Myth of the Monument

A false history trying to be remembered

In 2015 Dylan Roof entered a primarily African American church with the intent of killing the people inside. He shot 77 times killing 9 people. After the shooting the media reported on his social media account. There were many images of him posing with confederate flags and items of similar imagery. Ultimately this sparked discussion about the more than 1,500 monuments and public spaces named and dedicated to Confederates.

Some try to justify their existence by saying that the statues are history or represent Southern Pride. There are groups out there such as the Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of the Confederacy that are dedicated to push a different narrative with claims that the secession of the South was due to numerous other factors in order to downplay the slavery as a reason that the South left, fought and lost against the United States.

This project exists to reject this false narrative and to show why these monuments are not history. They exist to create a false history, a false narrative about the events of the Civil War and even events in modern day.

This project is mostly looking at the Confederate flag and Confederate monuments and what history and symbolism is actually behind them.



Flags of the Confederacy Continuing nostalgia for the Confederacy in the modern era

The Confederates lost the war in 1865. As of writing this that is about 152 years ago. For 152 years people have been holding onto a symbol that stood for a group that left the United States because they wanted to own people. Most people are familiar with this particular flag.





This is one of the flags from the confederacy. There were several. This particular one is the battle flag. A battle flag that was mostly well known due to being used by Robert E. Lee, a Confederate general who distanced himself from it once the south lost.

So what were the other flags?


"Stars and Bars" (1861–1863)

The Stars and Bars was the first flag on the Confederacy. It was flag adopted, in part, due to people on the committee not wanting to drift too far away from the United States flag. The flag of the country they seceded from. It was also later changed because it was too close to the United States’ flag.

"Stainless Banner" (1863–1865)

The “Stainless Banner” was the Confederacy’s second attempt at creating a flag. This particular one had a fundamental flaw in it’s design. If no wind was blowing it looked like they were surrendering as it just looked like a white flag. An article by William Tappan Thompson wrote, "As a people we are fighting to maintain the Heaven-ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race; a white flag would thus be emblematical of our cause."

"Blood-Stained Banner" (1865)

This flag was made with the intent of stopping the complaints the second flag created. Adding the red stripe at the end was so it hopefully wouldn’t be mistaken for a flag of truce. This flag was adopted about two months before the end of the Civil War.

So if these were the actual flags of the Confederacy, then why is one of the Confederate battle flags seeing the most use?


Well that goes back to 1948. 69 years ago. 83 years after the Civil War ended. A political party known as the State’s Rights Democratic Party, or the Dixiecrats, began using it. The party’s name contains a current piece of rhetoric on the secession of the South that it was state’s rights. But the Dixiecrats weren’t subtle with their racism. This was a group that wanted to protect state’s rights. Specifically states rights to legislate racial segregation. The Dixiecrats were very much against racial integration and the removal of Jim Crow Laws. The party didn’t last long. It made a run at winning the 1948 presidential election and lost. Had it not been for Executive order 9981, an order forcing the military to integrate, this state’s rights group may not have really been noticed.
But that limelight was enough. One of the symbols they used for their campaign, the confederate battle flag was back to being used after a long period of being forgotten. It became a symbol to rally around for those who shared the same ideology. The ideology that whites were superior.
The use of the flag as a symbol of those against basic rights for African Americans has shown up time and time again.

Mississippi State Flag (1865

The Mississippi flag is currently the only flag in the United States that has the Confederate battle flag’s saltire. Mississippi used this flag since 1894, 29 years after the Civil War ended, but technically used it unofficially as it had been omitted from the state’s legal code until 1993. In 2000 Governor Ronnie Musgrove issued an executive order making it the state’s official flag. Another flag design was proposed, in the style of the “Stars and Bars” flag, but voters chose to keep the 1894 flag.

Georgia State Flag (1956-2001)

This flag was created two years after the Brown v. Board of Education court that ruled that schools needed to desegregate. This flag’s design was suggested by John Sammons Bell, an outspoken supporter of segregation. The flag’s redesign was suggested during the same time there were bills trying to be passed that would stop cities from desegregating public spaces.



Where are the monuments? When monuments exist beyond relevant boundaries are they still historical?

These monuments represent a false history of our country. These monuments don’t record history. The Robert E. Lee elementary school doesn’t tell a tale of the past. The nameless soldier monument doesn’t contain the past of the South. We have places that do that. We have museums that collect information and artifacts from the war. They tell the unabridged history, regardless of how hard it is for some to hear. These kinds of things:






Eras of Monument Growth

This map helps us visualize areas of growth, rather than the actual amount of growth. We can see several areas were most of the states experienced a rather large increase in monuments. The two biggest ones that stand out are at the beginning of the Jim Crow era and the Civil Rights era.

How Many Monuments?

31 out of 50 states have at least one confederate monument. Many southern states have dozens of monuments. But there are also many states without any real connection to the confederates that have confederate monuments in them. 31 states have Confederate monuments in them as of the creation of this site. 62% of all States have confederate monuments and more are still being added. Virginia has 119 Confederate monuments. Were all of them created to preserve history? Are 119 of them needed in one state to preserve that history?

Timeline How monuments correspond to race relations

To say that the United States has a complicated history with race would be an extreme understatement. We have had continuing issues with racism that has extended much longer than it has right too. Not that it ever had a right too. To get a good idea on these monuments and why they don’t fall into place with the ”it’s history” rhetoric it is a good idea to see when these monuments are being made and how many are being made.

A walk through history

We see time and time again throughout history attempts to set back progress for the African American community. Whenever African Americans began making new strides in getting basic human rights these monuments would suddenly increase.
The United States declared it’s independence 241 years ago. It’s been around 49 years since we began giving African Americans basic human rights. There are people alive today who lived through a time when these rights didn’t exist.



Erasing a False Narrative Why removing these monuments won't erase history

These monuments represent a false history of our country. These monuments don’t record history. The Robert E. Lee elementary school doesn’t tell a tale of the past. The nameless soldier monument doesn’t contain the past of the South. We have places that do that. We have museums that collect information and artifacts from the war. They tell the unabridged history, regardless of how hard it is for some to hear. These kinds of things:


They aren’t history. This is something easily fact checked and shown incorrect. This is not something that should be in public under the guise of history. Because it isn’t history. It is erasing history. The defense of the confederate monuments and confederate battle flag just show a lack of actual historical knowledge. We can see surges of monuments being created whenever African Americans began getting more rights. The Confederate battle flag went unused for years until it was revived by a political party whose major speaking piece was that segregation was good.

The people creating these statues are trying to push the “Lost Cause” myth. The idea that this war was an honorable struggle for the Southern way of life. In a very, very narrow way it is a bit true. A major reason states left the United States was due to slavery. But these groups want to minimize slavery. They want to ignore it and instead memorialize those who fought against the United States because they wanted to own people. There are hundreds of these monuments across the United States in states that have no business ever having one. The barebones argument that they are historical no longer holds up once they enter arear that are not the south. These participation trophies don't deserve to decorate the public spaces that everyone gets to use.

These monuments embody the myth of the Lost Cause. This narrative is dangerous for many reasons, but there is one reason above them all that makes it dangerous. They are blatant lies. They cannot be history because they tell lies. At best the statues have historical value on their own, not from what they are supposed to represent.

Above all it cannot be stressed enough. Destroying these monuments will not erase history. We are history. We have extensive documents about the war and the various causes. We have hundreds of books about the Civil War. One book alone tells more than every single Confederate monument that exists. It is an actual guardian of information. These monuments are not.

If you’re worried about history being erased read a book about the war or visit a museum to become another person who this information lives on through.