Facing Not Erasing: Confederate Monuments as Healing Tools of American Collective Trauma

This presentation posits that the meaning of Confederate monuments erected contemporaneously with the American Civil War has evolved over time. Pressure to protect these monuments comes from groups unwilling to accept the results of that war and the abolition of slavery. Today these monuments have little purpose other than to continue writing the narrative of oppression that the Civil Rights Act sought to bring to a close. It has been suggested that Confederate monuments to “heroes” of the South be removed from their prominent public settings and relocated to sites capable of contextualizing them, much like Memento Park in Budapest (with its statues of Lenin, Marx and Engels). At best such erasure misses an opportunity for these monuments to work as active sites of memory and potential healing; at worst it facilitates collective amnesia. Since these monuments have shifted meaning in their contemporary contexts, careful consideration could prompt reexaminations of the past and spark difficult conversations. Confederate war memorials dedicated to soldiers should be preserved in place, as the families of those who lost their lives in battle need a space to mourn collectively.