The Shockoe ExaminerBlogging the History of Richmond, Virginia: The Richmond Planet speaks - What did the African American newspaper of Richmond say about the Robert E. Lee Monument in 1890?

Monday, August 21, 2017

The Richmond Planet speaks - What did the African American newspaper of Richmond say about the Robert E. Lee Monument in 1890?

The Robert E. Lee Monument on Richmond's Monument Avenue was unveiled on May 29, 1890. The Richmond Planet, the city's leading African American newspaper of the time, published two items during the month of May of 1890 concerning the monument. It clearly made its view of the monument known. These two brief articles are worth reading today as we debate what to do about the monuments and statutes built to honor the memory of the Confederate States of America - the "nation" that was created to preserve slavery and that fought the United States of America and lost. Can you just imagine what Richmond's African Americans had to think - many of them born into slavery - as the monuments to the "Lost Cause" were slowly erected in the city?

The article above, taken from Chronicling America, was published on May 10, 1890.

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And from the day after the unveiling:

The article above, taken from Chronicling America, was published on May 31, 1890.

"The South may revere the memory of its chieftains. It takes the wrong steps in doing so, and proceeds too far in every similar celebration.

It serves to retard its progress in the country and forges heavier chains with which to be bound. All is over." - Richmond Planet, May 31, 1890.

Read more about the Richmond Planet HERE.

UPDATE - just saw this - excellent coverage of the Richmond Planet and other Richmond newspapers and their coverage of the Lee Monument entitled "Complicated History: The Memorial to Robert E. Lee in Richmond," 27 July 2017, by Claire Johnson, Virginia Newspaper Project Intern. Great job by Ms. Johnson. This was posted on the Library of Virginia's Fit To Print blog on the library's Virginia Newspaper Project.

What should we do with the statutes and monuments of Monument Ave.? I suggest putting them in a park outside the city. Soon. - Ray.

5 comments:

David Streever said...: The Marines refused to acknowledge the ceremony. I think that's a pretty telling indictment, don't you?; August 23, 2017 at 3:44 PM
Shockoe Examiner Staff - see bottom of blog entry for the specific author. said...: Edward - go to Chronicling America and you can read all the white newspapers you want on their coverage of the unveiling of the Lee Monument.

David - thanks for your intelligent comment.

- Ray; August 24, 2017 at 2:38 PM
Edward Holland said...: Mr. Streever. If it's not too much trouble could you post a link to article about the Marines' "indictment"?; August 24, 2017 at 7:32 PM
K S McPhail said...: And then again . . .

Our Colored Troops Will Parade
The Executive Committee of the Monument Association extended an invitation to Major Johnson, of the colored battalion, to participate in the parade, and they will.

Last night the Attucks Guards, the Carney Guards, and the State Guards, the companies composing the colored battalion, met at their respective headquarters. After being in session a short time they concluded to accept the invitation tendered by the committee. Captain Emmett Scott commands the Attucks Guards, Captain C. B. Nicholas the Carney Guards, and Captain R. A. Paul the State Guards.

-Richmond Dispatch-27 October 1887; October 7, 2017 at 5:35 PM
Shockoe Examiner Staff - see bottom of blog entry for the specific author. said...: Thanks K.S. McPhail.. I'll have to look that up.

- Ray; October 20, 2017 at 9:42 AM

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Contributors:

Ray Bonis:

Ray worked at VCU Libraries' James Branch Cabell Library from 1989 until 2021. He is the co-author of Virginia Commonwealth University (2006) and Greetings from Richmond (2009) - an architectural history of the city.

Selden Richardson:

Architectural historian and author of Built By Blacks: African American Architecture and Neighborhoods in Richmond, Virginia (2006), The Tri-State Gang in Richmond: Murder and Robbery in the Great Depression. (2012), and Richmond Murder & Mayhem (2023)

On History:

"The dead were and are not. Their place knows them no more and is ours today...The poetry of history lies in the quasi-miraculous fact that once, on this earth, once, on this familiar spot of ground, walked other men and women, as actual as we are today, thinking their own thoughts, swayed by their own passions, but now all gone, one generation vanishing into another, gone as utterly as we ourselves shall shortly be gone, like ghosts at cockcrow."
-- G. M. Trevelyan (1876-1962) from his "Autobiography of an Historian," An Autobiography and Other Essays (1949).

Key Dates in Richmond History
(more to follow)

1737 – William Mayo laid out the original street plan for the town of Richmond on land provided by William Byrd II.

1742 – Chartered as a town

1780 – Virginia’s state capital moved from Williamsburg to Richmond.

1782 – Incorporated as a city.

1788 - Virginia State Capitol building completed.

1860-1865 – Serves as capital of the Confederate States of America.

1910 - Manchester, the city located just south of the James, is consolidated with Richmond.

1949 - Oliver Hill (1907-2007) elected to City Council, first African American since Reconstruction.

1968 - Virginia Commonwealth University created by the merger of the Medical College of Virginia and Richmond Professional Institute.

1977 - Henry Marsh elected as first African American mayor of Richmond.

2009 – Shockoe Examiner founded.