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Monuments honoring and glorifying AAs / those who built our country / slaves (Original Post) cilla4progress Aug 2017 OP
Not an exact answer to your question. Weekend Warrior Aug 2017 #1
Yes, cilla4progress Aug 2017 #4
There was a long Twitter thread about all of the slave memorials and statutes in the Carribean and SweetieD Aug 2017 #2
There are some, but very few, sadly. MineralMan Aug 2017 #3
Are you asking for a list, or an example? Lithos Aug 2017 #5
I think op means something more like this SweetieD Aug 2017 #9
There is this: Lithos Aug 2017 #11
That appears to be a a cemetery. Yes it is a memorial. I'm not arguing that. I'm just curious SweetieD Aug 2017 #17
Hmm - great question Lithos Aug 2017 #22
Saw this.. cilla4progress Aug 2017 #10
A good movement to start Bradshaw3 Aug 2017 #6
Every public school in South Caroling should be considered a monument. Weekend Warrior Aug 2017 #7
George Washington Carver statue - Iowa State campus: dalton99a Aug 2017 #8
The MLK Monument forgotmylogin Aug 2017 #12
Here's the local St. Louis one. forgotmylogin Aug 2017 #19
Really appreciating these posts. cilla4progress Aug 2017 #13
here is one everyone should see flyingfysh Aug 2017 #14
Yes, cilla4progress Aug 2017 #16
Does MLK count? LeftInTX Aug 2017 #15
MLK at UT Austin LeftInTX Aug 2017 #18
Barbara Jordan - Austin LeftInTX Aug 2017 #20
Sweet! cilla4progress Aug 2017 #28
Great stuff in here! Wounded Bear Aug 2017 #21
Not a monument, but I love the 225th anniversary Liberty coin... forgotmylogin Aug 2017 #23
Austin's Juneteenth Memorial forgotmylogin Aug 2017 #24
Mandela: DC South African Embassy forgotmylogin Aug 2017 #25
Dallas: Freedmen Memorial Cemetery forgotmylogin Aug 2017 #26
Alexandria VA: Edmonson Sisters forgotmylogin Aug 2017 #27
Oh my... cilla4progress Aug 2017 #30
How about the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park in Maryland? FSogol Aug 2017 #29
Fabulous! cilla4progress Aug 2017 #31
Mary McLeod Bethune: DC forgotmylogin Aug 2017 #32
Phyllis Wheatley: Boston Women's Memorial forgotmylogin Aug 2017 #33
K&R! G_j Aug 2017 #34
African American Civil War Soldiers: DC forgotmylogin Aug 2017 #35
Says a lot that cilla4progress Aug 2017 #36
African American History Monument: South Carolina forgotmylogin Aug 2017 #37
Beautiful! cilla4progress Aug 2017 #42
Booker T. Washington "Lifting the Veil of Ignorance": Alabama forgotmylogin Aug 2017 #38
He has statues at both Tuskegee and Hampton Blue_Tires Aug 2017 #53
The $20 bill eventually Not Ruth Aug 2017 #39
Michelle Obama ancestor Melvina Shields 1844-1938 see po irisblue Aug 2017 #40
Harriet Tubman: Harlem NY forgotmylogin Aug 2017 #41
Statehouse of South Carolina has a large African- American monument wishstar Aug 2017 #43
Here it is. It's beautiful and really hits hard. No wonder nearly 50,000 SC whites petitioned... hedda_foil Aug 2017 #47
Wow. cilla4progress Aug 2017 #49
Sojourner Truth blackdove78 Aug 2017 #44
Another Sojourner Truth, in Florence, MA watrwefitinfor Aug 2017 #50
Detroit: Gateway to Freedom/Windsor: Tower of Freedom demmiblue Aug 2017 #45
Detroit: Monument to Joe Louis (The Fist) demmiblue Aug 2017 #46
Ni-i-i-i-c-e!!!! cilla4progress Aug 2017 #48
Medgar Evers, Jackson, MS watrwefitinfor Aug 2017 #51
African burial ground Not Ruth Aug 2017 #52
The new Harriet Tubman museum at her birthplace kwassa Aug 2017 #54
few more Blue_Tires Aug 2017 #55
Massachusetts had one at the entrance to the Boston Common. Blue_true Aug 2017 #56

SweetieD

(1,660 posts)
2. There was a long Twitter thread about all of the slave memorials and statutes in the Carribean and
Tue Aug 15, 2017, 12:21 PM
Aug 2017

South America that I saw the other day. If I can find the link I will post. The US doesn't have anything even remotely similar in the type of images in the structures there. Images where people are breaking chains. Someone posted a picture of a monument in new york dedicated to the underground railroad. There are also some small African American museums with motifs on the outside. But stand alone monuments in busy city squares, like we have of Confederate generals, no.

MineralMan

(146,192 posts)
3. There are some, but very few, sadly.
Tue Aug 15, 2017, 12:22 PM
Aug 2017

You can do a Google search for "slave memorial," to find the ones that exist. You won't find them, though, in most places where slavery was a commonplace in this country. Sad.

SweetieD

(1,660 posts)
9. I think op means something more like this
Tue Aug 15, 2017, 12:38 PM
Aug 2017


There are a lot of monuments dedicated to African people and freedom fighters in Latin America and the carribean.

SweetieD

(1,660 posts)
17. That appears to be a a cemetery. Yes it is a memorial. I'm not arguing that. I'm just curious
Tue Aug 15, 2017, 12:55 PM
Aug 2017

That if in the south there are any monuments dedicated to ex slaves or freedom from slavery that are as prominent as Confederate monuments. Monuments that are in city centers where people would walk by it on their way to work etc.

Lithos

(26,397 posts)
22. Hmm - great question
Tue Aug 15, 2017, 01:22 PM
Aug 2017

In the case of Dallas, I would think the Freedman's memorial is much more approachable - front and center - than the Confederate memorials.

In Austin, I think there is a Freedman's sculpture, *but* I think it's definitely overshadowed by the Confederate memorials at the Capitol. I think the ones at UT have been removed, or are in the process of being removed. For other places in the South, I remember that these types of things are either at the following types of places:

1) Court houses - honoring the local war dead - very similar to those erected for WWI and WW2. This is the most common
2) Cemetaries - especially those with lots of veterans and/or famous individuals
3) Battlefield sites
4) Universities

The few Freedman memorials seem tied to large cemetaries and/or modern remembrances of freedman settlements. There is nothing comparable to item (1) mostly because the former being driven by the "veterans" angle. Most Universities are removing things unless the person has a huge tie with the University.

Bradshaw3

(7,455 posts)
6. A good movement to start
Tue Aug 15, 2017, 12:32 PM
Aug 2017

Numerous heroes to choose from. Also ones honoring those who were murdered in the cause that would include those like Schwerner, Goodman and Liuzzo.

 

Weekend Warrior

(1,301 posts)
7. Every public school in South Caroling should be considered a monument.
Tue Aug 15, 2017, 12:32 PM
Aug 2017

Robert Smalls who escaped slavery and eventually served in the South Carolina State legislature and U.S. House of Representatives wrote the legislation that put in place the first public education system in South Carolina.

Five or so years ago they placed a historic marker where he helped a number of slaves escape, including himself.

https://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/charleston-begins-to-address-black-history-with-robert-smalls-memorial/Content?oid=4070879

flyingfysh

(1,990 posts)
14. here is one everyone should see
Tue Aug 15, 2017, 12:53 PM
Aug 2017

It is a monument to the Massachusetts 54th, an all-volunteer regiment lead by a white officer, Robert Gould Shaw. I would paste a picture of it here, I haven't yet learned how to put up a picture on DU. You can see several pictures of it (and related pictures) at https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=massachusetts+54th&qpvt=massachusetts+54th&qpvt=massachusetts+54th&qpvt=massachusetts+54th&FORM=IGRE

Here are several more pictures:
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=massachusetts+54th+monument+st+gaudens&qpvt=massachusetts+54th+monument+st+gaudens&qpvt=massachusetts+54th+monument+st+gaudens&qpvt=massachusetts+54th+monument+st+gaudens&FORM=IGRE

The monument is in front of the State House, right across Beacon Street, on the edge of Boston Common. Gould lived with his family a short distance away on Beacon Street. There were several hundred blacks, and about a hundred of them were personally recruited by Frederick Douglass. As there were leaving to go fight, they paraded in front of the State House, and the governor and Frederick Douglass were watching from the front steps. William Lloyd Garrison was watching from the balcony of a building which used to be the Unitarian headquarters, and a report says he had placed his hand on a bust of John Brown. They marched down the other side of Beacon Hill, went to the waterfront, and boarded ships headed for South Carolina. Many never came back.

Shaw and about a third of the soldiers were killed in an attempt to take Fort Wagner. One of the black soldiers won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his part in the battle. The Confederates dumped Gould's body in a pit with the bodies of blacks, thinking that was a disgraceful way to be buried. Gould's father said that being buried with the bodies of his men was a high honor.

The monument was created by noted sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. If you ever come to Boston, go see it.

There was a movie "Glory" about the Massachusetts 54th, it is well worth seeing.

forgotmylogin

(7,496 posts)
23. Not a monument, but I love the 225th anniversary Liberty coin...
Tue Aug 15, 2017, 01:25 PM
Aug 2017


This totally triggered the alt-right. I wish they'd issue a dollar coin or maybe a limited quarter face rendition of this so everybody could afford one!

cilla4progress

(24,587 posts)
36. Says a lot that
Tue Aug 15, 2017, 01:40 PM
Aug 2017

I didn't even know about most of these!

Individual responsibility for us all (myself included, clearly) to make sure we learn this important history. I took a self-guided journey through local Native American history when I had a job position in that community. I see a huge gap also in my knowledge of AA history, which I regret.

wishstar

(5,267 posts)
43. Statehouse of South Carolina has a large African- American monument
Tue Aug 15, 2017, 01:53 PM
Aug 2017

This article has a picture and description of some of the content of the monument, including slave ship, references to Jim Crow, etc. Right wingers have signed petition against the monument


http://www.rawstory.com/2015/07/nearly-40000-demand-south-carolina-remove-slave-memorial-because-it-shames-whites/

hedda_foil

(16,368 posts)
47. Here it is. It's beautiful and really hits hard. No wonder nearly 50,000 SC whites petitioned...
Tue Aug 15, 2017, 02:38 PM
Aug 2017


nearly 50,000 SC whites have petitioned to have it removed because it makes them feel shamed.They'll even take down the statehouse confederate flag if the memorial goes. Big of them, huh?.

watrwefitinfor

(1,399 posts)
50. Another Sojourner Truth, in Florence, MA
Tue Aug 15, 2017, 02:55 PM
Aug 2017





Actually, there are quite a number of statues of her, all over the Northeastern states, especially Massachusetts and New York. I liked this one. That does look like a puddle in front of her, as she waits for some gentleman to throw down his cloak for her to step over.

Here's one of the websites (there are many more):
http://www.wmmga.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=101643&module_id=227884

Wat

demmiblue

(36,746 posts)
45. Detroit: Gateway to Freedom/Windsor: Tower of Freedom
Tue Aug 15, 2017, 02:21 PM
Aug 2017
Commissioned by Detroit 300, Inc., an international consortium, of the U.S. & Canada, these two sculpture memorials honor Detroit and the State of Michigan’s Underground Railroad System, with a network of operatives, safe houses and a point of debarkation to Windsor, Canada. It also honors the City of Windsor and the State of Ontario as a point of willing embarkation for safe refuge for thousands of enslaved Africans.

The Detroit sculpture component features two gateway pillars that bracket a ten foot by twelve foot sculpture with nine slaves and a railroad 'Conductor' looking and pointing toward Canada in anticipation to board the boat across the Detroit River to safety. This assemblage is installed in Hart Plaza on the bank of the Detroit River, on the existing river front promenade.



The Windsor installation features a twenty-two foot high granite Freedom Tower that also serves as a candle representing the Internal Flame of Freedom. On the Canadian side are a male slave giving thanks and a female slave holding a baby. A female Canadian Underground Railroad conductor is welcoming them both to safety. On the U.S. side of the tower is a small slave girl, nostalgically looking back toward America. This component is installed near the River Front Drive on the City of Windsor promenade.



http://www.eddwight.com/memorial-public-art/international-underground-railroad-memorial-detroit-mi-windsor-canada

demmiblue

(36,746 posts)
46. Detroit: Monument to Joe Louis (The Fist)
Tue Aug 15, 2017, 02:34 PM
Aug 2017


Dedicated on October 16, 1986, the sculpture, commissioned by Sports Illustrated magazine[2] from the Mexican-American sculptor Robert Graham, is a 24-foot-long (7.3 m) arm with a fisted hand suspended by a 24-foot-high (7.3 m) pyramidal framework.

It represents the power of his punch both inside and outside the ring. Because of Louis' efforts to fight Jim Crow laws, the fist was symbolically aimed toward racial injustice.[3] Graham referred to the sculpture as a "battering ram".[4] It is claimed to be an historical metaphor, even down to its placement (pointing toward Canada).[5]

The sculpture was vandalized by two white men in 2004, who covered it in white paint and left a sign which read, "Courtesy of Fighting Whities".[4] Graham responded that the piece was "working" if it aroused passion.[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_to_Joe_Louis

watrwefitinfor

(1,399 posts)
51. Medgar Evers, Jackson, MS
Tue Aug 15, 2017, 03:10 PM
Aug 2017

Medgar Evers, Jackson, MS





Located at:
4215 Medgar Evers Blvd, Jackson, MS 39213
Cross Streets: Near the intersection of Medgar Evers Blvd and Liberty St

Wat

Blue_true

(31,261 posts)
56. Massachusetts had one at the entrance to the Boston Common.
Tue Aug 15, 2017, 03:52 PM
Aug 2017

It honors the Massachusetts 54th, some of whom I think were escaped slaves.

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