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Thursday, August 17, 2017

When were those Confederate Memorials errected, anyway?

From Southern Poverty Law center: Principal time period was NO WHERE NEAR the immediate conclusion of the war. It was instead a time (1898-1936, with a peak from 1905-14) when white supremacy, Jim Crow, lynching and scientific theories of racial superiority were the order of the day, expecially in the South.

A second peak, not accidentally, is found during the time of "massive resistance" to Brown v. Board and the civil rights movement of the late 1950-s and early 1960s.

This data would seem to indicate that the motives were not pure, but rather done in efforts to reinforce and reinscribe the Lost Cause mythology and the power and privilege of the white establishment.

Compare this to the timing of memorials to those who served and died in wars like the American Revolution, the two World Wars, etc.

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