Dick Dalton
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
Aug. 4, I marked a poster: This Confederate Monument Will Be Removed. I displayed it for 30 minutes that afternoon on Moreau Drive in front of the Confederate monument/marker Jenny Smith told us about last week in the paper.
Five people stopped to talk:
A senior female said she wanted it to stay and filled me in on its original location down the street and the battle that didn't happen.
A younger male friend of hers parked and came over to talk and said he was adamant that it should stay.
A mild-mannered, middle-aged male approached, learned what I was doing, said God's people should be the ones here taking down these pagan monuments as commanded in the Bible, and thanked me for being there.
A man walking his dog talked from across the street asking for a picture to send to his daughter who has wanted this down for years.
A young man who was neutral and curious, listened as I tried to retell stories I had just heard. All were white.
Until a month or so ago, I had not read the plaque on the stone. I didn't know it was a Confederate monument/marker erected by the Daughters of the Confederacy in 1933 mentioning "Confederate Gen. Sterling Price." I did not know one of my dear Black friends grew up in Jefferson City seeing the marker as "a thorn" knowing the white supremacy it represented. Two grade-school children of color came by recently asking what I was doing. We talked about the Civil War and the words on the plaque. They thanked me for what I was doing.
Jefferson City is a white supremacist town, home to our white supremacist government. Of course, there are degrees of how that gets expressed personally and systemically, but it's pretty obvious, at least to Black folks. Do white folks think Black people should be grateful and submissive because of your sacrifice in fighting the Civil War? Are you grateful for all the work they did as slaves in building physical structures and an economy still dependent on people of color? Sadly, I don't see much evidence of your gratitude.
I believe love would let go of the Confederate monument/marker. Pride would never let go. A man hollered from his truck, "I am not proud of what you are doing!"