In 2020, we are once again faced with the issue of Confederate monuments and their perpetual message of hate bigotry and white supremacy. Just a little over a weeks ago, the nation witnessed the murder of George Floyd. The murder of Mr. Floyd should have pained our hearts. I take great pause to ask the question, has our hate for one another grown to the point where we now have a blatant disregard for life?
In 2015 The NAACP Branch met with The Talbot County Council members in an open meeting to discuss the relocation of the Confederate Monument known as the Talbot Boys monument that honors citizens who fought for slavery and against the United States of America. After our initial meeting, we attended several public town hall meetings where members of our community; supporters and non-supporters came out and publicly stated their position on the Talbot Boys monument. Those in support believe that the statue is of historical significance, that slavery was not an issue in the civil war and as such it should be maintained with taxpayer dollars. Those of us against the statue remaining on public property agree that it is symbolic of our history and therefore it should be placed in a museum or some other suitable place. The Talbot Boys monument should not be maintained with public funds. The confederacy lost the war and slavery was abolished. Arguably everyone who voluntarily fought for the Confederacy was guilty of treason.
After all these meetings and discussions, the Talbot County Council, decided behind closed doors to continue to maintain the monument. We challenged your method of voting and asked that it to be done in a public forum and you voted no again. I am more than certain that once you unanimously casted your vote of no as it pertains to moving the statue you thought that this issue would dissipate as time passed. However, the right thing to do will always make its way back to the forefront.
Therefore, we the Officers and Members of the Talbot County Branch of the NAACP, reiterate once again our recommendations. They remain the same as they did in 2015 and that is to relocate the Talbot Boys monument from the Courthouse lawn and place it to a more appropriate setting and commission a group of citizens who can reasonably discuss the creation of a new monument that would be inclusive of both the Union and Confederate soldiers of the Civil War. How long are the members of the Talbot County Council going to continue to fight for a “Lost Cause”? and uphold Confederate Monuments in public spaces? “The time is always right to do the right thing”. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Talbot County Branch
Marguerite Dove says
With all due respects, would you please comment on what I see as inaccurate history.
Bigotry “the intolerance of those who hold differ opinions from oneself.” Both north and south didn’t tolerate each other’s Points of view. Furthermore, it is a constitutional right.
I see that as 20/20 hindsight
.
The Civil War was a fight over states rights. It was not a treasonous act as each State had the right to govern themselves provided there wasn’t a federal law (passed by Congress) which would override a state law. There was no law on the books at that point. Nobody could agree so they fought for their right to continue with their way of life. Remember, there was a completely different way of Thinking at that time. (Women were once considered the property of men)
They didn’t see that what there doing is morally reprehensible.
It certainly is no excuse for them doing what they did.
But to look at reasons why allows for a more complete understanding of who we were and how we got here today.
It was the right and moral thing for the south to loose. Thank god they did. It’s a very dark part of our history. The effects have lived on in horrific consequences for black people.
My point:
Too many people ( all stripes and shapes) have little or no education about our history and the principles that govern us. It’s very alarming because it skews informed debate.
It has become politics by rule of furry and a “because I feel it, it’s right thinking”. Just making it up as they go along.
We have let sloppy, uninformed thinking to dominate our conversations.
I am not in favor of removing memorials of any kind. As Golda Meir said “One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.”
I would hope that as our history unfolds it might be a source of pride for black, white people to show their children what they fought for and overcame against enormous odds. When they go and see both the confederate soldier, Frederick Douglass statue and the next icon of this movement, they will have the visual impact of the What was fought for to to win equality and what now prevails as morally right. There will be two to one.History will show the complete picture. We evolve.
Ps
My family were abolitionists. I had the privilege of seeing Martin Luther King, Jr. speak on the Lincoln memorial.
I fought in the first civil rights revolution in the sixties.
I am all on board for rectifying the abuses that have been allowed to go unchecked.
I “take a knee”
John Griep says
The primary cause of the Civil War was slavery, not states’ rights. That errant view of the cause of the war, stemming from the Lost Cause mythology disseminated by Southerners after the war, was taught for many years, but primary sources make it clear and historians generally agree that slavery was the central cause. For additional information, read the Articles of Secession of the seceding states and the Cornerstone Speech by Alexander Stephens, the vice president of the Confederate States of America. For a list of primary sources, go to http://www.historians.org/teaching-and-learning/teaching-resources-for-historians/the-decision-to-secede-and-establish-the-confederacy-a-selection-of-primary-sources.
Meg Dove says
Thanks for your prompting me to research the state’s rights vs. slavery debate. I checked with a family member who teaches history at West Point. He told me that that debate is on going. Probably will always be in contention.
Also my brother who is a military historian concentration in the Civil War. Backed him up.
Kathy Bosin says
This map – there are still 771 Confederate statues in our nation.
In Maryland? Only one left…The Talbot Boys.
Is that who we are? The last community supporting the Confederate Army in our entire state?
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2020/06/mapping-hundreds-confederate-statues-200610103154036.html