From the Archives: Whether historical plaques, flags, and building names stay or go is of less consequence than the debate they provoke.
Last summer, the Confederate flag was finally taken down from the Statehouse in South Carolina. Almost from the moment it was raised in 1961, it provoked debate: Was it a symbol of regional heritage, or racist oppression? But the shooting of nine African-American worshippers at a church in Charleston on June 17, 2015—by an avowed white supremacist who had posed with the flag—changed the terms of the debate. The governor swiftly ordered the flag’s removal from the Statehouse grounds.
As historians can attest, there is no such thing as a completely objective account of the past. The truth about history, or its meaning, resides only in the present. Our knowledge of the past changes, both because historians and the larger public bring new evidence to light, and because their attitudes about what they want to learn change. Just as the truths of history change, so too can commemorative symbols become subject to re-evaluation.
We must remember that although such symbols have an enduring public and physical presence that written histories lack, their symbolism often goes unrecognized. The people who pass daily through places named after historical figures remain blissfully unaware of the commemorative messages that surround them. Statues of heroes, erected with ceremonial fanfare, sink into invisibility within a few years.
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