Dr. Hilary N. Green explains role women played in shaping the Lost Cause

Reckon Interview: Hilary Green

Dr. Green is an associate professor of History at the University of Alabama and since 2015 she has hosted campus tours to contextualize many of the buildings on campus that are named for Confederates and Klansmen.

I know this feels obvious but we’re witnessing a change in history.

And it’s not just the millions of protestors pouring into the streets in support of Black Lives Matter. It’s not just a generation defining pandemic. We’re also witnessing a change in History.

We’re having conversations nationally -- and locally -- about how we recognize history and whose stories get told. Earlier this month, the Alabama Archives released a statement admitting that for a century it fed the Lost Cause narrative of the Civil War and failed to collect narratives from Black Alabamians.

We’ve all seen Confederate monuments -- and a few others -- toppled around the country. We’ve seen Mississippi vote to remove their flag. We’ve heard debates about Gone with the Wind, pancake syrups, and popular TV shows. It’s all happening quickly, and it may feel like a lot to absorb. But Dr. Hilary N. Green is the perfect voice to walk us through this moment.

This week on the Reckon Interview, we’re talking with Dr. Green about monuments, Reconstruction, the legacy of minstrel culture, and more. Dr. Green is an associate professor of History at the University of Alabama and since 2015 she has hosted campus tours to contextualize many of the buildings on campus that are named for Confederates and Klansmen. Earlier this month UA removed a confederate monument -- a boulder -- from the center of campus. We discuss what these actions mean now and what work still needs to be done.

You can download and listen to the whole conversation on AcastApple PodcastsSpotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Subscribe today so you don’t miss out on the rest of the season.

Here are a few excerpts from the episode to get you started.

Dr. Hilary N. Green on her immediate reaction to seeing monuments come down

My immediate reaction was, wow, it's interesting to be a part of this historical moment. Because this is, if you think about it, five years since Charleston, we started having these waves, and Charleston, we had our first wave, Charlottesville we have second, but there's something about this moment, 2020. And I think it's the pandemic and the affects disproportionately of people of color, and class. I also think it's the political moment in many countries across the way and people not feeling their voices are being heard. And also, too, I think, people now with questions of policing and different things and those power dynamics that were at the core of these monuments when they first came up. People are now responding, like physically responding by pulling things down. They're going through their governments and I think it's the combination of all of that that makes this unique. So, I call this the George Floyd COVID-19 Wave that it's everything from Lost Cause to anything about white supremacy, indigenous rights and colonialism. People are affected by this in different ways and are taken to the streets.

Dr. Green on the role the United Daughters of the Confederacy had in spreading the Lost Cause and building Confederate monuments

The UDC is the successor of the Ladies Memorial Association, which really has it start right after the Civil War. This is women who are supporters of the Confederacy, but there's also women in the north, there are African Americans who are attending to the wartime dead. These are women dedicated to one: making sure that everyone has a headstone and to preserve it and taking care of those cemeteries, so they're in private spaces.

But how it ties to Reconstruction is the success of Reconstruction. Having African Americans go to school, having African American politicians and as Republican Governments during Reconstruction are being removed and replaced by Redemption. You also have to change the landscape and the cultural redemption. And this is where the LMAs that become the United Daughters of the Confederacy are important because this is the role of women and shaping the landscape by putting up monuments in public space to say, "hey, African Americans, you no longer belong, this is our history, our space. And this is the power structure."

And then also the UDC did textbooks so they are looking at living monuments as the children of future generations, both white and black to learn the version of the Lost Cause. They are also educating every child through the textbooks that now they control. So, the textbook committees are controlled by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. They also sponsored scholarships and the other thing we are talking about are these monuments, but their legacy and the scope of their work were more than these monuments. It was textbooks, school building names, holidays and the like.

And if it wasn't for the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the LMAs we would not have these discussions. Because this is the work of women who purposely and strategically made this as their political statement to shape the South and to shape the remembrance of the Civil War that honored the Confederacy, that honored this Lost Cause, that made the men who fought into these valiant soldiers and did it in a way that had mass appeal that the reunions couldn't do, individual teaching couldn't do, but they made sure they went from the cradle to the grave. And that is why we are still talking about these monuments.

And when you look at the role of the UDC in the first way of the monument craze from 1880 to 1920, that is the work of those groups of women, everything else has come since. And it's usually the children who are doing it but the UDC made their mark on society. And in these debates, I find it's telling that very few people remember the women who are responsible for these monuments. So, we always say the UDC Lost Cause monuments but also Jim Crow era monuments. And it's our cultural backlash and redemption of Reconstruction. And it's why that period, because it's the period of lynching. It's the period of disenfranchisement. And when you overlay--my students, every time I teach the moments, it's usually after talking about lynching, and I show them the Equal Justice Initiative website with the lynching map. And then a couple lectures later, we're talk about the monuments and I always have students that are like, "Oh my gosh, you could do a complete overlay and you're seeing lynching and monuments going up at the same time." And those records going up at the same time and with disenfranchisement, that's a part of that narrative too.

And I think that's why a lot of people are protesting today because they're seeing that long legacy.

For Dr. Hilary N. Green’s thoughts on Gone with the Wind, college campuses and more, listen to the full episode here.