Wilson was a despicable racist who showed that being raised in Georgia had a much bigger impact on him than being governor of NJ. Nevertheless, bigotry is not the only reason he’s known/remembered.
Wilson was POTUS, nobel laureate and founder of the League of Nations. He was a very significant part of American history, not just confederate history. Removing his name, etc truly would be an attempt to change history, just like erecting statues to confederate traitors as honorable men is an effort by bigots to change history.
What the history of Lee leading an army responsible for the deaths of some 7,000 Ohioans killed in action?
Here is the real history of Ohio in the Civil War-
[Quote]
Nearly 320,000 Ohioans served in the Union army, more than any other northern state except New York and Pennsylvania. Of these, 5,092 were free blacks. Ohio had the highest percentage of population enlisted in the military of any state. Sixty percent of all the men between the ages of 18 and 45 were in the service. Ohio mustered 230 regiments of infantry and cavalry, as well as 26 light artillery batteries and 5 independent companies of sharpshooters. Total casualties among these units numbered 35,475 men, more than 10% of all the Buckeyes in uniform during the war. There were 6,835 men killed in action, including 402 officers.[/QUOTE]
Fair points. I’m not anything near an unbiased judge when it comes to Wilson, so it’s better that I’m not the one making the decision.
@26degreesrising What gets me is the “Checkmate, Libs!!!” mentality that a lot of these racists seem to have about monuments, as if we’re obligated to automatically defend everyone with a D after his name or any person of color. (Projection, I know.) Trump’s lawyer seemed to think that trotting out Ramses II and Shaka Zulu would convince liberals that Robert E. Lee isn’t so bad. Like, WTF?
Yes, you have a point. He was vicious about immigrants too. Made nice a little later, but that was window dressing. He was a racist. One of his biographers pointed out that his hesitancy to enter WWI was less a case of pacifism than of a fear that he would reduce the number of whites in the population.
@yvonneofnc But you are right too. Let’s just not lionize him too much.
@coprophagoussmile The discussion still keeps the focus on white culture. More than we need to take statues down, we need these to change the dialogue:
Franklin Township could give it to Bill Cunningham, our local conservative radio/tv talker. If not, maybe feckless Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown might consider it for his tombstone
Every statue commemorating the Confederacy is a public statement that says abolishing slavery and giving African Americans full citizenship was a bad idea.
Hey, hey, HEY! The Robert E. Lee stature is there to recognize Ohio heritage. Everyone knows that Lee was a great friend of fellow Ohioan Ulysses S. Grant.
Why in god’s name is there a monument in Ohio to Lee in any case??? The man was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Ohio soldiers in the US Army during the Civil War.
Ohio gave over 300,000 troops to the Union efforts, 35,000 of whom died. Why on earth would they erect statues to the memory of the people who killed them? The one and only reason was, that 60 years later symbol of racial triumphalism were on the rise. The Cincinnati area is well known for its shitty race relations.
The other Confederate monuments in Ohio are more understandable, grave sites and former POW camps:
In 1902, a monument was erected on the site of Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery, Columbus, where 2260 Confederate soldiers are buried. The Cincinnati Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy erected a monument on Johnson Island in Lake Erie, another Confederate prison site, in 1910. Another Confederate site is the grave of Confederate Captain William C. Quantrill in Dover, Tuscarawas County. Quantrill died and was buried in Louisville, KY in 1865 but in 1887 his mother had his remains moved to the Fourth Street Cemetery in Dover, the family home
