GOP’s Bid to Reinstate Confederate ‘Mammy’ Monument Falls Short

Congress Blocks Republican Attempt to Reinstate Confederate 'Mammy' Statue at Arlington National Cemetery | Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

June 14, 2024 Story by: Editor

A Republican-driven initiative to reinstall a Confederate statue featuring a Black "Mammy" at Arlington National Cemetery was narrowly defeated late Thursday afternoon.

The proposal to restore the Reconciliation Memorial, introduced by Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), failed to pass with a vote of 192-230.

Notably, two dozen Republicans opposed the restoration effort, while no Democrats voted in its favor.

The statue, originally unveiled in 1914, depicts a woman adorned with a crown of olive leaves standing on a pedestal. She holds a laurel wreath, a plow stock, and a pruning hook. At her feet, a Biblical inscription reads, "They have beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears into pruning hooks."

Designed to symbolize the American South, the statue includes a Black Mammy cradling what is believed to be the child of a white officer, alongside an enslaved man accompanying his owner to war.

Black Mammies were stereotypical portrayals of Black women appearing content with their enslavement.

"The caricature portrayed an obese, coarse, maternal figure," the Jim Crow Museum explains . "She had great love for her white 'family,' but often treated her own family with disdain. Although she had children, sometimes many, she was completely desexualized. She 'belonged' to the white family, though it was rarely stated."

The Arlington National Cemetery described the Reconciliation Monument as "a nostalgic, mythologized vision of the Confederacy, including highly sanitized depictions of slavery."

In December 2023, the statue was removed following the recommendation of an independent commission .

Before its removal, more than 40 House Republicans sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, arguing that the commission had exceeded its authority. Clyde spearheaded this effort.

The letter contended that the monument "does not honor nor commemorate the Confederacy; the memorial commemorates reconciliation and national unity."

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) criticized House Republicans for their recent restoration attempt, specifically calling out New York Reps. Anthony D’Esposito, Marc Molinaro, and Brandon Williams, who supported the bill.

All three Republicans are facing challenging reelection campaigns, which could influence which party controls the House of Representatives.

"What tradition are extreme MAGA Republicans — including Rep. D’Esposito, Rep. Molinaro, and Rep. Williams — upholding? What Confederate tradition are you upholding? Is it slavery? Rape? Kidnap? Jim Crow? Lynching? Racial oppression? Or all of the above?" Jeffries questioned during a press briefing Friday morning in the Capitol."What exactly is the Confederate tradition that extreme MAGA Republicans, in 2024, are upholding," he continued. "And you want to use the National Defense Authorization Act to turn back the clock on progress that has been made in the United States of America? It’s shameful." Source: The Hill