being taken down.
"If you want to forget one part of your history, you might as well forget all of your history. People who believe in their heritage and that of their parents and grandparents and forefathers, you just don't forget it," Gayle said.
Not a new controversy
This is not the first time the flag marker's presence on public property has met opposition in the community. In 2005, City Councilman James Nuckles sponsored a resolution that would have removed "the Confederate flag" from the site. The resolution recommended the First White House of the Confederacy as an alternative location.
The resolution cited several reasons for the move:
The resolution failed with a 2-to-7 vote, with only Nuckles and the late Councilman Willie Cook voting in favor of it. Current council members Jim Spear, C.C. Calhoun, Glen Pruitt and Charles Jinright all voted against it. Martha Roby, who is now a U.S. representative, also voted against the resolution.
Strange said recently that the marker's placement and fate was a City Council issue, but he did form a committee of historians to review the matter. Jinright, who coordinated with the committee, pointed to the council's 2005 vote as the council's official stance on the issue.
When asked if the city was attempting to hide the marker, Strange said the location was selected because it was really the only workable spot. The city also explored the possibility of putting the marker at the First White House of the Confederacy near the Capitol, but that option was ruled out because the marker is site-specific.
Mary Ann Neeley, a local historian who is white, served on the committee that considered the placement of the marker. Although Neeley acknowledged that the decision to return the marker to its general location did not please everyone, she said she thought it was the most appropriate outcome."If you're going to have a historic community, you need to stick as closely as possible to representation," Neeley said.
Neeley said it is her hope that the marker, like others in town, will make people curious about other facets of history and want to explore it in a way that it becomes real for them.
"It's about humanity. It's looking at all aspects of life," Neeley said.
Certainly the Civil War played a large role in Montgomery's history.
Although Montgomery was the capital of the Confederate States of America for only a few short months, the events that took place in that brief window are significant moments in Southern history.
Jefferson Davis was sworn in as president here, resulting in the inaugural ball that was held in a building on Dexter Avenue and his public inaugural address that was delivered on the block where the marker has been re-erected. A parade down Dexter Avenue celebrated the inauguration.
Tourism
Those interested in these signal moments in history, whether it is the Civil War or the civil rights movement, want to know exactly where something happened. So in that way, the flag marker whets the appetite of tourists who want to get as close to history as possible, according to Alabama Tourism Director Lee Sentell.
Civil War history is a major tourism draw for Alabama. Although it is difficult to discern how many people actually visit the state each year because of its Civil War history, Sentell said his agency's Civil War brochure is the second most popular publication. (The most popular is the "100 Dishes to Eat in Alabama Before You Die" brochure.)
"People go to historic sites to help them understand a specific incident in history ... When people visit a location, it helps them to understand or put themselves back in time if they know they are standing where an incident took place," Sentell said.
For example, a memorable spot in Montgomery tends to be where Davis stood when he was sworn in, Sentell said. The spot at the state Capitol is clearly marked with a gold star.But not only is this true for Civil War sites in Montgomery, but it is just as true for civil rights and other sites. As an example, Sentell said people also want to know exactly where Rosa Parks got on the bus and where she was arrested.
"To me, history is more powerful when you feel like you are standing on a place that is hallowed ground to a certain segment of the population," Sentell said. "History happened where it happened."
History should be remembered
Anne Tidmore, who is a regent for the First White House of the Confederacy, says that is what the flag marker is about -- remembering and preserving history.
"We don't celebrate 620,000 people getting killed. But we do commemorate it. History is history. You don't sweep it under the rug," Tidmore said. "It's just a very unfortunate part of our history, but the good part is we did come back together as a nation in the end. That doesn't always happen."
Napier noted that there are other places and museums in Montgomery that conjure up events that are unpleasant and that no one is celebrating. Specifically, he referenced the Freedom Riders Museum that recently opened showcasing an event in history where an angry white mob ruthlessly beat an interracial group of people who were testing a desegregation order for buses.
"People are always going to take offense at something. Some of them make a practice of it," Napier said. "There are markers here and elsewhere that I don't particularly like, but I accept the right of them to go up on public property. I don't believe that you rewrite history. You take it as it is -- the good, the bad and the ugly."
No comments:
Post a Comment