Perspectives Daily Ralph Northam had granted his request for a curfew and said the National Guard was on standby to help enforce it. Their silence, however, speaks volumes about how their organization is now a shell of its former self. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Protesters Target the United Daughters of the Confederacy Headquarters, Karen L. Cox | Throughout most of the 20th century, the Daughters regularly appeared in newspapers and were praised by white southerners for their efforts to preserve Confederate culture—from their work with southern white children to their fundraising appeals to erect monuments to regional and local Confederate heroes. They continued to hold sway in southern communities at least through the mid-20th century, before the organization experienced a steep decline in membership, likely in response to racial changes following the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. Public History Today’s UDC members seem to be uninterested in reckoning with their organization’s past. The UDC’s members rapidly became leaders of the “Lost Cause” interpretation of the Civil War—which recalled Confederate defeat as a “just cause” while also dismissing slavery as a central issue of the Civil War. No more. What Should We Do with Confederate Monuments. Rather, this reflects the essential nature of monuments and the UDC itself, which is that both are a function of what happens on the local level. While not a statue, the UDC headquarters functions as a Confederate monument because it represents the very organization responsible for the vast majority of statues to the Confederacy throughout the South and, in some cases, even outside the region. They lobbied politicians, raised enormous amounts of money for commemorative projects, gave public talks, and shaped how generations of southern white children learned about the past. Officers had fortified the area Saturday and responded almost immediately with teargas, flashbang grenades and non-lethal rounds. One of the protesters’ targets was the United Daughters of the Confederacy’s (UDC) headquarters in Richmond, Virginia. The blaze was extinguished by Richmond firefighters. Attribution must provide author name, article title, Perspectives on History, date of publication, and a link to this page. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the headquarters of the nearby United Daughters of the Confederacy burned early Sunday and was marked with graffiti. Its numbers have dwindled significantly, and while the UDC won’t provide an official estimate, it is nowhere near the strength in numbers it was a century ago. Police said one person in a vehicle was shot by a protester and the victim is in life-threatening condition. In truth, the UDC is no longer in the business of building monuments; it certainly is not a directive coming from the General Organization (how the UDC refers to its national leadership). Ned Oliver | Sarah Vogelsong, Virginia Mercury, Confederate memorial hall burned amid Richmond protests. The United Daughters of the Confederacy totally denounces any individual or group that promotes racial divisiveness or white supremacy. Protesters in Richmond set fire to the United Daughters of the Confederacy headquarters and covered Confederate memorials with graffiti during the second night of … Daughters of the Confederacy Building Burning in Richmond Virginia Politics This is a split board - You can return to the Split List ... you've completely dehumanized "racist people" to the point where if they'd all been trapped in the building while it burned you'd still be … This was especially true of the UDC’s work in the years immediately prior to World War I, when these women built the vast majority of monuments that are currently at issue. As the fire department arrived on the scene, protesters wouldn't let them through. Erected as a memorial to southern women who managed homes, farms, and businesses and endured economic and other … O.o ... fire burned for a time at the headquarters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy Page 2 of 2 < Prev 1 2. The protests Saturday began peacefully but quickly grew violent when a crowd of at least 500 people marched to Capitol Square, where they ripped down a make-shift barricade and hurled bottles and traffic cones at a line of officers blocking the entrance with riot shields. They were incinerated in the fire last night. The building is mostly office space for the UDC’s leadership and a social space for visiting members. Aside from issuing a brief statement on its website in 2017 and another general statement on December 1, 2018, the Daughters have remained silent and have refused to give media interviews. Fact 1: Rioters should not burn down the Daughters of the Confederacy Building, because they should not be burning down any buildings. The early editions of Confederate Veteran magazine, which regularly featured the UDC's work, or the minutes of the General Organization make clear how their foremothers shaped regional culture around the Lost Cause narrative, including their work to add hundreds of monuments to the southern landscape. North America You may not have known that a group called the United Daughters of the Confederacy still exists in Virginia, but they do, and their headquarters in Richmond was set on fire early Sunday morning in the midst of protests over police violence and the death of George Floyd. In a separate incident, police said protesters set fire to a home occupied by a child and blocked the fire department from responding. It’s rarely been involved in political battles over Confederate symbols, flags, or monuments. Daughters of the Confederacy Building Set on Fire in Richmond Discussion in '2020 Protests and Uprisings' started by Miza, May 31, 2020. Firefighters battle flames at the United Daughters of the Confederacy headquarters May 31, 2020. The Virginia Mercury is a new, nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization covering Virginia government and policy. In sum, UDC members made their presence known throughout the region, particularly in their local communities, through a mix of political and symbolic actions. Protesters burned the United Daughters of the Confederacy's headquarters in Richmond, Virginia, because it functions as a monument to white supremacy and the Lost Cause. 2. The UDC has been labeled as neo-Confederate by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Show full articles without "Continue Reading" button for {0} hours. We are saddened that some people find anything connected with the Confederacy to be offensive. The United Daughters of the Confederacy were once a powerful force in public education across the South, right down to rewriting history: slaves were happy, y’all. Perhaps even more important, the UDC committed itself to vindicating the Confederate generation, both the men who fought and the women who supported the cause, through a broad-ranging agenda that included education, preserving pro-Confederate histories, various forms of public commemoration, and lobbying for Confederate homes for soldiers, widows, and their descendants. The UDC committed itself to vindicating the Confederate generation. “When you block law enforcement from allowing fire services to get to a home, an occupied home that has caught fire, you are not inspiring change.”. The United Daughters of the Confederacy can't even be called an organization with widespread systemic issues. In May 2020, this building was damaged by fire during the George Floyd protests. RICHMOND, Va. (Virginia Mercury) — Protesters in Richmond set fire to the United Daughters of the Confederacy headquarters and covered Confederate memorials with graffiti during the second night of outrage and violence Saturday that saw one person shot, businesses around the city looted and storefronts torched. The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). … Please read our commenting and letters policy before submitting. The American Historical Association welcomes comments in the discussion area below, at AHA Communities, and in letters to the editor. It was burned in protests on Saturday, May 30, but by Sunday people had come to clean it up. Its entire explicit purpose is to whitewash white supremacy and promotes the forces that prolong and enforce it. By midnight, protesters had dispersed throughout the city, lighting fires in trash bins, breaking windows and looting stores, including a state liquor store, a video game shop, and a CVS. Early UDC members were not wilting flowers. The Relics of the Confederacy Burn. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that the United Daughters of the Confederacy headquarters was set on fire early Sunday morning. The organization’s own records make clear that the legacy of racism and white supremacy that has shaped so much of southern history is inextricably part of the UDC’s legacy, too. As the United Daughters of the Confederacy gathered in Richmond last week for its annual convention, members were met with some unexpected visitors. The HQ for the United Daughters of the Confederacy was looted and burned last night. That it was attacked by protesters who also targeted the Lee Memorial suggests that local activists understood the building to be as offensive as a traditional monument. Tags: Several were vandalized, but many more were removed by city governments. The United Daughters of the Confederacy headquarters was set on fire early Sunday morning. Kelly Faircloth. By 4 p.m., Superior Court Judge Susan Bray sided with the county and civil rights groups and dismissed a challenge to the statue's removal filed by the the United Daughters of the Confederacy. 1:25 a.m. update: The headquarters of the United Daughters of the … The blaze was extinguished by Richmond firefighters. It remains a Lost Cause organization, adhering to the principles of its founders in a steadfast commitment to members’ Confederate ancestors, states’ rights, and a historical narrative that’s sympathetic to the Confederacy. May 31, 2020 #31. A few have worked with the Sons of Confederate Veterans to protect and, in some cases, build new monuments. 62. The burned the daughters of confederacy building in Richmond Just received a text from a close friend who lives in Richmond va. Posted article to my twitter turtleherder teb. Stoney announced Sunday morning that Gov. 3 a.m. update: An apartment building at 309 W. Broad St. was on fire as protesters still marched through the streets of Richmond. Since the 1960s, the UDC has functioned mostly as a social group that continues to commemorate Confederate Memorial Day and support current members of the military whose ancestors are Confederate veterans. She is the author of Dixie's Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate Culture and tweets @SassyProf. The aftermath of the protests against the Daughters of the Confederacy building that happened during the wee hours of the morning of 05/31/2020. Police rushed in with tear gas to clear the area and let the fire fighters through. Erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, this Memorial Building and Great Hall was affectionately dedicated November 11, 1957, in Richmond, Virginia, to the Women of the South and to the women of the Confederate States of America for their loyal devotion, self-sacrifice, adaptability to new tasks, constancy of purpose, exemplary faith in never changing principles. Tensions intensified Saturday night as Confederate monuments, the headquarters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Virginia History & … A noose hung from the statue of Davis, who was the president of the Confederacy and an ardent defender of slavery. Protesters in Richmond set fire to the United Daughters of the Confederacy headquarters and covered Confederate memorials with graffiti during the second night of … The United Daughters of the Confederacy's Memorial Building in Richmond, VA, serves as both a memorial and the organization's headquarters. This license applies only to the article, not to text or images used here by permission. Since George Floyd’s murder and the swiftness with which monuments have been removed, some UDC chapters have asked to take back ownership of monuments to prevent their vandalism, while other chapters have hired attorneys to fight removal. Mayor Levar Stoney condemned the destruction, which has played out in cities across the country following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota. Thirty-eight year-old statue of the 19th-century education advocate and philantropist, was a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. In the American South, protesters focused their attention on the region’s hundreds of Confederate monuments. Defaced … Most of the records contained in the UDC’s archive are genealogical materials used to determine membership, not items related to either the history of the organization or the Confederacy. Around four dozen demonstrators from Charlottesville and Richmond, many of them wearing hats, pearls, and white gloves, stood outside the UDC’s mausoleum-like headquarters on the BoulevardNovember 4. The United Daughters of the Confederacy … The group's headquarters are in the Memorial to the Women of the Confederacy building in Richmond, Virginia, the former CSA capital. Morgan Riley/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 3.0. These monuments were targeted because they symbolize the systemic racism and white supremacy still prevalent across the nation. At least two businesses burned, including a shoe store and a Rite Aid pharmacy that workers had been attempting to board up as the protest began. #GeorgeFloydProtests #riots2020 #RVA pic.twitter.com/92UKHiNTFQ, Like us on Facebook to see similar stories. In August 2017, the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia—organized under the ruse that white nationalists were there to protest the removal of the Robert E. Lee monument—catapulted the issue of Confederate monuments into our national politics, especially after the death of Heather Heyer by a self-proclaimed white supremacist who drove his car into a crowd, killing her and injuring several other peaceful protesters. After Charlottesville, media outlets across the US and around the world wanted to know about the UDC. Microsoft may earn an Affiliate Commission if you purchase something through recommended links in this article. Phone: 202.544.2422Email: info@historians.org, Dixie's Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate Culture, responsible for the vast majority of statues, asked to take back ownership of monuments, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, Rumors of War Arrives in the South. “We can not sit here idly and tell everyone here that these actions are productive — because they’re not,” Stoney said. Located just a few blocks from Richmond’s Monument Avenue, the organization opened the building in 1957 as a “Memorial to the Women of the Confederacy.” On the evening of May 30, protesters broke its windows and set the building ablaze, damaging the interior, although it is not clear how much damage the library sustained. The organization’s silence in the face of rapid social change speaks volumes about its decline and changes in the American South. Current Events in Historical Context Beginning with the Charleston Massacre of 2015, Confederate symbols have come under increased media scrutiny. The United Daughters of the Confederacy Memorial Building, the organization’s national headquarters, was constructed 1955-57 on the Boulevard in Richmond, and sited next to the Virginia Historical Society building, formerly the Confederate Memorial Institute. Aug 6, 2020. The building contained Stonewall Jackson's headquarters flag as well as some of his original correspondence. Founded in 1894, the UDC, also known as the Daughters, quickly became the most popular of all southern white women’s organizations with a membership—drawn mainly from the middle and upper classes—that peaked at 100,000 at the beginning of World War I. Connect with friends faster than ever with the new Facebook app. What of the organization itself? The crowd left the area as a mass of state police officers approached, heading west to the city’s police headquarters, where the night before protesters had set a police cruiser on fire and broken out windows. 6/03/20 12:00PM. Following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in May 2020, Black Lives Matter protests erupted across the country and around the globe. The morning after in Richmond, Virginia – where they burned the Daughters of the Confederacy building and hung a noose around Jefferson Davis’ neck. Nearby, a fire burned for a time at the headquarters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a group responsible for erecting many Confederate statues and fighting their removal. Once revered by their communities, the Daughters of today are simply out of step with that change. Women, Gender, Sexuality. The UDC’s silence in the face of rapid social change speaks volumes about the organization’s decline and changes in the American South. As tense protests swelled across the country Saturday into early Sunday, monuments in Virginia, the Carolinas and Mississippi were defaced. And we call on these people to cease using Confederate symbols for their abhorrent and reprehensible purposes. Please read our commenting and letters policy before submitting. Karen L. Cox is professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The Virginia Museum of History and Culture, and the Daughters of the Confederacy this morning. 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