This week, our group has been researching the dates that we chose to go on the timeline in more detail. Furthermore, our plan is to have most of these dates up on the spreadsheet for the timeline by Wednesday because we are meeting either Wednesday or Thursday to begin constructing the timeline. I researched the dates between 1910-present. In addition to the events related to Dowling, I researched the Civil Rights Movement further and how it directly relates to Houston/Texas. By doing this, I found three important events for the timeline: the Texas Southern University sit-in, the brutal attack of Felton Turner, and the election of Barbara Jordan to the Texas Senate. I believe these events could help explain the attitude towards Dowling’s memory during the Civil Rights Movement.
The way in which Southerners remember the Confederate cause is directly linked to what they believe caused the Civil War. Horwitz mentions that the Confederate Catechism, used to teach children about the Civil War, lists the causes of the Civil War as “the disregard of those in power for the rights of the Southern states” (Horwitz 37). Furthermore, Tarlton, one of Horwitz’s interviewees, says his ancestors fought the Union because they “felt oppressed by the government” and to preserve “their honor as men” (Horwitz 35). However, Manning notes Southerners believed the “survival –of themselves, their families, and the social order–depended on slavery’s continued existence” (Manning 32). Manning concludes that Confederate soldiers accepted “abolition meant disaster because it would destroy the social order, undermine men’s very identities, and unleash race war on unprotected families” (Manning 80). Thus, Manning provides strong evidence that the primary motivator for Southerners to go to war was the sense “that they must fight to prevent the abolition of slavery” (Manning 138). However, as Horwitz recalls, many Southerners emphasize Southern honor and states’ rights in order to downplay the role of slavery during the Civil War. Thus, to appropriately remember the Confederate cause, Southerners need to accept the role slavery played. However, in order to do this, Southerners must associate their cause with defending a morally evil institution, which, in turn, would disgrace the Confederate heritage and offer a stark contrast with modern society’s disapproval of slavery.
In regard to Horwitz’s question, I believe that King does a great job in answering how white Southerners can honor their Confederate ancestors without insulting black Southerners: “Remember your ancestors, but remember what they fought for too, and recognize it was wrong” (Horwitz 44). Frederick Douglas’s speech for Memorial Day, 1878, reminded me of King’s words, as Douglas said, “there was a right side and a wrong side in the late war, which no sentiment ought to cause us to forget, and while today we should have malice toward none, and charity toward all, it is no part of our duty to confound right with wrong, or loyalty with treason”. With this is mind, I believe the most appropriate way to commemorate the Civil War in the South is to acknowledge that slavery did play an instrumental role in why the Civil War was fought and to acknowledge blacks’ achievements during the war. Furthermore, we must remember the most important outcome of the Civil War: emancipation. I am not opposed to Southerners remembering their ancestors for their bravery and sacrifice; however, this must be remembered in the context of slavery. To ignore the ramifications of slavery would be an erroneous error. However, to criticize Confederates because they sacrificed for a cause they believed in would be a mistake as well. Thus, there exists a fine line for appropriately commemorating the Civil War in the South. Southerners should be able to honor their ancestors for their valor and zeal to sacrifice for a cause they believed in; however, to do this without mentioning slavery or acknowledging that a “right side” existed would be an egregious misrepresentation of history.
To appropriately honor the Confederacy and its heroes, statues should depict a hero like Lee prewar or postwar. In this manner, the statue can still represent a Confederate hero without emphasizing their activity during the Civl War and association with slavery. In the case of Robert E. Lee, Brown acknowledges “many citizens continued to regard Lee as an important historical figure who did not warrant civi repudiation, but his positions on race and slavery had clearly become a liability to his reputation rather than an asset” (Brown 104). Hence, a statue of Lee as President of Lexington College could still honor him without identifying Lee with the defense of slavery.