Robert E. Lee Monument arrives in Richmond
This photo, taken May 7, 1890, shows crowds of people on Broad Street near Belvidere, where two of the crates containing parts of the Gen. Robert E. Lee monument were being hauled to the site after arriving from Europe. The photo was published in the book, "Richmond's Monument Avenue," and its caption reads: "Reports estimated that between 10,000 and 20,000 Richmonders took turns hauling the Lee Monument to its site." (Photo courtesy: The Library of Virginia)
The political backlash against the state-sanctioned display of the Confederate flag after the killing of nine people during Bible study at Emanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17 is rippling along Richmond’s Monument Avenue. Over the last two days, Confederate flag wavers have begun to congregate at or near the monuments to Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. Counter-protestors have been quick to respond, and last night, protestor(s) wrote “Black Lives Matter” at the base of the Davis monument. In the meantime, the Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality are calling on Richmond 2015, the organization planning the Sept. 19-27 UCI Road World Championships in Richmond, to change the race route, “which highlights Monument Avenue, a virtual shrine to the Confederacy.”
Robert E. Lee Monument
The bronzed monument in the likeness of Confederate general, Robert E. Lee. (Photo by: Harry Kollatz, Jr.)
The debate made us go back to the history books for a contemporaneous reaction to the erection of the monuments. Richmond’s Monument Avenue, published in 2001 by the Historic Monument Avenue and Fan District Association, describes the debate around the Robert E. Lee Monument on Allen Avenue and Broad Street. The body of the statue arrived in four crates from Europe, the authors write, and a reported 10,000 to 20,000 people took turns dragging the wagons holding the crates from the James River to the site on May 7, 1890. “The ropes that were used to pull the Lee Monument were cut into pieces, tied with ribbons, and handed out as souvenirs. Families saved scraps and passed them on for generations.” The statue was erected with black labor.
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Unvieling of the Lee Monument, 1890
A crowd of over 100,000 gathered in Richmond on May 29, 1890 to view the unveiling of the Gen. Robert E. Lee Monument. (Photo courtesy: Cook Collection, The Valentine)
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Thousands watch the Lee Monument unveiling, May 29, 1890. (Photo courtesy: Cook Collection, The Valentine)
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Base of the Lee Monument, 1890
Lee Monument with covered statue next to base. (Photo courtesy: Cook Collection, The Valentine)
The following are excerpts from the book’s passages on the Lee Monument:
“Richmond’s city council had several black members and they refused to vote funds for either the 1887 cornerstone ceremony or to support a city appropriation for the 1890 dedication of the monument. One of the black council members, John Mitchell, the editor of the Richmond Planet, observed: ‘The men who talk most about the valor of Lee and the blood the brave Confederate dead are those who never smelt powder or engaged in battle. Most of them were at a table, either on top or under it when then war was going on.’ ‘The capital of the late Confederacy has been decorated with emblems of the ‘Lost Cause,’ he editorialized, and the placement of the Lee statue handed down a ‘legacy of treason and blood’ to future generations. In another editorial Mitchell noted, “He [the African American] put up the Lee Monument, and should the time come, will be there to take it down.’”
“The dedication of the Lee monument took place on May 29, 1890, in a celebration witnessed by an audience estimated at between 100,000 and 150,000.”
Col. Archer Anderson, a prominent businessman and member of the Lee Monument Association, “dedicated the Lee Monument not as a memory to the Confederacy, but as a testament to ‘personal honor,’ ‘patriotic hope and cheer,’ and an ‘ideal leader.’ ”
“From the North came a few expressions of outrage that a statue of Lee could be erected. A Philadelphia newspaper compared Lee to Benedict Arnold, while the New York Mail and Express proposed a congressional law that would ban monuments to Confederates, as well as the display of the ‘stars and bars.’ But Northern sentiment was divided, and not everyone saw the erection of the monument as a rebellious act. Lee was brave and honorable, as the New York Times editorialized, ‘his memory, is, therefore, a possession of the American people.’ ”
One hundred twenty-five years later, the debate still endures.
