Why Texas leaders erected Confederate monuments at the Capitol

The Confederate Soldiers Monument at the Capitol. Credit: JAY JANNER / AMERICAN-STATESMAN

The Confederate Soldiers Monument at the Capitol. Credit: JAY JANNER / AMERICAN-STATESMAN

(Austin American-Statesman) Between 1903 and 1910, three Confederate monuments would be installed on the Capitol grounds. During each unveiling, Confederate war heroes and high-profile politicians of the day used the opportunity to depict the North as the aggressor and downplay slavery as a cause of the Civil War – accounts that historians today say are inaccurate.

In subsequent decades, lawmakers approved more Confederate memorials. All told, at least 20 symbols of the Confederacy – monuments, historical markers, portraits, art, seals, cannons and a plaque – adorn the Capitol and its grounds.

More than 120 years after lawmakers gave the first OK to a Confederate monument, some state officials are calling for a review of the memorials, with at least one lawmaker saying they should all be removed.

The monuments are being defended by Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republican leaders as representing a chapter of American history that shouldn’t be forgotten. But, based on a review of the legislative record authorizing the memorials and contemporary accounts of their dedications, the monuments were erected as part of an effort to recast the war as a battle over “state rights.” Slavery and African-Americans are not mentioned on the memorials. (more)

A Brief History of Companies Courting African-American Dollars

Dove’s withdrawn advertisement is the latest example of American companies bungling ads for black consumers.

Aunt Jemima

(Pacific Standard) For decades, advertisements that attempt to convey progressive values to non-white consumers have fallen flat. That’s been especially true for black Americans. Until the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s increased African Americans’ political visibility and access to education and jobs, they were virtually ignored by advertisers, according to William O’Barr, a cultural anthropology professor at Duke University and the author of a book on cultural representation in marketing. “Minority groups in the past were sometimes so oppressed economically that they didn’t have much money to spend, and therefore weren’t an important part of the market,” O’Barr says.

Americans of color have long since become major forces in the American economy: A Nielsen report released last month argued that black women drive black Americans’ growing spending power, which is projected to reach $1.5 trillion by 2021. Black women, the report says, are values-focused consumers and entrepreneurs-the number of firms primarily owned by black women rose 67 percent between 2007 and 2012. Nielsen asserts that black women should matter to advertisers-a thesis that is disconcerting, suggesting that businesses still need to be reminded. (more)

Related: A Lesson In Marketing Magic: The History Of Aunt Jemima

Three Letters That Former Slaves Sent To Their Masters

Frederick Douglas

Frederick Douglas

These notes shine a light on the complex relationships that slaves had with their masters.

(All That Is Interesting) After escaping or being liberated, most former slaves were probably more than happy to never speak to their erstwhile masters.

After all, what would you say?

Though little evidence of this correspondence exists today (at least partially due to the fact that most slaves were illiterate), there are a few examples of slaves reaching out to the people who had once purchased and owned them.

Here are three of the most interesting messages, including one from Frederick Douglas in 1847, one year after his escape, in which he recalls his decision to run away when he was just six years old. He also describes the first dollar he ever earned as a free man.

In closing the letter, he writes, “I entertain no malice towards you personally,” he wrote. “There is no roof under which you would be more safe than mine, and there is nothing in my house which you might need for your comfort, which I would not readily grant. Indeed, I should esteem it a privilege, to set you an example as to how mankind ought to treat each other. I am your fellow man, but not your slave.” (more)

Black History in Brief

Maynard Jackson

Maynard Jackson

October 16, 1973: Dallas native Maynard Jackson won the election in Atlanta, becoming the first African-American mayor of a major Southern city. He was elected twice more, and the city’s motto became “A City Too Busy to Hate.”

October 17, 1859: News that Abolitionist John Brown had taken over the U.S. arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, spread to Baltimore and beyond. Brown had led a group of 21 other men, five black and 16 white, there the day before. They had hoped to set off a slave revolt with the weapons they had planned to seize. Virtually all his compatriots were killed or captured by Col. Robert E. Lee’s troops; Brown was wounded, arrested, and hanged for treason. President Abraham Lincoln called him a “misguided fanatic,” but abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass said Brown was “as deeply interested in our cause as though his own soul had been pierced with the iron of slavery.”

October 18, 1945: Paul Robeson received the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal after becoming the first African American to play the lead role in Shakespeare’s Othello on Broadway. The actor, singer and activist was a two-time All-American football player at Rutgers University and attended Columbia Law School. He was best known for his singing and acting work in the theater and in films like Showboat and King Solomon’s Mines. His politics led to his blacklisting in Hollywood in the 1950s, and he died in 1976.

October 20, 1967: A U.S. District Court jury in Meridian, Mississippi, convicted seven, including Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers and Deputy Cecil Price, on federal conspiracy charges in connection with the 1964 abduction and killings of three civil rights workers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. The rest of the 18 men walked free, including Edgar Ray Killen and Sheriff Lawrence Rainey.

Read more here.

TIPHC Bookshelf

As We Saw It book cover

 

Published scholarship on black history in Texas is growing and we’d like to share with you some suggested readings, both current and past, from some of the preeminent history scholars in Texas and beyond. We invite you to take a look at our bookshelf page – including a featured selection – and check back as the list grows. A different selection will be featured each week. We welcome suggestions and reviews. This week, we offer, “As We Saw It, the Story of Integration at the University of Texas at Austin,” edited by Gregory J. Vincent, Virginia A. Cumberbatch, and Leslie A. Blair.

In 2016, the University of Texas at Austin celebrated two important milestones: the thirtieth anniversary of the Heman Sweatt Symposium on Civil Rights and the sixtieth anniversary of the first black undergraduate students to enter the university. These historic moments aren’t just special; they are relevant to current conversations and experiences on college campuses across the country. The story of integration at UT against the backdrop of the Jim Crow South is complex and momentous-a story that necessitates understanding and sharing. Likewise, this narrative is inextricably linked to current conversations about students’ negotiations of identity and place in higher education.

This Week in Texas Black History, Oct. 15-21

Emmett Scott

Emmett Scott

Oct15

Houstonian Emmett Scott was appointed Special Assistant to the Secretary of War, Newton Baker, on this day in 1917 as a liaison between black soldiers and the War Department amid rising racial tensions in the country.

Among Scott’s accomplishments in that role were:

  • The formation of a Speakers’ Bureau, or “Committee of One Hundred,” to enlighten black Americans on the war aims of the government.
  • The continuance of training camps for black officers and the increase in their number and increasing their scope of training.
  • Betterment of the general conditions in the camps where blacks were stationed in large numbers, and positive steps to reduce friction between
  • The opening of every branch of the military service to colored men, on equal terms with all others, and the commissioning of many colored men as
    officers in the Medical Corps.
  • A report about conditions facing African-Americans during the period, which were published in 1919 as The American Negro in the World War.
Jack Johnson

Jack Johnson

Oct18

On this day in 1912, World Heavyweight Champion and Galveston native Jack Johnson was arrested for violating the Mann Act against transporting women across state lines for immoral purposes, specifically prostitution, because of his relationship with a white woman who was Johnson’s fiancée. Her refusal to cooperate in his prosecution doomed the case though Johnson would be arrested again less than a month later on similar charges, however, the woman involved this time testified against him. Johnson was convicted by an all-white jury and sentenced to a year and a day in prison, but he jumped bail and left the country for France. He wouldn’t fight for over a year until he defeated Jim Johnson, an African-American, in Paris in the first fight for the heavyweight championship between two black men.

Jennifer Holliday

Jennifer Holliday

Oct19

Two-time Grammy Award winner Jennifer Holliday was born on this day in 1960 in Houston. Inspired by congresswoman and fellow Houston native Barbara Jordan to be a good citizen and a good person, Holliday began singing in the Pleasant Grove Baptist Church choir. She gained fame in the starring role of Effie “Melody” White in the Broadway production “Dreamgirls,” for which Holiday earned a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. In the show, she sings “And I Am Telling You I’m not Going,” which also reached No. 1 on R&B charts.

Blog: Ron Goodwin, Ph.D., author, PVAMU history professor

Ron Goodwin’s bi-weekly blog appears exclusively for TIPHC. Goodwin is a San Antonio native and Air Force veteran. Generally, his column addresses contemporary issues in the black community and how they relate to black history. He and the TIPHC staff welcome your comments.

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Submissions Wanted

Historians, scholars, students, lend us your…writings. Help us produce the most comprehensive documentation ever undertaken for the African American experience in Texas. We encourage you to contribute items about people, places, events, issues, politics/legislation, sports, entertainment, religion, etc., as general entries or essays. Our documentation is wide-ranging and diverse, and you may research and write about the subject of your interest or, to start, please consult our list of suggested biographical entries and see submission guidelines. However, all topics must be approved by TIPHC editors before beginning your research/writing.

We welcome your questions or comments. Please contact Mr. Michael Hurd, Director of TIPHC, at mdhurd@pvamu.edu.