Last week Virginia governor Abigail Spanberger signed legislation ending the practice of issuing specialty license plates for the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
I believe the woman at upper left is Mildred Lewis Rutherford (1851-1928), who did as much or more than anyone to build the Lost Cause as a cornerstone of young peoples' education.
I am frankly torn a bit by this one. As you point out, the UDC is very apolitical now, unlike the SCV (and also unlike their own past). My interactions with them---using their genealogical data to help with my family tree---have been pleasant and free of anything objectionable. And I have a good friend who is a member and is still very active. That said, they still sponsor the "Children of the Confederacy," which involves a "catechism" that is right out of the Lost Cause.
CHILDREN??!? James, thanks for that: it's like when I used to explore old cemeteries. Sometimes I'd stumble over a once well-tended grave marker, like a bony hand grabbed my foot from below.
This Ghosts of the CSA conspiracy had deep and vast ambitions of vengeance, even if the UDC waited to start its version in 1912.
The roots of "Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty" apparently go deeper than Thomas Jefferson, but we see that the seeds of racism are potent after the Charlottesville Tiki Torchers, ICE flouting basic human rights, and The (literally) Degenerate leading all of that! Go Stanberger!
Radical Republicans (the Originals) are looking wiser, their white-hot anger pushing Lincoln and Johnson to deliver Civil Rights. Would a Terrible Swift Sword have burned Justice into Reconstruction better than "Let 'em up easy"? Perhaps we can find a suitable grassy plot for a monument for the Children of the Wade-Davis Bill? I have read that a number of racist and implicitly insurrectionist monuments are vacating their plinths.
The fire in 2000 was terrible, because their archives and artifacts collection was significant. The Lost Cause was already rapidly waning, but the materials lost would have benefitted researchers for generations.
Indeed. I know two young men (sons of a good friend) who went through the CofC, and came out OK as young adults, but I do wonder how many did not. I will confess that my ambivalence here is driven very hard by my personal experiences and the fact that I have a dear friend who is a devoted member. That said, the $$ figures you showed suggest that this should not be a fatal hit. A hit, yes, but one they ought to be able to afford. I would like to see the UDC transition from the kind of advocacy that they were doing 130 years or so ago, to an organization devoted to genealogy and simple (honest) remembrance. Question: Does the UDC qualify as a Federal tax-exempt organization (like my CWRT does)? My understanding is that those rules are *very* lax, so they ought to still qualify.
I was on the Board of Historic Resources when we approved the building's entry into the Virginia Landmarks Register. The building deserves the listing but, while I did speak up to have the whole Lost Cause, Jefferson Davis Highway, narrative emphasized in the nomination, in retrospect I should have been even more insistent.
On another note, I was having a drink in the bar of the Jefferson Hotel when I discovered that the UDC was having its annual reception in the hotel ballroom. I was near the photography station and enjoyed seeing the utterly ridiculous dresses worn by the matrons. Hoop skirts. Bustles. One woman, yes, dressed in drapery. I peeked into the ballroom and saw then Governor George Allen sitting on the dais, surrounded by UDC hierarchy. Allen's Republican -- of course -- male head bobbed along in a sea of chiffon.
I tried to buy the photographer's proof sheet, but he wouldn't bite.
Day job had me fussing over RevWar tricorn hats yesterday so my eye was immediately drawn to that Daughter on the upper right who is wearing one. What?
The Confederates believed they were the inheritors of the Revolution; perhaps the woman felt the tricorn was a statement of that belief. Correct me if I am mistaken.
Interestingly, I saw a billboard in Hanover (Virginia, north of Richmond) on Route 1 celebrating that "April is Confederate History and Heritage" month, with the phone (800) MY-DIXIE to call for more information. I was on a motorcycle and couldnt get a pic, but I think Stonewall's picture was prominent there. Clinging on.
Actually, not happy about ending the UDC's tax status. I'm no fan of the Daughters, but going after nonprofits we don't agree with is a game that others can play as well.
I see what you mean, but my view is, let's risk it. As in past years when this came up, I'll also say that I hope that the political surgery has been done carefully enough not to injure the tax status of the American Civil War Museum in Richmond. Residual technicalities from that worthy institution's antecedents were thought, at one time anyway, possibly to endanger its tax status.
In spring 2019, as Virginia prepared for the August quadricentennial of 1619, somebody belatedly realized that this grotesque arch that the UDC had perped in the late 1950s, during Massive Resistance, was now about to embarrass Virginia and the country when visitors arrived for the celebration. A scramble erupted, and the arch was removed in time.
The fiasco was a comical underlining of Virginia's general irresponsibility concerning Fort Monroe as belonging to Hampton, for commercialization, versus Point Comfort and Fort Monroe as belonging to America and the world, for commemoration of emancipation and self-emancipation in the first nation to try to found itself on principles of human dignity.
Has Virginia learned anything in the two decades since the Army announced its 2011 departure? We are about to find out this year, as a big new push is on to redefine Fort Monroe and Point Comfort now that the Army post has been retired for nearly two decades. If you care about national memory, there'll be lots to watch.
Possibly relevant addendum: The closest analogue to Fort Monroe is the Presidio in San Francisco. It's a former showpiece Army post, now a hybrid national park. The president, the perp of various attacks on national parks, the other day fired the whole Presidio board of trustees. As someone who remembers the close call we avoided in recent years--the condo-ization of Point Comfort--I'm paying close attention. There won't be condos, probably, but there are lots of ways that people indifferent or hostile to American memory could cause trouble.
I believe the woman at upper left is Mildred Lewis Rutherford (1851-1928), who did as much or more than anyone to build the Lost Cause as a cornerstone of young peoples' education.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mildred_Lewis_Rutherford
I am frankly torn a bit by this one. As you point out, the UDC is very apolitical now, unlike the SCV (and also unlike their own past). My interactions with them---using their genealogical data to help with my family tree---have been pleasant and free of anything objectionable. And I have a good friend who is a member and is still very active. That said, they still sponsor the "Children of the Confederacy," which involves a "catechism" that is right out of the Lost Cause.
CHILDREN??!? James, thanks for that: it's like when I used to explore old cemeteries. Sometimes I'd stumble over a once well-tended grave marker, like a bony hand grabbed my foot from below.
This Ghosts of the CSA conspiracy had deep and vast ambitions of vengeance, even if the UDC waited to start its version in 1912.
The roots of "Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty" apparently go deeper than Thomas Jefferson, but we see that the seeds of racism are potent after the Charlottesville Tiki Torchers, ICE flouting basic human rights, and The (literally) Degenerate leading all of that! Go Stanberger!
Radical Republicans (the Originals) are looking wiser, their white-hot anger pushing Lincoln and Johnson to deliver Civil Rights. Would a Terrible Swift Sword have burned Justice into Reconstruction better than "Let 'em up easy"? Perhaps we can find a suitable grassy plot for a monument for the Children of the Wade-Davis Bill? I have read that a number of racist and implicitly insurrectionist monuments are vacating their plinths.
The fire in 2000 was terrible, because their archives and artifacts collection was significant. The Lost Cause was already rapidly waning, but the materials lost would have benefitted researchers for generations.
You said: "That said, they still sponsor the 'Children of the Confederacy,' which involves a "catechism" that is right out of the Lost Cause."
There is your answer, Jim, though I see your larger point.
Indeed. I know two young men (sons of a good friend) who went through the CofC, and came out OK as young adults, but I do wonder how many did not. I will confess that my ambivalence here is driven very hard by my personal experiences and the fact that I have a dear friend who is a devoted member. That said, the $$ figures you showed suggest that this should not be a fatal hit. A hit, yes, but one they ought to be able to afford. I would like to see the UDC transition from the kind of advocacy that they were doing 130 years or so ago, to an organization devoted to genealogy and simple (honest) remembrance. Question: Does the UDC qualify as a Federal tax-exempt organization (like my CWRT does)? My understanding is that those rules are *very* lax, so they ought to still qualify.
I'll figure this out, eventually.
the good news just keeps coming on the Lost Cause front.
I was on the Board of Historic Resources when we approved the building's entry into the Virginia Landmarks Register. The building deserves the listing but, while I did speak up to have the whole Lost Cause, Jefferson Davis Highway, narrative emphasized in the nomination, in retrospect I should have been even more insistent.
On another note, I was having a drink in the bar of the Jefferson Hotel when I discovered that the UDC was having its annual reception in the hotel ballroom. I was near the photography station and enjoyed seeing the utterly ridiculous dresses worn by the matrons. Hoop skirts. Bustles. One woman, yes, dressed in drapery. I peeked into the ballroom and saw then Governor George Allen sitting on the dais, surrounded by UDC hierarchy. Allen's Republican -- of course -- male head bobbed along in a sea of chiffon.
I tried to buy the photographer's proof sheet, but he wouldn't bite.
Day job had me fussing over RevWar tricorn hats yesterday so my eye was immediately drawn to that Daughter on the upper right who is wearing one. What?
The Confederates believed they were the inheritors of the Revolution; perhaps the woman felt the tricorn was a statement of that belief. Correct me if I am mistaken.
Interestingly, I saw a billboard in Hanover (Virginia, north of Richmond) on Route 1 celebrating that "April is Confederate History and Heritage" month, with the phone (800) MY-DIXIE to call for more information. I was on a motorcycle and couldnt get a pic, but I think Stonewall's picture was prominent there. Clinging on.
Actually, not happy about ending the UDC's tax status. I'm no fan of the Daughters, but going after nonprofits we don't agree with is a game that others can play as well.
I see what you mean, but my view is, let's risk it. As in past years when this came up, I'll also say that I hope that the political surgery has been done carefully enough not to injure the tax status of the American Civil War Museum in Richmond. Residual technicalities from that worthy institution's antecedents were thought, at one time anyway, possibly to endanger its tax status.
ALSO: UDC-perped offenses have included this arch that's up the slope to a rampart of the moated stone fortress within the retired Army post at Fort Monroe: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jefferson_Davis_Memorial_Park,_Fort_Monroe_-_Stierch.jpg#/media/File:Jefferson_Davis_Memorial_Park,_Fort_Monroe_-_Stierch.jpg. If you walk up that slope, you come to a point where you can look down, across the moat, to the site of the new African Landing Memorial, recalling 1619 in view of the Atlantic ocean and the way to Africa.
In spring 2019, as Virginia prepared for the August quadricentennial of 1619, somebody belatedly realized that this grotesque arch that the UDC had perped in the late 1950s, during Massive Resistance, was now about to embarrass Virginia and the country when visitors arrived for the celebration. A scramble erupted, and the arch was removed in time.
The fiasco was a comical underlining of Virginia's general irresponsibility concerning Fort Monroe as belonging to Hampton, for commercialization, versus Point Comfort and Fort Monroe as belonging to America and the world, for commemoration of emancipation and self-emancipation in the first nation to try to found itself on principles of human dignity.
Has Virginia learned anything in the two decades since the Army announced its 2011 departure? We are about to find out this year, as a big new push is on to redefine Fort Monroe and Point Comfort now that the Army post has been retired for nearly two decades. If you care about national memory, there'll be lots to watch.
Possibly relevant addendum: The closest analogue to Fort Monroe is the Presidio in San Francisco. It's a former showpiece Army post, now a hybrid national park. The president, the perp of various attacks on national parks, the other day fired the whole Presidio board of trustees. As someone who remembers the close call we avoided in recent years--the condo-ization of Point Comfort--I'm paying close attention. There won't be condos, probably, but there are lots of ways that people indifferent or hostile to American memory could cause trouble.
Wow.