Washington and Lee University President Will Dudley formed the Commission on Institutional History and Community in the aftermath of events that occurred in August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. In February 2017, the Charlottesville City Council had voted to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee from a public park, and Unite the Right members demonstrated against that decision on August 12. Counter-demonstrators marched through Charlottesville in opposition to the beliefs of Unite the Right. One participant was accused of driving a car into a crowd and killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer. The country was horrified. A national discussion on the use of Confederate symbols and monuments was already in progress after Dylann Roof murdered nine black church members at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17, 2015. Photos of Roof posing with the Confederate flag were spread across the internet. Discussion of these events, including the origins of Confederate objects and images and their appropriation by groups today, was a backdrop for President Dudley's appointment of the commission on Aug. 31, 2017. (Which has nothing to do with the price of eggs in China. The Lee family should move the family to Beauvoir and demand the school remove all reference to Lee.)
Although the commission's recommendations are distributed by subject matter throughout the report, Appendix D brings them together in one list.
More @ W&L
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Dear Mr. Edgerton,
It
was a pleasant surprise for my family to hear about your phone call to
my dad, especially since we had been telling a friend about you the
night before.
I
am attaching a letter that I recently sent to the President of
Washington and Lee University, Mr. Will Dudley. A friend of ours is a
recent graduate of W&L and he told us about plans to change the
college's presentation of General Lee, mostly through the alteration of
the historic Lee Chapel. You may read the full story of what is
happening here: https://www.wlu.edu/pre
This friend is part of a group of students who are working to save the chapel in its original.
As
I said, I have attached my letter of protest to the President of
W&L. Would this be an issue that you would consider lending your
voice to? I believe that you have a very powerful message that could
lend clarity to the decision made at W&L.
Thank you for standing for truth! It has saved my love for the South.
Sincerely,
Wynonah G. Hogan (age 18)
I do not believe that they have a concept of the bear that they're poking...
ReplyDeleteWell, that bear had better come out of hibernation.
Delete