WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.700 When you walk through Washington, D .C. today, 00:00:02.899 --> 00:00:06.599 the monuments you see towering over the avenues, 00:00:06.780 --> 00:00:10.160 they feel entirely inevitable. Right, like they 00:00:10.160 --> 00:00:11.560 were just always meant to be there. Exactly. 00:00:11.580 --> 00:00:13.400 We tend to look at them and think, well, of course 00:00:13.400 --> 00:00:16.000 that's there. It's set in stone. Literally. Yeah. 00:00:16.390 --> 00:00:18.329 But the monuments that were successfully blocked, 00:00:18.449 --> 00:00:19.670 the ones that never made it off the drafting 00:00:19.670 --> 00:00:21.449 table, they often tell us much more about the 00:00:21.449 --> 00:00:23.789 actual fabric of American history. Oh, absolutely. 00:00:23.929 --> 00:00:26.850 The empty spaces. Right. So today we're taking 00:00:26.850 --> 00:00:30.010 you on a deep dive into a nearly forgotten yet 00:00:30.010 --> 00:00:33.189 deeply, deeply significant chapter. It's about 00:00:33.189 --> 00:00:36.310 a monument that almost radically altered the 00:00:36.310 --> 00:00:39.090 landscape of the nation's capital. It's a fascinating 00:00:39.090 --> 00:00:41.350 look at a legislative battle that almost nobody 00:00:41.350 --> 00:00:43.850 talks about today. No, they really don't. And 00:00:43.850 --> 00:00:45.609 we're focusing not on what was built, but what 00:00:45.609 --> 00:00:47.460 was built. wasn't. And to do this, we're pulling 00:00:47.460 --> 00:00:50.700 from a really compelling stack of archival materials. 00:00:51.259 --> 00:00:53.939 We're looking at a comprehensive Wikipedia article 00:00:53.939 --> 00:00:57.280 detailing the proposed, quote unquote, Mammy 00:00:57.280 --> 00:01:00.460 Memorial. And this synthesizes historical newspaper 00:01:00.460 --> 00:01:03.000 archives, things like the Chicago Tribune and 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:05.200 the New York World. Right. Alongside official 00:01:05.200 --> 00:01:07.340 congressional records. Exactly. So we have a 00:01:07.340 --> 00:01:09.680 really solid documentary foundation for this 00:01:09.680 --> 00:01:13.000 deep dive. We do. And. Because this text dives 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:16.239 into intensely charged racial and political themes 00:01:16.239 --> 00:01:20.010 from the 1920s, We want to be clear up front 00:01:20.010 --> 00:01:22.109 about our approach today. Yeah, that's important. 00:01:22.329 --> 00:01:25.129 We're here purely as your guides through this 00:01:25.129 --> 00:01:28.069 historical archive. We are looking impartially 00:01:28.069 --> 00:01:30.750 at how this event unfolded in the historical 00:01:30.750 --> 00:01:34.189 record without taking sides, endorsing any viewpoints, 00:01:34.290 --> 00:01:37.189 or injecting modern judgment. Right. Our goal 00:01:37.189 --> 00:01:40.010 is simply to unpack the mechanics of how this 00:01:40.010 --> 00:01:42.670 massive public relations and legislative battle 00:01:42.670 --> 00:01:45.409 was fought exactly as it was documented a century 00:01:45.409 --> 00:01:48.450 ago. Okay, let's unpack this. To understand how 00:01:48.450 --> 00:01:51.310 this almost became a permanent bronze fixture 00:01:51.310 --> 00:01:54.030 in the Capitol, we actually have to rewind more 00:01:54.030 --> 00:01:56.409 than a decade before the major legislative push. 00:01:56.569 --> 00:01:58.170 Yeah, the timeline on this is longer than you'd 00:01:58.170 --> 00:01:59.989 think. It really is. The chronological journey 00:01:59.989 --> 00:02:02.090 doesn't begin in the roaring 20s. The initial 00:02:02.090 --> 00:02:05.469 spark first surfaced in print back in May of 00:02:05.469 --> 00:02:10.050 1910. 1910. Wow. Yeah. There was an article published 00:02:10.050 --> 00:02:12.509 in the Chicago Tribune by a writer named Hollis 00:02:12.509 --> 00:02:15.509 Field. And reading through the archives, you 00:02:15.509 --> 00:02:17.729 know, this wasn't just a fleeting thought piece 00:02:17.729 --> 00:02:20.810 or like a what if scenario. It had actual momentum. 00:02:21.050 --> 00:02:23.930 It did. An actual organization formed around 00:02:23.930 --> 00:02:25.930 this concept. They were called the Mamie Memorial 00:02:25.930 --> 00:02:28.310 Institute and they were based out of Athens, 00:02:28.469 --> 00:02:30.870 Georgia. And they were actively seeking public 00:02:30.870 --> 00:02:33.909 donations to fund a physical national monument. 00:02:34.509 --> 00:02:36.689 Right. And we need to clearly define the specific 00:02:36.689 --> 00:02:38.949 purpose of the monument they were trying to fund 00:02:38.949 --> 00:02:42.210 here. The stated goal of this institute was to 00:02:42.210 --> 00:02:45.849 erect a memorial honoring enslaved African domestic 00:02:45.849 --> 00:02:48.629 workers of the antebellum South. Right. Or who 00:02:48.629 --> 00:02:51.930 were referred to pejoratively as mammies. Yeah. 00:02:52.009 --> 00:02:54.229 The movement to build this was fundamentally 00:02:54.229 --> 00:02:57.449 an attempt to take that specific caricature, 00:02:57.530 --> 00:02:59.729 that highly romanticized memory of the antebellum 00:02:59.729 --> 00:03:02.689 period, and solidify it into a permanent national 00:03:02.689 --> 00:03:05.569 structure. Wait, so. How does an idea generated 00:03:05.569 --> 00:03:08.289 by a local institute in Athens, Georgia in 1910 00:03:08.289 --> 00:03:10.990 gather enough momentum to become a serious proposition 00:03:10.990 --> 00:03:13.889 for the landscape of Washington, D .C.? It's 00:03:13.889 --> 00:03:17.830 a massive leap. Because by 1923, this wasn't 00:03:17.830 --> 00:03:20.210 just a localized Southern effort anymore. It 00:03:20.210 --> 00:03:22.469 wasn't at all. It had reached the highest levels 00:03:22.469 --> 00:03:24.969 of the United States government. The political 00:03:24.969 --> 00:03:28.409 push became highly organized and incredibly serious. 00:03:28.650 --> 00:03:32.389 By 1923, Mississippi Senator John Sharp Williams 00:03:32.389 --> 00:03:35.449 introduced a formal bill in Congress for the 00:03:35.449 --> 00:03:38.270 monument's construction. And this legislation 00:03:38.270 --> 00:03:41.169 had serious institutional weight behind it. It 00:03:41.169 --> 00:03:43.550 was backed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. 00:03:43.949 --> 00:03:46.969 The UDC. Exactly. That is a massive detail. I 00:03:46.969 --> 00:03:48.889 mean, they weren't just a small historical society. 00:03:49.250 --> 00:03:51.889 They were an absolute powerhouse at the time 00:03:51.889 --> 00:03:54.289 when it came to shaping public memory and lobbying 00:03:54.289 --> 00:03:56.569 for monuments, weren't they? Absolutely. Having 00:03:56.569 --> 00:03:59.330 their backing was a prerequisite for moving something 00:03:59.330 --> 00:04:01.270 like this from a regional idea to a national 00:04:01.270 --> 00:04:04.590 priority. But the archival record reveals something 00:04:04.590 --> 00:04:07.090 even more striking about the political reception 00:04:07.090 --> 00:04:10.360 of this bill. When Congressman Charles Manley 00:04:10.360 --> 00:04:13.120 Stedman of North Carolina made a passionate speech 00:04:13.120 --> 00:04:15.539 on the floor of the U .S. House of Representatives 00:04:15.539 --> 00:04:18.720 in favor of constructing this monument. The congressional 00:04:18.720 --> 00:04:22.500 records actually note. that his speech was cheered. 00:04:22.519 --> 00:04:25.439 Wow. And not just by a faction of his own party. 00:04:25.560 --> 00:04:28.040 It was cheered by representatives of both the 00:04:28.040 --> 00:04:30.199 Republican and Democratic parties. That is a 00:04:30.199 --> 00:04:32.540 remarkable image to visualize. You have this 00:04:32.540 --> 00:04:36.819 sweeping bipartisan applause echoing in the House 00:04:36.819 --> 00:04:40.139 of Representatives for a monument dedicated to 00:04:40.139 --> 00:04:42.980 a pejorative caricature of enslaved women. It 00:04:42.980 --> 00:04:45.699 really is. And the bipartisan cheering reveals 00:04:45.699 --> 00:04:48.160 something crucial for you to understand about 00:04:48.160 --> 00:04:52.629 1923 Washington. The romanticization of the Confederacy 00:04:52.629 --> 00:04:55.230 in the Antebellum South wasn't just a localized 00:04:55.230 --> 00:04:58.569 Southern project anymore. At that specific moment, 00:04:58.689 --> 00:05:01.230 it had been wholly embraced by the national political 00:05:01.230 --> 00:05:03.649 establishment. It had gone mainstream. Exactly. 00:05:03.709 --> 00:05:06.569 It was a mainstream political proposition moving 00:05:06.569 --> 00:05:09.209 through the legislative process with massive 00:05:09.209 --> 00:05:12.009 tailwinds. With that kind of overwhelming bipartisan 00:05:12.009 --> 00:05:14.670 support, it probably seemed like a done deal 00:05:14.670 --> 00:05:16.610 to a lot of people. Oh, absolutely. And here's 00:05:16.610 --> 00:05:18.970 where it gets really interesting. Because they 00:05:18.970 --> 00:05:21.029 were already treating it like one. This wasn't 00:05:21.029 --> 00:05:23.310 just abstract legislation floating around a committee 00:05:23.310 --> 00:05:25.850 room somewhere. No, it was tangible. The physical 00:05:25.850 --> 00:05:28.430 reality of the proposed memorial was already 00:05:28.430 --> 00:05:31.649 taking shape in art studios. The United Daughters 00:05:31.649 --> 00:05:34.110 of the Confederacy were actively soliciting and 00:05:34.110 --> 00:05:36.389 receiving design proposals from sculptors and 00:05:36.389 --> 00:05:39.189 architects to win this really high profile commission. 00:05:39.470 --> 00:05:41.790 And when you look at the artists involved, it 00:05:41.790 --> 00:05:44.149 shows how seriously the art world was taking 00:05:44.149 --> 00:05:47.399 this commission. Right. The texts highlight two 00:05:47.399 --> 00:05:49.860 specific sculptors who were deeply involved in 00:05:49.860 --> 00:05:53.120 the design phase. First, there was a Canadian 00:05:53.120 --> 00:05:55.680 -American sculptor named Ulrich Stonewall Jackson 00:05:55.680 --> 00:05:59.399 Dunbar. And he wasn't just sketching ideas on 00:05:59.399 --> 00:06:02.379 a napkin. The records indicate that by June of 00:06:02.379 --> 00:06:06.240 1923, Dunbar had already created a physical maquette. 00:06:06.459 --> 00:06:08.620 of his proposal. Which means he was incredibly 00:06:08.620 --> 00:06:11.279 far along in the process. He already had a physical, 00:06:11.399 --> 00:06:14.139 small -scale, three -dimensional model of this 00:06:14.139 --> 00:06:16.720 monument sitting right there in his studio, just 00:06:16.720 --> 00:06:18.680 waiting for the green light to be scaled up and 00:06:18.680 --> 00:06:21.060 cast in bronze. Exactly. It brings the reality 00:06:21.060 --> 00:06:23.180 of the monument very close to the finish line. 00:06:23.300 --> 00:06:25.740 But Dunbar was competing against another highly 00:06:25.740 --> 00:06:30.759 notable name, George Julian Zolney. And his background 00:06:30.759 --> 00:06:32.920 provides a fascinating juxtaposition for this 00:06:32.920 --> 00:06:35.759 specific project. Oh, yeah. Zolney was an immigrant. 00:06:36.199 --> 00:06:38.779 He was a Romanian and Hungarian -American. I 00:06:38.779 --> 00:06:40.899 have to pause you there. How does an Eastern 00:06:40.899 --> 00:06:44.980 European immigrant, who presumably has zero familial 00:06:44.980 --> 00:06:48.100 connection to the antebellum South, end up as 00:06:48.100 --> 00:06:50.620 the premier sculptor for a Confederate -backed 00:06:50.620 --> 00:06:52.540 monument? It's one of those brilliant, ironic 00:06:52.540 --> 00:06:54.959 details you only find in the historical archives. 00:06:55.759 --> 00:06:58.639 Despite his Eastern European roots, Zolny had 00:06:58.639 --> 00:07:01.339 earned a very specific, highly lucrative title. 00:07:01.500 --> 00:07:03.560 What was it? He was known as the sculptor of 00:07:03.560 --> 00:07:06.360 the Confederacy. You're kidding. No. And he earned 00:07:06.360 --> 00:07:08.879 that moniker purely through market demand. He 00:07:08.879 --> 00:07:10.939 had successfully undertaken numerous commissions 00:07:10.939 --> 00:07:13.060 of Confederate subjects on behalf of wealthy 00:07:13.060 --> 00:07:15.740 Southern clients. Wow. So he had a proven track 00:07:15.740 --> 00:07:18.019 record of delivering exactly what this specific 00:07:18.019 --> 00:07:20.930 demographic wanted. OK, so the gears are fully 00:07:20.930 --> 00:07:23.529 in motion. You have the public donations, the 00:07:23.529 --> 00:07:26.509 powerful lobbying from the UDC, the bipartisan 00:07:26.509 --> 00:07:29.850 cheers in the House of Representatives and establish 00:07:29.850 --> 00:07:32.850 highly regarded sculptors with physical models 00:07:32.850 --> 00:07:34.910 already built. It's all lined up. If you stopped 00:07:34.910 --> 00:07:36.949 reading the history right there in the summer 00:07:36.949 --> 00:07:41.220 of 1923, the construction of this monument. feels 00:07:41.220 --> 00:07:44.279 entirely inevitable. Absolutely. But of course, 00:07:44.300 --> 00:07:45.980 as we established at the beginning of our deep 00:07:45.980 --> 00:07:48.519 dive, if you go to Washington, D .C. today, it 00:07:48.519 --> 00:07:50.759 isn't there. Right. So we have to look at what 00:07:50.759 --> 00:07:53.240 happened next, which was an immediate, intense, 00:07:53.439 --> 00:07:57.319 and incredibly fierce pushback. Yes. As soon 00:07:57.319 --> 00:07:59.199 as the momentum behind this proposed monument 00:07:59.199 --> 00:08:02.560 became public knowledge, it hit an absolute wall 00:08:02.560 --> 00:08:05.079 of condemnation. A brick wall. The coalition 00:08:05.079 --> 00:08:07.800 that formed to oppose it was diverse, highly 00:08:07.800 --> 00:08:11.480 vocal, and incredibly strategic. The texts note 00:08:11.480 --> 00:08:13.500 that it was immediately condemned by African 00:08:13.500 --> 00:08:16.040 -Americans nationwide, but they were joined by 00:08:16.040 --> 00:08:18.620 other organized groups. For instance, the Women's 00:08:18.620 --> 00:08:20.220 Relief Corps, the Grand Army of the Republic, 00:08:20.360 --> 00:08:23.120 stood in firm opposition. And for context for 00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:25.579 you listening, the Grand Army of the Republic 00:08:25.579 --> 00:08:28.680 was the primary organization for Union Civil 00:08:28.680 --> 00:08:31.519 War veterans, making the Women's Relief Corps 00:08:31.519 --> 00:08:34.879 their official auxiliary. So you even have the 00:08:34.879 --> 00:08:37.120 descendants and families of Union veterans stepping 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:39.600 into the fray to block this. And they didn't 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:42.720 just quietly disagree in private meetings. No, 00:08:42.740 --> 00:08:44.879 they did not. The way this opposition utilized 00:08:44.879 --> 00:08:47.980 the media is a masterclass in 1920s grassroots 00:08:47.980 --> 00:08:51.179 organizing. It really is. They took the fight 00:08:51.179 --> 00:08:53.379 directly to the pages of the biggest papers of 00:08:53.379 --> 00:08:56.649 the day. Major media outlets joined the opposition, 00:08:56.970 --> 00:09:00.330 notably the New York World newspaper, which publicly 00:09:00.330 --> 00:09:03.590 condemned the project. But one of the most prominent 00:09:03.590 --> 00:09:06.570 individual voices in this media pushback was 00:09:06.570 --> 00:09:08.789 Mary Church Terrell. Right. She wrote an editorial 00:09:08.789 --> 00:09:11.269 condemning the monument that was published in 00:09:11.269 --> 00:09:13.169 the Washington Evening Star. And the crucial 00:09:13.169 --> 00:09:15.470 detail about Terrell's editorial wasn't just 00:09:15.470 --> 00:09:18.690 that she wrote it, but its reach. The archives 00:09:18.690 --> 00:09:21.289 highlight that this piece was widely circulated. 00:09:21.350 --> 00:09:23.470 It went everywhere. Yet it wasn't contained to 00:09:23.470 --> 00:09:26.190 a single local audience. It became a broader 00:09:26.190 --> 00:09:29.710 rallying cry that clearly articulated the deep 00:09:29.710 --> 00:09:32.070 offense of the monument. But the pushback wasn't 00:09:32.070 --> 00:09:34.750 limited to just text and intellectual editorials. 00:09:34.830 --> 00:09:37.250 If you look at the archives of the Chicago Defender 00:09:37.250 --> 00:09:40.110 from that week, they deployed a highly powerful, 00:09:40.370 --> 00:09:42.789 provocative visual campaign as well. Oh, yes. 00:09:42.929 --> 00:09:45.470 The cartoon. Yeah. They published a political 00:09:45.470 --> 00:09:48.990 cartoon that depicted. A white southerner proudly 00:09:48.990 --> 00:09:51.470 presenting the architectural plans for the Mamie 00:09:51.470 --> 00:09:53.629 Monument. Right. But he isn't presenting them 00:09:53.629 --> 00:09:56.509 to a politician or a crowd of supporters. He 00:09:56.509 --> 00:09:59.129 is presenting the plans to the hanging body of 00:09:59.129 --> 00:10:02.940 a lynching victim. That is. That is a remarkably 00:10:02.940 --> 00:10:05.940 heavy image to digest. Yeah. It violently punctures 00:10:05.940 --> 00:10:08.340 the polite, sterilized rhetoric that was happening 00:10:08.340 --> 00:10:09.580 on the floor of the House of Representatives. 00:10:09.580 --> 00:10:11.539 It strips away all the political theater, doesn't 00:10:11.539 --> 00:10:14.100 it? It absolutely does. What's fascinating here 00:10:14.100 --> 00:10:18.039 is how effectively that single image cuts to 00:10:18.039 --> 00:10:21.259 the core of the opposition's argument. It contrasts 00:10:21.259 --> 00:10:24.899 the fabricated, romanticized fantasy of the antebellum 00:10:24.899 --> 00:10:28.539 South with the visceral, horrific reality of 00:10:28.539 --> 00:10:30.519 the racial violence that black Americans were 00:10:30.519 --> 00:10:34.320 facing. Right then in 1923. Exactly. When you 00:10:34.320 --> 00:10:36.419 break down the historical commentary from the 00:10:36.419 --> 00:10:39.279 opposition during this time, they were attacking 00:10:39.279 --> 00:10:42.240 the memorial from two very distinct angles. So 00:10:42.240 --> 00:10:44.659 they had a two -pronged strategy. What were the 00:10:44.659 --> 00:10:47.379 specific arguments? The first argument was deeply 00:10:47.379 --> 00:10:49.759 ideological. Right. They argued the memorial 00:10:49.759 --> 00:10:52.240 was inherently objectionable. It was an offensive 00:10:52.240 --> 00:10:54.480 caricature designed to celebrate an institution 00:10:54.480 --> 00:10:56.860 of slavery. Right. But the second argument was 00:10:56.860 --> 00:10:59.320 purely pragmatic, focusing on economics. Oh. 00:10:59.639 --> 00:11:01.720 Interesting. Yeah. Commentators pointed out that 00:11:01.720 --> 00:11:04.139 building a massive national bronze monument is 00:11:04.139 --> 00:11:07.120 an incredibly expensive endeavor. They argued 00:11:07.120 --> 00:11:09.120 it was a massive waste of public and private 00:11:09.120 --> 00:11:11.539 funds. And more importantly, they argued that 00:11:11.539 --> 00:11:13.919 those funds could and should be better utilized 00:11:13.919 --> 00:11:17.139 to actively improve the lives of living black 00:11:17.139 --> 00:11:20.100 people rather than pouring money into stone to 00:11:20.100 --> 00:11:22.879 honor a fabricated memory. It's such a sharp. 00:11:23.289 --> 00:11:25.750 undeniable critique. You have all this capital 00:11:25.750 --> 00:11:28.250 to build a statue of a myth. But what about the 00:11:28.250 --> 00:11:30.870 actual citizens living right now? Precisely. 00:11:30.909 --> 00:11:34.090 And this outrage, the wide circulation of Terrell's 00:11:34.090 --> 00:11:37.250 editorial, the visceral cartoons in the Chicago 00:11:37.250 --> 00:11:41.610 Defender, the pragmatic economic arguments. It 00:11:41.610 --> 00:11:43.850 didn't just stay in the newspapers as intellectual 00:11:43.850 --> 00:11:47.470 debate. It translated into direct targeted political 00:11:47.470 --> 00:11:50.750 action. Yes. The public mobilize. The mobilization 00:11:50.750 --> 00:11:54.210 was incredibly focused. The opposition recognized 00:11:54.210 --> 00:11:56.730 that simply being angry in the press wasn't enough 00:11:56.730 --> 00:11:59.990 to stop a bill with bipartisan support. They 00:11:59.990 --> 00:12:02.129 had to apply pressure directly to legislative 00:12:02.129 --> 00:12:05.149 leadership. Right. The archives detail how letters 00:12:05.149 --> 00:12:08.210 and petitions began to absolutely flood the desks 00:12:08.210 --> 00:12:10.669 of top politicians in Washington. And they aimed 00:12:10.669 --> 00:12:12.269 right for the top. We're not just talking about 00:12:12.269 --> 00:12:15.389 angry letters to local lower level representatives. 00:12:15.389 --> 00:12:18.049 No, they targeted the highest levels of the executive 00:12:18.049 --> 00:12:21.190 and legislative branches. The records emphasize 00:12:21.190 --> 00:12:23.870 a staggering. logistical achievement for this 00:12:23.870 --> 00:12:26.269 pressure campaign. Petitions were sent directly 00:12:26.269 --> 00:12:28.929 to Vice President Calvin Coolidge, as well as 00:12:28.929 --> 00:12:31.370 to the Speaker of the House, Frederick H. Gillett. 00:12:31.409 --> 00:12:35.190 Wow. And the text specifically notes that these 00:12:35.190 --> 00:12:38.269 petitions carry the signatures of 2 ,000 black 00:12:38.269 --> 00:12:40.419 women. Let's just pause and think about the sheer 00:12:40.419 --> 00:12:43.100 logistical effort required to pull that off in 00:12:43.100 --> 00:12:46.039 1923. It's monumental. Two thousand individual 00:12:46.039 --> 00:12:48.860 signatures from black women gathered, bundled 00:12:48.860 --> 00:12:51.000 and delivered directly to the vice president's 00:12:51.000 --> 00:12:54.080 desk. There is no Internet. There are no social 00:12:54.080 --> 00:12:56.539 media campaigns or email blasts. No, it's all 00:12:56.539 --> 00:12:59.179 analog. That is pure ground level coordination, 00:12:59.600 --> 00:13:02.600 knocking on doors, organizing through local networks 00:13:02.600 --> 00:13:05.019 and ensuring those physical pages made it to 00:13:05.019 --> 00:13:07.870 the most powerful desks in the country. It is 00:13:07.870 --> 00:13:10.549 a profound testament to the power of organized 00:13:10.549 --> 00:13:13.049 civic action. They built an undeniable political 00:13:13.049 --> 00:13:16.690 force. And we see the direct result of that intense 00:13:16.690 --> 00:13:19.830 pressure in the archives. The outcome is definitive. 00:13:20.070 --> 00:13:22.429 The controversy surrounding the monument became 00:13:22.429 --> 00:13:25.250 so immense and the public outcry so organized 00:13:25.250 --> 00:13:27.610 and targeted that the political will to pass 00:13:27.610 --> 00:13:30.320 the legislation simply evaporated. The momentum 00:13:30.320 --> 00:13:33.559 completely flatlines? Yes. The bill was entirely 00:13:33.559 --> 00:13:36.440 dropped. No further action was ever taken on 00:13:36.440 --> 00:13:39.059 it in Congress. The grassroots campaign successfully 00:13:39.059 --> 00:13:42.240 halted the legislation in its tracks. So what 00:13:42.240 --> 00:13:44.700 does this all mean? How does a defeated bill 00:13:44.700 --> 00:13:48.679 from 1923 impact us today? Well, to fully grasp 00:13:48.679 --> 00:13:51.500 the reality of what was avoided, we have to look 00:13:51.500 --> 00:13:53.679 at the physical location where this monument 00:13:53.679 --> 00:13:55.679 was slated to be built. Right. The geography 00:13:55.679 --> 00:13:57.990 of it. The Congressional Archives reveal that 00:13:57.990 --> 00:14:00.210 the proposed site for the Mamie Memorial was 00:14:00.210 --> 00:14:02.629 a highly prominent spot on Massachusetts Avenue. 00:14:02.809 --> 00:14:05.570 Massachusetts Avenue is, of course, a major thoroughfare 00:14:05.570 --> 00:14:08.509 in Washington, D .C., known as Embassy Row, and 00:14:08.509 --> 00:14:10.669 it's heavily populated with significant statues 00:14:10.669 --> 00:14:12.870 and monuments. Yeah, it's a very visible location. 00:14:13.070 --> 00:14:16.049 For decades, the specific spot intended for this 00:14:16.049 --> 00:14:19.330 memorial remained a phantom space, a site defined 00:14:19.330 --> 00:14:21.950 entirely by the legislation that failed to alter 00:14:21.950 --> 00:14:25.379 it. But the historical record provides a fascinating 00:14:25.379 --> 00:14:29.120 postscript to this whole saga. Oh. In 2002, the 00:14:29.120 --> 00:14:31.379 site on Massachusetts Avenue was ultimately filled. 00:14:31.519 --> 00:14:34.340 But obviously not by anything resembling the 00:14:34.340 --> 00:14:37.899 1923 proposal. Correct. The site was filled by 00:14:37.899 --> 00:14:40.519 a completely different monument altogether. It's 00:14:40.519 --> 00:14:43.820 now a statue of Tomáša Garík Masaryk, the first 00:14:43.820 --> 00:14:47.480 president of Czechoslovakia. Wow. What a shift. 00:14:47.799 --> 00:14:50.320 It really is. And if we connect this to the bigger 00:14:50.320 --> 00:14:53.480 picture. Why should you, listening to this right 00:14:53.480 --> 00:14:56.059 now, care about a statue that was never built? 00:14:56.340 --> 00:14:59.620 Why spend time unpacking a ghost monument? It 00:14:59.620 --> 00:15:02.700 is because this history perfectly illustrates 00:15:02.700 --> 00:15:05.419 how public memory is negotiated in real time. 00:15:05.720 --> 00:15:08.100 It shows us that the physical landscape of a 00:15:08.100 --> 00:15:10.980 nation's capital is not an inevitability handed 00:15:10.980 --> 00:15:14.080 down from above. It is the result of continuous 00:15:14.080 --> 00:15:16.200 active struggle. It proves that history isn't 00:15:16.200 --> 00:15:18.519 just a top -down mandate. Exactly. This event 00:15:18.519 --> 00:15:20.860 demonstrates with crystal clarity how organized 00:15:20.860 --> 00:15:23.779 grassroots information campaigns utilizing targeted 00:15:23.779 --> 00:15:26.759 petitions, widely circulated editorials, and 00:15:26.759 --> 00:15:29.379 provocative political cartoons can successfully 00:15:29.379 --> 00:15:32.120 halt the physical altering of public space. It's 00:15:32.120 --> 00:15:35.259 incredibly empowering. The citizens of 1923 prove 00:15:35.259 --> 00:15:37.460 that even when a bill has bipartisan cheers in 00:15:37.460 --> 00:15:40.299 Congress and wealthy backers commissioning scale 00:15:40.299 --> 00:15:43.480 models from famous sculptors, it can be starved 00:15:43.480 --> 00:15:45.559 by the coordinated voices of those who refuse 00:15:45.559 --> 00:15:48.899 to let a false narrative be cast in bronze. It 00:15:48.899 --> 00:15:51.200 really makes you look at every empty park and 00:15:51.200 --> 00:15:53.399 every completed statue in a totally different 00:15:53.399 --> 00:15:56.470 light. Let's do a quick recap of the incredible 00:15:56.470 --> 00:15:59.450 archival journey we just took. We started with 00:15:59.450 --> 00:16:02.529 a fleeting newspaper idea in the Chicago Tribune 00:16:02.529 --> 00:16:06.250 back in 1910. We watched it grow into a fully 00:16:06.250 --> 00:16:09.370 fledged congressional bill introduced in 1923, 00:16:09.590 --> 00:16:12.690 backed by the incredibly powerful United Daughters 00:16:12.690 --> 00:16:15.230 of the Confederacy and cheered by both Republicans 00:16:15.230 --> 00:16:18.149 and Democrats. We saw the maquettes being built 00:16:18.149 --> 00:16:20.929 by the, quote unquote, smelter of the Confederacy. 00:16:23.500 --> 00:16:25.820 and fierce demise of the whole project, brought 00:16:25.820 --> 00:16:28.700 down by an unstoppable coalition of African -American 00:16:28.700 --> 00:16:31.259 citizens, women's groups, and media outlets who 00:16:31.259 --> 00:16:33.860 utilize striking imagery and thousands of physical 00:16:33.860 --> 00:16:36.320 signatures to force the government to drop the 00:16:36.320 --> 00:16:38.799 bill entirely. This raises an important question. 00:16:39.639 --> 00:16:42.840 If a prominent spot on Massachusetts Avenue can 00:16:42.840 --> 00:16:44.899 transition from being the proposed site of a 00:16:44.899 --> 00:16:48.360 1923 Confederate -backed monument to ultimately 00:16:48.360 --> 00:16:52.659 becoming the home of a 2002 statue of a Czechoslovakian 00:16:52.659 --> 00:16:56.399 president, What does the evolving invisible history 00:16:56.399 --> 00:16:59.539 of empty public spaces tell us about the ever 00:16:59.539 --> 00:17:02.299 -changing values of a society over a century? 00:17:02.840 --> 00:17:05.640 The spaces where nothing was built can sometimes 00:17:05.640 --> 00:17:08.559 speak just as loudly as the monuments that stand 00:17:08.559 --> 00:17:10.940 there today. That is such a fascinating thought 00:17:10.940 --> 00:17:12.779 to leave on. Thank you so much for joining us 00:17:12.779 --> 00:17:14.619 on this deep dive into the historical archives 00:17:14.619 --> 00:17:17.220 today. We hope this exploration has given you 00:17:17.220 --> 00:17:20.079 a new perspective on the intricate, often invisible 00:17:20.079 --> 00:17:22.500 legislative and public relations battles that 00:17:22.500 --> 00:17:25.200 shape the cities we walk through. Keep questioning 00:17:25.200 --> 00:17:27.819 the history around you, look closely at the monuments 00:17:27.819 --> 00:17:30.000 that surround you, and maybe even look a little 00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:32.099 closer at the empty spaces too. See you next 00:17:32.099 --> 00:17:32.319 time.