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Monument Controversy Solutions
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Monument Controversy Solutions
Cities all around the United States are having heated debates about the appropriate
placement of public memorials and monuments. The most prominent of the discussions have
centered on Civil War monuments, most of which are located in the southern states of the United
States. This makes perfect sense when considering that most public memorials honoring the
Confederacy may be found in this area. Nevertheless, the movement for reevaluating monuments
and memorials is in no way restricted to a particular geographic location.
In September of 2017, Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City nominated a Municipal
Consulting Committee on City Craftsmanship, Monuments and Identifiers to evaluate the city's
public monuments to J. Marion Sims who did experiments on enslaved women that got him the
nickname "The Father of Modern Gynecology", Christopher Columbus, and Theodore
Roosevelt, as well as the Canyon of Heroes in Lower Manhattan. This review is intended to
determine whether or not the monuments should be (Buhler 2019). This panel was assigned with
the responsibility of reviewing the public monuments located across the city. The ultimate
proposal made by the commission was to move the statue of Sims while retaining the other
things in the same location as they were before.
In contrast, as a result of the demonstrations that followed the shooting of George Floyd
in May of 2020, several monuments were either taken down, or plans for their demolition were
announced. Monuments honoring the leaders and military of the Confederate States of America,
an unrecognized country that was created by the secession of seven slave-holding states and
existed from 1861 to 1865, were the primary targets of removal during this period (Cooper et al.
2021). In other instances, monuments were taken down in an official capacity by the local
government, such as the removal of the Confederate War Memorial in Dallas, Texas.
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In some of these other instances, protesters were responsible for the destruction of
monuments, such as the Statue of Albert Pike in Washington, District of Columbia. During the
George Floyd protests, the attention widened to include additional statues seen to celebrate
slavery and prejudice (Eisikovits 2020). For instance, several sculptures of Christopher
Columbus were taken down in the United States since his presence on the continent of America
represented the beginning of colonization and the extermination of people who were indigenous
to the area.
The book “Controversial Monuments and Memorial: A Guide for Community” offers the
deepest understanding of these controversies and stakeholders' viewpoints. As racial supremacy,
political quagmires, and aspirations of reconciliation with the past intersect, the book addresses
the complex issues faced by people across the United States and similar areas abroad (Allison
2018). The events in the summer of 2017 that culminated in Charlottesville are an offshoot of
ongoing discussions and debates over contentious history that involve a wide range of historical
contexts and every aspect of U.S. history. This book explores ways to communicate effectively
with people and examines how other nations have attempted to overcome their unpleasant pasts.
In addition, this book features articles and case studies from various museum professionals,
academics, and civic leaders who interpret the past for their guests.
The source that left the greatest impression on me was "Monument Wars: Washington,
D.C., the National Mall, and the Transformation of the Memorial Landscape" by Kirk Savage.
The dramatic transition from the 19th vision of a decentralized landscape to the 20th ideal of
"space," in which power is concentrated in an increased center and the monument is converted
from an object of veneration to an experience space, is essential to this tale (Savage 2011).
Savage's entertaining and astute study tracks the shift from monuments that glorify triumph and
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valor to memorials that memorialize victims. Monument Wars is an indispensable guide to the
National Mall that offers a fresh and intriguing perspective on more than two centuries of
American history.
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Bibliography
Allison, David B. 2018. Controversial Monuments and Memorials: A Guide for Community
Leaders. Google Books. Rowman & Littlefield.
https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=JAFeDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&d
q=controversial+monuments&ots=VzVWC7JEB&sig=QAEPcKxuZUBQO1MrA1ekK4X5zLs.
Buhler, Clinton Jacob. 2019. “Confederate Statuary: The Difficulty of Preserving Contested
Historical Monuments.” IL CAPITALE CULTURALE. Studies on the Value of Cultural
Heritage 0 (19): 557–71. https://doi.org/10.13138/2039-2362/1989.
Cooper, Christopher A., Scott H. Huffmon, H. Gibbs Knotts, and Seth C. McKee. 2021.
“Heritage versus Hate: Assessing Opinions in the Debate over Confederate Monuments
and Memorials.” Social Science Quarterly, April. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12969.
Eisikovits, Nir. 2020. “Not Set in Stone: Five Bad Arguments for Letting Monuments Stand.”
Journal of Global Ethics 16 (3): 404–13.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17449626.2021.1873164.
Keefer, Natalie, and Tori K. Flint. 2022. Mindful Social Studies: Frameworks for Social
Emotional Learning and Critically Engaged Citizens. Google Books. Rowman &
Littlefield.
https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=7tCAEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA87&
dq=controversial+monuments+in+america&ots=NM2FywO6s&sig=iFzazW4sUoCIsjd5FSRIZi5rf4E.
Savage, Kirk. 2011. Monument Wars: Washington, D.C., the National Mall, and the
Transformation of the Memorial Landscape. Google Books. Univ of California Press.
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https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=MbswDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP9&
dq=Monument+Wars:+Washington.