The recent failure of the
Arkansas Legislature to remove General Robert E. Lee from the day honoring Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. was disheartening. Once again the specter of the South’s
legacy of slavery and the disrespect of its Black residents was evident.
One of the fundamental reasons
for the Civil War was more about economics, not humanitarian concerns. While
the issue of the abolitionist movement was increasing at the time, the war
itself was not dependent on anti-slavery as its justification. The real reason wasn't over concern for an enslaved people, it was in part because of the
disadvantages between slave labor and paid labor.
By using slave labor, the South
had a significant edge on production costs. Also, the trading in human flesh to
provide for those utilizing human beings as farm equipment was in of itself a
profitable business. Lee, while by accounts deemed an honorable man, was in
fact in charge of a military force that sought to maintain the status quo for the
South. This included fighting for the continued use of slaves to support the
Southern economy. It meant fighting for the right to keep human beings in
bondage, usually in horrific, inhumane living and working conditions. Their
lives and family’s well-being dependent upon the whim of their masters. Rape,
beatings, torture and lynching were a common occurrence committed by masters
against their slaves. Children and parents were torn apart because family
members were sold off or killed by their masters. Husbands powerless to protect
or defend their wives from rape at the hands of the master, his friends and
relatives. This is a part of what Lee fought to continue.
The war ended. General Lee
lost, the Confederacy lost. However, an era of a new kind of slavery blossomed
in the South as those who followed Lee contrived new ways to gain from the
misery and the complete subjugation of Black people in the South. They planted
their bitter fruit trees of Jim Crow laws that dictated the lives of Black
Southerners. Available employment was poorly paid and workers endured abuse and
mistreatment as a matter of course at the hands of White employers. A reliance
by Southern Whites on prison labor for economic gain saw Black men and women
incarcerated willfully and often on trumped up charges. These bitter trees also
bore the strange fruit of Black bodies; men and women, lynched for the sport
and hatred of their White neighbors.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was
an important part of the many who struggled for freedom from these terrible
things. Many in the civil rights movement were beaten and some murdered to stop
these efforts for freedom and equality. Celebrating Robert E. Lee on the same
day as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a painful reminder to the descendants of
those who endured the atrocities of slavery, Jim Crow and the continuance of
inequitable treatment suffered today, that there is no true understanding nor
compassion for what has happened to their people.
General Robert E. Lee although
deemed an honorable man, bears the legacy of his active participation in
leading an army whose mandate was to protect the established way of life in the
South. This included the continuation of White people owning Black people and
doing whatever they wanted to do with their bodies and their very lives. This
is a real part of Lee's legacy. And those who seek to elevate and celebrate him
cannot ignore, nor escape this most evident truth.
The Arkansas legislature is
purported to represent ALL Arkansans. It is reprehensible and a disservice to
that body and to this state to continue honoring General Lee on the same day as
Dr. King. As a civil rights activist, Dr. King, often at his own peril, fought
to free Black people from the legacy of Lee and the ensuing Jim Crow South. To
continue to allow this to stand is an act of blatant disregard for the ugly
truth of the history and pain that continues to be felt today by many Black
people, in particular Southern Black people.