Change is hard. But also necessary.
One of the big changes recently was altering Columbus, Georgia’s Fort Benning to Fort Moore.
I know a common concern is losing critical parts of history. But history is nothing without change.
I grew up in Georgia, part of my family is from Columbus. Also, I minored in both history and sociology in college. And I am white, which does matter. That will make sense later.
The thing about history is it shifts depending on who is telling the story. In every one of my history classes, I would read a firsthand account and the professor would ask, “What bias does this source have that could affect how the event was perceived?”
History is a collection of stories from a variety of perspectives. Even things that seem finite aren’t. For example, the dates of when a war started is up to some level of interpretation. You could argue the French Revolution started May 5, 1789, when the three estates presented a list of grievances to the king, or you could argue it started on Bastille Day because that was when the tension became violent.
All to say, history is fluid. Back to Fort Moore though. Are we losing a part of history? No. We are passing the mic to another voice in history. Things aren’t meant to be stagnant. The name Fort Benning isn’t lost. It’s part of the history of the Army training base. That name is still part of its records; it’s just no longer in the spotlight.
But this is also speaking to the wider issue of Confederate names “being erased.” So now it’s time to talk about whiteness and the myth of the lost cause. The myth of the lost cause is the idea that the Confederacy was righteous and about protecting states’ rights — that it was not about slavery.
But to rebuttal that idea, I’m just going to give it to you straight from the horse’s mouth.
Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens said in the Cornerstone Speech of 1861: “Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition.”
The idea that the Confederacy was about states’ rights came after the fact with Edward A. Pollard’s “The Lost Cause” essay, published in 1867, coining the term. The myth of the lost cause allows Confederates to be heroes rather than soldiers who contributed to racism and the institution of slavery.
Surely, we can talk about the Civil War without patting Confederates on their backs.
The more Confederates get their flowers the more we are encouraging the myth of the lost cause and allowing whiteness to continue to take the forefront over the mistreatment, abuse and dehumanization of a mass of people. People whose living ancestors are still part of this country today.
I encourage white people to practice empathy. Step outside of yourself, set aside that pride we all have and consider something outside of your own lived experiences.
It is true white people will never understand what it is like to be Black in America. But we can educate ourselves through engaging with media that confronts our white privilege and doing the internal work of accepting white guilt and using it as motivation to do better in this lifetime.
Unless we, as white people, change our attitudes and look our flaws square in the eyes, then we will never live in a post-racial society; we will never have equality.
It starts small; it starts with us.
So, take Confederates off that pedestal and let Southern pride be more than a racist past.
Abigail Murphy is the Dadeville beat reporter for Tallapoosa Publishers Inc.
