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UVA and the History of Race: The George Rogers Clark Statue and Native Americans
UVA and the History of Race: The George Rogers Clark Statue and Native Americans
By Christian McMillen, cwm6w@virginia.edu
July 27, 2020
One hundred years ago, when Charlottesville began an eight-year period of monument-building, the city wrote a series of historical narratives that have reverberated to the present.
Beginning in 1916 and ending in 1924, Charlottesville and the University of Virginia erected four statues across the city: two commemorated the Lost Cause and two glorified the frontier exploits of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, and of George Rogers Clark.
The monuments to Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson are powerful symbols of white supremacy. They were built at a time of resurgent Ku Klux Klan terrorism, as well as increased valorization of the myth of the Lost Cause, a pro-Confederate interpretation of history that held that the Civil War was not actually lost, and could still be won by new forms of racial proscription and segregation.
In ways different than the Lee and Jackson statues, the George Rogers Clark and the Lewis and Clark statues are also monuments to white supremacy. They are instrumental in creating and perpetuating the myth of brave white men conquering a supposedly unknown and unclaimed land.
The Lee and Jackson statues have received considerable attention over the years. Most recently, the controversy over their proposed removal erupted in the hate-filled violence wrought by white supremacists on Aug. 11 and 12, 2017. The memorials to Lewis and Clark and George Rogers Clark have not yet generated profound and violent controversy, but momentum also has grown for their removal. In November 2019, the Charlottesville City Council voted in favor of removing the Lewis and Clark statue, and community members submitted a petition to UVA earlier that year, urging removal of the George Rogers Clark statue.
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By Christian McMillen, cwm6w@virginia.edu
July 27, 2020
One hundred years ago, when Charlottesville began an eight-year period of monument-building, the city wrote a series of historical narratives that have reverberated to the present.
Beginning in 1916 and ending in 1924, Charlottesville and the University of Virginia erected four statues across the city: two commemorated the Lost Cause and two glorified the frontier exploits of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, and of George Rogers Clark.
The monuments to Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson are powerful symbols of white supremacy. They were built at a time of resurgent Ku Klux Klan terrorism, as well as increased valorization of the myth of the Lost Cause, a pro-Confederate interpretation of history that held that the Civil War was not actually lost, and could still be won by new forms of racial proscription and segregation.
In ways different than the Lee and Jackson statues, the George Rogers Clark and the Lewis and Clark statues are also monuments to white supremacy. They are instrumental in creating and perpetuating the myth of brave white men conquering a supposedly unknown and unclaimed land.
The Lee and Jackson statues have received considerable attention over the years. Most recently, the controversy over their proposed removal erupted in the hate-filled violence wrought by white supremacists on Aug. 11 and 12, 2017. The memorials to Lewis and Clark and George Rogers Clark have not yet generated profound and violent controversy, but momentum also has grown for their removal. In November 2019, the Charlottesville City Council voted in favor of removing the Lewis and Clark statue, and community members submitted a petition to UVA earlier that year, urging removal of the George Rogers Clark statue.
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https://news.virginia.edu/content/uva-and-history-race-george-rogers-clark-statue-and-native-americans
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