Protests continue following Lee student’s petition to relocate Confederate monument

Recent protests have rekindled nationwide conversations about systemic injustice and controversial historical symbols, drawing into question the political message of Confederate statues in public places.

Background

Yards from Lee’s campus, two monuments stand in a traffic island between Ocoee, Broad and Eighth streets.

The southernmost pillar is dedicated to three descendants of Cleveland pioneer families who died in an 1887 train accident in Virginia on their way to the World Expo.

The larger monument, dedicated in 1911 by the Jefferson Davis Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), memorializes the men who fought and died in the service of the Confederate Army during the Civil War.

The UDC, an organization dedicated to honoring Confederate ancestors nationwide, states their goal is, “To serve society through civic affairs and to perpetuate National patriotism as our ancestors once defended their beliefs.”

The inscription on the north side of the Confederate monument reads, “To our known and unknown Confederate dead. 1861-1865.”

In 2012, Cleveland City Councilman David May asked Lee University to manage the ground and landscaping of the monument’s plot of land located next to Lee’s campus, a request agreed to by then Lee University president, Dr. Paul Conn.

The Petition

On June 8, junior political science major Kelsey Osborne drafted an online petition to relocate the Confederate monument to a more historically appropriate location, citing the monument is no longer representative of Cleveland’s ideals. She proposed it should be moved to a museum where it can be contextualized rather than celebrated.

Osborne wrote, “Though this symbol is a reminder of our past, it does not represent our future. Because this statue is intended to promote fear and segregation, its removal proclaims that Cleveland is intent on recognizing our past and refusing to honor such abhorrent history. To remove this statue shows that Cleveland welcomes and encourages racial diversity and Christian values of love and acceptance.”

Since its proposal in early June, the petition, claiming over 11,000 signatures, has sparked an online debate and near-daily protests at the base of the monument.

Osborne began receiving backlash and death threats shortly after posting the petition online. However, she believes the removal and relocation of the monument are essential to restoring an accepting atmosphere.

“I want Cleveland not to be racist, and I think that a big part of that is going to be relocating the monument because it is a symbol of idolatry for a lot of people,” Osborne said.

Emancipate Cleveland

As a result of the demonstrations, the grassroots organization “Emancipate Cleveland” was formed with the goal of creating a more equitable city.

The Emancipate Cleveland Facebook page states, “Equity in a community is the quality of fair and impartial treatment and representation for all.”

Lee alumni Franco Crosby, known for his hard-hitting conversations on race and injustice, said he wanted to engage in constructive demonstrations, using the protests to educate and advocate. Crosby proposed the group remain silent while listening to Civil Rights-era music and speeches for part of the demonstration.

According to Crosby, the counter-reaction to the peaceful protests quickly turned cruel, citing the use of racial slurs and threats from counter-protesters as “vicious.”

““The first few days were so vicious that I would go to bed and still see screaming faces.””

— Franco Crosby

“We were peacefully protesting around the monument when [several men] stormed the monument and demanded to know what country I was from, began moving our things around and became very aggressive,” Crosby said. “I told everybody there ‘Don’t be afraid. We aren’t going anywhere.’”

“I’ve seen some of the most vile and racists things,” Crosby added. “The first few days were so vicious that I would go to bed and still see screaming faces.”

According to Lee alumna Gabi R., the demonstrations surrounding the monument have occurred nearly six out of seven days a week for the last three months.

“By being out there, I’m hoping that the monument will be relocated to a place where it serves a more educational purpose rather than solely oppressive,” Gabi said. “There’s a plaque on the sidewalk the monument is on that says it was raised there ‘for the enjoyment of all who pass by/see it’ or something like that. However, it was raised during the Jim Crow era. Because of my skin color and the way the counter-protesters have been responding, I do not feel safe out there by myself anymore.”

In a written statement to the Cleveland Daily Banner, Ralph White, the current president, and Jonathan Porter, immediate past president of 100 Black Men of Bradley County, advocated for the removal of the monument.

“I am an older African-American male who understands first-hand the meaning of the statues and feel it should be moved to a more appropriate place,” White stated. “If we do not learn from our past mistakes, we are destined to repeat them. We feel this is the case with statues that represent division, and they should be recognized as a negative time in our country’s history.”

The Counter-petition

Several counter-protests and a pro-statue petition with around 9,000 signatures were formed as a result. The main argument for leaving the statue cites its historical value.

Brent Swanson, the author of the original counter-petition, wrote, “This is our town. They don’t have the right to come here and tell us what to have and not to have in our community. The Lee students will move on; we will continue to live here. We all grew up with that monument.”

A Facebook page named “SaveOurTown” was created on Aug. 28 to gather support for the monument.

The page reads, “This monument sits on private property and the owner has rights just the same as you have rights on your personal property. However, the mob is pressuring our leaders to overstep their authority and force their demands to relocate /remove this monument.”

Cleveland local and SaveOurTown page admin Loretta Lowe, who attends the counter-demonstrations, said she does not understand why “Black Lives Matter” is protesting private property.

“We’re not gonna allow this. We’re not gonna allow them to come in and change our city and make our city a ruins like they have in Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington,” Lowe said. “‘Black Lives Matter’ has the reputation of rioting and terrorizing cities. That’s not what we want in Cleveland, Tennessee. That’s not who we are.”

“Although I do understand where views toward the Civil War can create sensitive feelings concerning slavery, I am asking for the two to be held separate,” wrote Calina Scott, Cleveland local and author of a counter-petition. “A true historian understands the meaning and history of the Confederacy and understands our people sacrificed their life for our land and its rights.”

In a June 30 response to the demonstrations given to the Cleveland Daily Banner, President of the Jefferson Davis Chapter of the UDC Linda Ballew said, “[an] overwhelming majority of Cleveland residents are rallying around our beloved Cleveland monument.” She said the organization will “never compromise.”

Ballew added, “To the Jefferson Davis Ladies that put so much time and effort into erecting the monument, we as members of the Chapter make you a solemn promise. We will continue to stand tall and strong just as you did during the war. We will never compromise, and we will never let you down!”

Historical Context

Associate Professor of History Dr. Andrew Bledsoe said Cleveland’s Confederate monument commemorates the lives of the Bradley County men who died fighting for the Confederacy and honors the Confederate cause.

“Monuments to the Confederacy, especially those put up in a conspicuous public space, are primarily intended to commemorate and celebrate the memory of the Confederate cause,” Bledsoe said. “In the case of the Cleveland monument, its explicit purpose is to eulogize the men of Bradley County who died while fighting for the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. Implicitly, the monument honors the Confederate cause. It is adorned with Confederate flags, the letters CSA, and a quote from Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America.”

According to Bledsoe, Confederate monuments, such as the one in Cleveland, portray the Confederate effort as just and as a means to sustain states’ rights.

“What monuments fail to do is to teach history,” Bledsoe said. “That simply isn’t their purpose. Monuments have history, but they are not themselves history. What they do is preserve, perpetuate and celebrate a specific memory of the past — in the case of Confederate monuments, something known as the Lost Cause. The Lost Cause version of Civil War history portrays the Confederate effort as just and slavery as a benevolent institution. This narrative emphasizes heroism and sacrifice, insists that the South fought to defend the Constitutional principle of ‘states’ rights’ rather than to preserve slavery and white supremacy, and maintains that secession from the United States was a just course of action.”

Associate Professor of Humanities Dr. Jared Wielfaert attended a protest surrounding the monument and shared in a Facebook post that neutrality was not an option upon arrival.

According to Wielfaert, the demonstration, consisting of Lee students, local clergy and Cleveland natives, was met with the “flag-draped” ridicule of locals defending the placement of the monument.

“The Cleveland monument was installed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy as part of a broader effort to reshape the historical memory of the American Civil War in this country,” Wielfaert wrote. “If you’ve grown up learning that the war was about ‘states’ rights,’ if you’ve heard a family member argue that slave owners treated their slaves well, like ‘part of the family,’ or think that southern states were in the process of gradually transforming their systems of exploitation and could have done so peacefully if only ‘northern aggressors’ had not forced the issue, then your own ideas have been shaped to some extent by the narrative pushed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (among others).”

Wielfaert said the monument constructed by the UDC fails to accurately represent the “complexities of our local history.”

“The statues erected by the UDC are not history. No statue can be. A statue is a symbol, an argument about what is good and worthy of public honor,” Wielfaert wrote. “ … the irrational rage and ungodly attachment to a statue that does not reflect the complexities of our local history was not primarily the initiative of local families and bears no relation to the truth of the cause it claims to represent.”

The UDC denounces any affiliation to hate groups and insists their monuments are not symbols of racist oppression.

“We are saddened that some people find anything connected with the Confederacy to be offensive,” Ballew said. “Our Confederate ancestors were and are Americans.”

City Council involvement

During an Aug. 24 Cleveland City Council meeting, Vice Mayor Avery L. Johnson proposed the council create a task force to address the issues surrounding the monument. The board voted 4-3 to create a task force with members from NAACP, Emancipate Cleveland and the city council.

Emancipate Cleveland responded to the news in a video shared to their Facebook page.

“On Monday, the City of Cleveland recognized the need to listen to the voices of the Black community. We were heard,” the group stated. “They formed a task force that moved the important conversations about the statue and the related racial, social, economic and historical problems that are intertwined with it. This task force is an important opportunity for rational, civil discourse. We are proud to live in a city that is listening.”

Additionally, the group thanked Mayor Kevin Brooks, Vice Mayor Avery Johnson, Councilman Bill Estes, Councilman Tom Cassada and Councilman Ken Webb for the opportunity to “make [Cleveland] a better place for everyone.”

“We are so thankful to the Cleveland City Council for their decision to form a task force to discuss the difficult issues surrounding the Confederate statue,” the group added. “We know that not everyone who is against moving the statue is a racist. Some citizens are against moving it because of the costs involved, concerns about private property rights or even the hypothetical slippery slope of ‘What will be next?’ We do believe, however, that all of us want to stand together against racism in Cleveland.”

In July, Cleveland City Councilman Bill Estes, who is also Dean of the Helen DeVos College of Education, proposed a solution that would move the Grand Army of the Republic Memorial, a tribute to the Union soldiers who fought in the Civil War, from Fort Hill Cemetery to the north side of the Confederate statue on North Ocoee and Broad streets.

Additionally, Estes proposed signage to be added to the monuments, providing appropriate context to the statues.

“This statue is not the problem, but a symbol for deep and complex problems facing our nation and Cleveland,” Estes wrote in a letter posted by the Cleveland Daily Banner. “These problems do not have easy solutions, but they are worth our attention and efforts.”

“What does take courage is to listen to others, see an issue from another perspective and work to solve a problem together,” Estes said. “Simply put, I believe this to be good government and a necessity for Cleveland to flourish. To misquote a local slogan, ‘Man was not born to himself alone, but to his community.’”

According to Crosby, the solution proposed by Estes fails to understand the purpose of the demonstrations, noting that the equivocation of the Confederate struggle to the Union effort is “blasphemous.”

“To equate the Union struggle to the Confederate struggle in any way, to me, is blasphemous,” Crosby said. “The Lost Cause narrative wants to say the South was fighting for a noble cause, but all of the documents are clear. They were fighting to maintain black bodies that look like me.”

Bledsoe said it’s vital for Lee students to engage in this conversation.

“It’s important for Lee students to pay attention to the debate playing out in their city,” Bledsoe said. “There has been considerable heat, particularly on social media, surrounding this controversy, but not nearly as much light. What the monument debate has exposed, unfortunately, is a disconnect between some city residents and the university itself, with pro-removal protesters being cast as ‘outsiders’ and their opinions dismissed outright. I think Lee students, no matter where they stand on this issue, should also have a role in this conversation.”

Crosby encourages the Lee community to speak out against injustice while having uncomfortable conversations about race.

“Until Lee deals with the hard racial questions, we’re just putting a band-aid on stuff,” Crosby said. “We’re going to have to do the work and not just have black voices that make white people feel good. There are going to have to be some uncomfortable conversations in order to garner change.”

This story was updated to correctly attribute Kelsey Osborne.