Replacing Mississippi Statues in Washington
Good Mornin’! It’s just a hair before five am. Feist-Dog says it’s time for me to get up. Since it’s Thursday, I’d like to tilt at some windmills.
William Moseley "Fishbait" Miller, from Pascagoula, Mississippi, was the doorman for the United States House of Representatives for almost thirty years. He was a legend. When I was a child, I sent him a letter, hand-delivered by my father on one of his many trips to Washington. He responded by sending two fat manilla envelopes, one for me and one for my baby sister, stuffed with information about the US Capitol. Our Capitol. The Peoples House. This began a life-long fascination in me for this building where rests America’s throne.
At the end of the Civil War, the architect of the US Capitol Building invited the states to contribute two bronze statues each to decorate the people’s house. Having troubles of our own and not entirely pleased with the federal government at the end of the Civil War, Mississippi declined to participate in this generous invitation as the only place where our legislature could meet to decide on such things happened to be the only place in our state capitol that wasn’t burned to the ground.
Ninety years later, Mississippi decided it had recovered enough to participate in this program, but only if we could use it to send a message. We chose two Confederate leaders, Jefferson Davis, and J.Z. George, to represent Mississippi. That choice sent a message to the world. It sent a message to Washington that Mississippi was not yet ready to play nice, but more importantly, it sent a strong message to the descendants of African Slaves living in Mississippi that they would never be equal here.
You’ve undoubtedly heard of Davis. As president of the Confederacy, Davis’s leadership nearly destroyed Mississippi. At the end of the Civil War, he may or may not have been captured smuggling Confederate gold and wearing a woman’s dress. This actually is an anecdote, not fact, but it suits me to retell the story because I don’t care for him. George had been a compatriot of Davis, both before and during the war. His role in Mississippi history was particularly pernicious as he was a principal architect of the body of laws that became known as “Jim Crow.” You probably never heard of George, but he may have done more damage than Davis.
The original concept of the National Statuary Hall was that it be a living installation, and the states would update their contributions as their cultures developed. Mississippi has never done that, even though there have been deep, deep changes in our culture since 1931.
A few weeks ago, I saw a notice on Facebook that Jerry Mitchell, Rick Cleveland, Mississippi Today, and the Mississippi Humanities Council were having a meeting at The Yard in Fondren to discuss the Statuary Hall situation. As I’ve mentioned before, Mitchell is one of my personal heroes. He and Bobby Delaughter did something nobody thought would ever happen to bring some measure of justice to Medgar Evers.
The meeting's goal was to discuss sending new statues to Washington to represent Mississippi as it is, not as it was. While there was a good crowd, I was hoping for more. I also hoped to have at least one member of the Mississippi legislature there, as their participation is crucial. Nobody likes finding out how much of a hill they have to climb, but you can’t let that stop you. Whatever size crowd we started with, I’m not stopping.
Mississippi is the poorest, least functional, least successful state in the nation. If you live here for any amount of time, you’ve heard that many times. In my generation, it’s become increasingly difficult for my peers to convince their children to remain in Mississippi. The great majority of them find opportunities to match their potential in places that aren’t Mississippi. This is equally true if you’re White, Black, Indian, Native, Hispanic, or any of the other dozen ingredients in the Mississippi gumbo. Sending our best and our brightest away from us is not sustainable.
Ivan Allen was one of the most influential leaders in Atlanta’s long history. My father idolized him. Allen believed that there were too many Africans living in Atlanta for the city to ever prosper if they didn’t share equally in the responsibilities and the rewards of citizenship. My father believed, his father believed, and I believe this applies even more to Mississippi. Unless we can figure out a way to present a unified front, then Mississippi is doomed to be dead last forever, which is a shame because we have more potential than anybody.
There are three steps to replacing the statues representing Mississippi in the US Capitol. The first may be the most difficult. We have to convince the Mississippi Legislature to take up the issue. That’s why I was hoping some members would be there last night. It’s vital in this effort not to phrase it as “taking down Confederate statues.” That will immediately engage the “heritage not hate” people, and there’s no reasoning with them. If the message becomes “Updating our Contribution to Match the New Mississippi,” then the chances improve considerably.
When I was a child, some Jackson leaders (mainly Leland Speed) began talking about a “New Jackson” to overcome the negative perception the world had of Jackson through the fifties and sixties and, more importantly, to give the people who live here a new perception of themselves. This became the “Bold New City” marketing campaign that I still see as one of the most successful cultural and political movements in Mississippi history, even though it didn’t last. Part of that strategy that nobody talks about was an effort to tear down and build anew on some of the sites where the most embarrassing and hateful things happened in Jackson. That’s why there are Freedom Trail markers in front of parking lots. It sounds brutal, but it worked.
We might have a chance if we can get past that first step to the second step. The second step is choosing two Mississippians to represent us in bronze in Washington. At the meeting yesterday, Jerry offered a suggestion of a Medgar Evers statue. Most of the contributors nominated civil rights leaders. That might be a mistake. To get this bill through a conservative, maga-laden Mississippi Legislature, choosing political leaders might be an obstacle. Saying you want to replace a Confederate leader (no matter how horrible they were) with a civil rights worker has the potential of killing the bill dead.
Obviously, I don’t decide this, but if I were to nominate statue candidates, I’d copy Rick Cleveland’s suggestion of Walter Payton and either William Faulkner or Elvis Presley to go with him. Nonpolitical but equally important cultural leaders might be the best way to go.
Sports can be a great unifier among people. If you were to ask Archie Manning, who was the greatest athlete to ever come out of Mississippi, I bet anything he’d say, Walter Payton. When Payton was in college, I used to watch him run up and down the levees in Jackson and sprint the steps at War Memorial Stadium. The man was amazing. The NFL will never see his equal.
Elvis is a pretty obvious choice. Not many people would vote against him. My only reservation is that even though Memphis is spiritually part of Mississippi, it’s factually part of Tennessee, and Elvis is much more Memphis than he is Mississippi.
If you were to poll Mississippi writers on the question of who the greatest Mississippi writer might be, they would almost universally say William Faulkner. If you were to poll the world’s writers as to who the greatest American writer might be, most would say Faulkner. If you were to ask Hemmingway who the greatest American writer might be (who wasn’t named Hemmingway), he would say Faulkner.
Besides absolutely earning it, the other reason I’d nominate Faulkner is entirely political. Getting this idea through the Mississippi Legislature and onto the Governor’s desk is gonna take a lot of powerful friends, and there aren’t many more powerful friends than the Ole Miss/Oxford contingent. Putting Payton’s name on the bill has the potential of bringing the southern half of Mississippi on board, but using Faulkner’s name will absolutely bring the northern half into the fold.
If we can get past these two steps, the third step, seeking funding and getting the governor to sign off on it, shouldn’t be that difficult. Bronze statues are expensive, but they’re not that expensive. I might even know some guys who do this for a living.
I wouldn’t give up on the idea of a Medgar Evers statue, though. A few years ago, the Jackson City Government voted to remove the Katherine Speed statue of Andrew Jackson in front of Jackson City Hall. I dearly, dearly loved Mrs. Speed, but I understand why Andrew Jackson might be problematic. I don’t care for him either.
Like Mississippi, Jackson's best and only hope is to provide a unified front. It’ll be harder for Jackson to raise the money than Mississippi, but I would move Andrew Jackson ten feet to the left of the center and erect a statue of Medgar Evers, the same size, on a matching pedestal ten feet to the right of the center. If better times ever return to Jackson, I’d like to see statues all over town, but I think this might be a good start.
It’s important to keep the message that we’re trying to expand Mississippi culture, not that we’re replacing White Mississippi culture. In 2017, white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia, began shouting, “You Will Not Replace Us!” and a woman died. As much as their movement upsets me, we ignore their feelings at our peril. It’s vital that we make these people believe no one is trying to replace them. Everybody wants to include them, but they want to include everybody else, too. That’s a much more palatable message for every side.
I’m not a fool. I know replacing these statues is an enormous task, and I’m probably not up to it, but my grandfather asked me one time, “Boyd, Do you know how to eat an elephant?”
“Why no, Grandaddy. How do you eat an elephant?” I answered.
“One bite at a time, son. One bite at a time.”
This next bite will be to raise awareness and gather allies. This is why feist-dog got me up so early.
