Statues and History Books: The Legacy of the United Daughters of the Confederacy

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1865, african-american, Alabama, american history, black history, Black Lives Matter, civil rights, civil war, Confederacy, Education, human rights, Jim Crow, libraries, Norfolk VA, Publishers, riots, Segregation, slavery, statues, textbooks, war, Women, women in history, Women's history, women's rights

Confederate Monument located in Elmwood Cemetery – Norfolk, Virginia

In light of the recent focus on removing Confederacy-related statues, and monuments of those who supported the transatlantic slave trade and/or the “peculiar institution” of slavery in what is now the United States of America, a deeper look at history can be helpful to understanding the thoughts of people who support leaving the monuments in place, and those who prefer them moved to places that some consider to be more acceptable: cemeteries and museums. It’s obviously a debate that’s being held all over the country right now, and a worthy one. But is there another conversation about where and how history is remembered and presented that is being missed? Let’s look back at who was responsible for much of the history that was presented in the American history textbooks that shaped the conversations and beliefs that we see today.

There is a phrase heard frequently that “history is written by the victors,” but in the case of the Civil War, the Confederacy lost the war but were later able to have a huge influence on how the story of the war, and slavery, is told. Case in point: The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC).

In 1919, 54 years after the end of the war (that surrender at Appomattox), a commission was formed by the United Confederate Veterans (UCV). It consisted of five representative members each, from the UCV, the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), and the UDC. The Rutherford Committee, as it was called, was named after Mildred Lewis Rutherford: a well known supporter and storyteller about a particular peculiar institution (“happy” slaves), the South as a victim of North (they were mean and didn’t want to play fair!), and the KKK (well, they protected White women and children, right?).

Mildred Rutherford later went on to publish a pamphlet called “A Measuring Rod to Test Text Books, and Reference Books in Schools, Colleges and Libraries,” which was used to ensure that the history of the “benevolent” and valiant southern war heroes and the “benevolent” southern supporters of slavery were presented with the loudest voices to the public, and not just those in the south. But they lost the war, remember? Who says women didn’t have power before they could vote? Well, that’s another story for another day in this year that we’re celebrating the 100-year anniversary of women gaining that right. Meanwhile, watch this video for some background on history (or her story?).

Whew, right? But wait, there’s more!

Here are some excerpts from an article presented by the magazine, “Facing South,” which show “history” as quoted from textbooks in 1957.

Life among the Negroes of Virginia in slavery times was generally happy. The Negroes went about in a cheerful manner making a living for themselves and for those for whom they worked.

Fourth grade history book, Virginia History

[Slaves]… did not work so hard as the average free laborer, since he did not have to worry about losing his job. In fact, the slave enjoyed what we might call comprehensive social security. Generally speaking, his food was plentiful, his clothing adequate, his cabin warm, his health protected and his leisure carefree.

Virginia high school history book, Cavalier Commonwealth

Raise your hand if you didn’t know that enslaved Africans had it so good: food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, vacation, (okay, maybe staycations) and you got to look down on the lowly “free” laborers who worked harder than you did. Nice work if you can get it, right? (Yeah, no.)

And a last exerpt from the article:

Up until 1980, Mississippi’s public schools used Lost Cause textbooks exclusively — and it took a federal court order to make them stop.

Photo title: “The United Daughters of the Confederacy Reception Room, used as a House of Representatives committee room at the Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson”; Created/Published: 2017-11-03; Photographs in the Ben May Charitable Trust Collection of Mississippi Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Notice the date of the photo above: November of 2017. That’s less than three years ago.

The following are photos of the partial removal of the “Johnny Reb” Confederate Monument, which was located literally in the middle of Main Street, in Norfolk VA. The image of the soldier (not pictured) was removed on June 12, with the balance of the removal to be completed later. According to Norfolk Mayor, Kenneth Cooper Alexander, in this 13 News Now article, the “Virginia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans did not oppose the proposed move to Elmwood Cemetery where the monument will stand amongst the graves of Confederate soldiers.”

Maybe it would benefit our united and freshly “woke” selves to pay as much attention to history textbooks and library collections, as we do to statues.

Bonus read: The video mentioned a document called the Confederate Catechism that was taught to schoolchildren. You can (and should!) read it here. You know how we love primary resources, and it’s perfectly okay for you to read it even if it’s been a while since you were young enough to skip history class.

Oh, and don’t forget to read the 23-page pamphlet, A Measuring Rod to Test Text Books, and Reference Books in Schools, Colleges and Libraries, here. Within the link, scroll down and you will see several options for you to be able to read the document, in addition to the option to listen to a choppy (but accurate) audio version.

*****The mission of the Don’t Duck History program is to promote and facilitate the learning and sharing of American history, along with its personal and social implications, and to highlight the history of Americans whose stories are not often presented in traditional American history textbooks. 

Don’t Duck History is a program of United Charitable, a registered public 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

100 Years Ago, Through Suffering and Suffrage – Women Supported

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Business, Medical, newspapers, Publishers, Suffrage, Voting, Women

#Women2020 #ReadThePaper

There’s a lot going on these days to distract us from our history lessons, while we’re creating history with our experiences with the novel coronavirus. Today we get back to celebrating the fact that back in June of 1919, Congress passed the 19th Amendment, and the amendment was ratified in August of 2020. That was an experience for the whole country, for sure, but especially for women.

Let’s look back at the experiences of several women of that time period: one, a mother suffering from a physical ailment; one, a business owner who offered a curious treatment for the suffering; and others, who were busy doing the work of achieving the ability to vote in federal, and not just state and/or local elections. Interestingly, all are captured being supportive of other women. A good idea then, and a good idea now.

In the look back, we’re including two old newspaper articles, and the transcriptions are provided below each one.

The Suffering

Evening journal, April 20, 1920, Page 21, Image 21, (Wilmington Delaware)
http://shorturl.at/NUV46

LETTER FROM MRS. BRUCE – Tells Remarkable Story of Sickness and Recovery.

Brooksburg, Indiana – “When I was a young girl I clerked in my father’s store and I lifted heavy boxes which caused displacement and I suffered greatly. I was married at the age of eighteen and went to a doctor about my trouble and he said if I had a child I would be all right.

After three years twins came to us and I did get all right but three years later a baby boy came and I was troubled again. I could scarcely do any work at all and suffered for four years A neighbor told me about Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound and I took it for a year or more. Now I have a baby girl and do not have any female trouble. You can do anything you like with my letter to help others.”

– Mrs. J. M. BRUCE, R, F. D. 3, Brooksburg, Ind.

The makers of Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound have thousands of such letters as that above –  they tell the truth, else they could not have been obtained for love or money. This medicine no stranger-it has stood the test for more than forty years.

If there are any complications you do not understand write to Lydin E. Pinkham Medicine Co. (confidential), Lynn, Mass.]

Mrs. Bruce, with her (likely uterine) displacement, seemed to gladly offer her support to Lydia Pinkham, and suggested that Lydia Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound was at least partially responsible for her recovery. Not an easy illness to treat at the time, and one not likely given the deserved attention at a time when most physicians were male.

The Healer

So what about this Lydia Pinkham? According to The Embro Project Encyclopedia, she was a businesswoman who started making her herbal remedies in her home kitchen during an economic downturn in 1873. The ingredients of her vegetable compound initially included black cohosh, fenugreek seed root, life root, pleurisy root, and, you can’t make this up, unicorn root. Raise your hand and giggle if you just learned that unicorn root is a thing. If you’re in a room with someone else and they’re looking at you funny, just share the blog with them and wait for them to raise a hand and giggle. Oh, and the original recipe also included 20% alcohol. She said it was there to preserve the ingredients. Raise your hand and giggle if you question that.

Moving right along, Pinkham’s company advertised in newspapers and magazines, offering relief to women from their “female problems.” Some people called her a quack, but she had the last laugh because a modified, modern version of her original recipe is still on the market today. Of course, this is Don’t Duck History and we actually like quacks, so there’s that. You should read more about Lydia here.

The Suffragettes

Next we have the unidentified woman and shero in the 1920 article below, supporting other women by circulating flyers, and clearly being both proud of and unbothered by the fact that she spent some time in jail for her work supporting women’s right to vote.

Evening journal, April 20, 1920, Page 7
(Wilmington Delaware)
shorturl.at/rMRVX

JAIL! WHAT’S THAT TO SUFFRAGISTS ?

Special to The Evening Journal.

DOVER, Del. April 20 – Just, before the convening of Court here yesterday, two suffragists of the National Women’s party strolled into the courtroom distributing circulars of today’s suffrage meeting. When one of the women stepped into the prisoner’s dock thoughtlessly, she was informed by one of the lawyers in court, that she was in the dock, to which she replied, “Oh that does not hurt me, I have been in a prisoner’s dock before and what is more than that, I have served time in jail, see my badge.”

At this she displayed one of the prison door badges worn by several of the National Party workers who have been here during the session of the Legislature.

As members of the National Woman’s Party, and subsequently, the National American Woman Suffrage Association’s (NAWSA), Congressional Committee and the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage, some women took what was considered a more militant method of supporting women, and a few of them are pictured below. Like the “girlfriend on a mission” above, these ladies looked like they did not give a…hoot. Or a rat’s patootie. Whatever. Just look at their facial expressions. “By any means necessary” was in their vocabulary.

Library of Congress photo title:
“Helena Hill Weed, Norwalk, Conn. Serving 3 day sentence in D.C. prison for carrying banner, “Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Background:
“Mrs. Helena Hill Weed of Norwalk, Conn., was a graduate of Vassar College and Montana School of Mines. She was a geologist, a daughter of a member of Congress, and a vice-president of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). She was a prominent member of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage and the NWP. She was one of the first pickets arrested, July 4, 1917, and served three days in District Jail. In January 1918, she was arrested for applauding in court and sentenced to 24 hours, and in August 1918 she was arrested for participation in Lafayette Square meeting, and sentenced to 15 days. Doris Stevens, Jailed for Freedom (New York: Boni and Liveright, 1920), 369.”

Library of Congress photo title:
“Miss [Lucy] Burns in Occoquan Workhouse, Washington”
Background:
“Lucy Burns, of New York City, who with Alice Paul established the first permanent headquarters for suffrage work in Washington, D.C., helped organize the suffrage parade of Mar. 3, 1913, and was one of the editors of The Suffragist. Leader of most of the picket demonstrations, she served more time in jail than any other suffragists in America. Arrested picketing June 1917, sentenced to 3 days; arrested Sept. 1917, sentenced to 60 days; arrested Nov. 10, 1917, sentenced to 6 months; in Jan. 1919 arrested at watchfire demonstrations, for which she served one 3 day and two 5 day sentences. She also served 4 prison terms in England. Burns was one of the speakers on the “Prison Special” tour of Feb-Mar 1919. Source: Doris Stevens, Jailed for Freedom (New York: Boni and Liveright, 1920), 356.”

Last, but not least, there were the suffragettes who did not identify as white, and often are left out of the conversation of women’s suffrage history. We are all about including the untold stories, and are grateful for institutions like the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the National Park Service, who are leading the way to not ducking history, in a big way, well, because they’re big. Below is a glimpse from their writings about some of these lesser-known sheroes. You can read more about the next five, here.

Mary Ann Shadd Cary
Founder of an antislavery newspaper in Canada, who later went on to be a lawyer

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
Abolitionist and poet

Marry Church Terrell
Co-founder of the the National Association of Colored Women, and its first president

Nannie Helen Burroughs
Educator, founder of the National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington, DC

Daisy Elizabeth Adams Lampkin
1915 President of the Lucy Stone
Woman Suffrage League

The National Park Service calls attention to Chinese suffragist, Dr. Mabel Ping-Hua Lee. Though she was active in the cause at the age of sixteen, the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882-1943) made her ineligible for citizenship, and therefore not eligible to vote until 1943.

Dr. Mabel Ping-Hua Lee

In addition, there is Teresa Villarreal in Texas, a Mexican native, who had two publications: La Mujer Moderna (The Modern Woman) and El Obrero (The Worker). Both included women’s suffrage in their writings. The National Park Service has made information about her and many others available in their online resource, The International History of the US Suffrage Movement.

Teresa Villarreal
Publisher, women’s and worker’s rights supporter

Bottom line, we can look at history and see the importance of women supporting women. Support through writing letters (today that may be a favorable online review), purchasing goods and services from woman-owned businesses, providing goods and services to women, etc. What others can you think of? Do your research, and do those, too! Most importantly, celebrate women in 2020 and beyond, and celebrate their right to vote.

*****The mission of the Don’t Duck History program is to promote and facilitate the learning and sharing of American history, along with its personal and social implications, and to highlight the history of Americans whose stories are not often presented in traditional American history textbooks.

Don’t Duck History is a program of United Charitable, a registered public 501(c)(3) nonprofit. If you appreciated this writing, follow the blog for more American history, and consider a making a donation. Ducks need to eat, too! DONATE HERE

All That Jazz… and Blues – Episode 2, Lena Horne

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African American, Blues, Broadway, Harlem, Hollywood, Jazz, Jim Crow, Movies, Native American, Women

Lena Horne, 1941. Photographer: Carl Van Vechten.
photo: courtesy Library of Congress

FREEDOM, IN A SONG

From dancing at age 16 at the Cotton Club in Harlem, to singing in her one-woman Broadway show, Lena Horne: The Lady and her Music, Lena Horne (1917-2010) paved the way not only for herself, but also for women of color in the entertainment industry who came along in her footsteps.

Lena Horne in Till the Clouds Roll By (1946).
photo: courtesy Wikimedia Commons

As her physical appearance displayed a somewhat racial ambiguity (she was of African, European, and Native heritage), she had to learn to navigate racial complexities throughout her life and career. Complex, and confusing: on one hand it seemed that sometimes she was encouraged to lean towards her “whiteness” for the white audiences in her live musical performances; she was limited in roles in MGM films because of those same audiences; and at the same time, the NAACP encouraged her Hollywood pursuits to help break the color barrier while not taking the stereotypical roles that blacks were normally cast at the time, sometimes angering some of her Black peers who accepted those stereotypical roles in exchange for simply being able to work in the industry. However, later along in her career during the Civil Rights Era, she chose to lean into her “blackness,” participating in marches and losing opportunities to work because of that participation. As the song that she is famously known for singing, it was Stormy Weather in real life.

Lena Horne and Coretta Scott King; Trumpet Awards Foundation gala, Atlanta, Georgia, 1994.
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Visual Materials from the Rosa Parks Papers, [reproduction number, e.g., LC-DIG-ppmsca-38464

Later in life she stated:

My identity is very clear to me now. I am a black woman, I’m not alone, I’m free. I no longer have to be a credit, I don’t have to be a symbol to anybody, I don’t have to be a first to anybody. I don’t have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I’d become. I’m me, and I’m like nobody else.

At the end of the documentary below, you will see her come into her own using that same song, Stormy Weather, where she had moved away from a more “standard” jazz style (often deemed more acceptable to white audiences early in her career), to a more bluesy delivery towards the end of her journey. She had clearly had freed herself.

The Series-

As Americans (and people all over the world) push through and do our best to adjust our lives to the new realities that the COVID-19 pandemic is showing us, now more than ever, many could use the healing art that music often provides during times of distress. Along comes jazz… and blues, and they each tell a story of the history of America along the way.

The mission of the Don’t Duck History program is to promote and facilitate the learning and sharing of American history, along with its personal and social implications, and to highlight the history of Americans whose stories are not often presented in traditional American history textbooks.

Don’t Duck History is a program of United Charitable, a registered public 501(c)(3) nonprofit.