Signatures are appreciated.
I attended the November 29th Town Hall regarding the Jefferson Davis monument and noticed that a number of speakers, in some form, argued that we should not remove it because of its historical context.
Anyone who has lived in Brownsville for a while has most likely seen the plaques around town. For those who don't know, those are official Texas historical markers, and we have quite a few. This information is available for viewing on the Historical Markers page at Brownsville.org and on the Texas Historical Sites Atlas website. The Jefferson Davis monument is not among them.
The markers, one of which is located at the Brownsville Convention and Tourist Bureau and the other at Alice Wilson Memorial Park, explain how Brownsville was a center of activity during the Civil War but show no support toward the causes of the North or the South.
However, the Davis monument was created to showcase an individual, Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America and unrepentant white supremacist who fought for slavery. It is revisionist propaganda, created by the Daughters of the Confederacy in an attempt to rewrite the narrative of the South and present an immoral individual in a positive light. Davis' beliefs that Africans were to be seen as "inferior" and "fitted expressly for servitude" have no place in a society where we believe in "liberty and justice for all."
If there's anything we can learn from the historical context of this monument, the person it honors, and the discussions we've had because of it, it's that we should never treat others as property, solely because of their race or skin tone, or for any reason at all. We should not view or present Jefferson Davis as a hero.
We have no reason to memorialize a white supremacist who believed in and fought for slavery. By removing the Jefferson Davis monument from Washington Park AND keeping it out of any public area, we can show other cities that the officials and the people of Brownsville, TX recognize the mistakes of previous generations and hope to never repeat them. We cannot erase the negative parts of our history, but we can learn from them and should always attempt to progress past them.
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This was written for the City Commissioners meeting on 5 December 2017 and submitted as a Letter to the Editor to the Brownsville Herald.
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