SERVING SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI SINCE 1927 • WWW.STUDENTPRINTZ.COM • NOVEMBER 20, 2019 | VOLUME 105 | ISSUE 12
“OK, BOOMER” PG 5
CHARLIE’S ANGELS
PG 6
RESPECT THANKSGIVING
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Re-examining Hattiesburg’s history: Local leaders explore The Lost Cause CALEB MCCLUSKEY NEWS EDITOR Photos by Brian Winters | Printz
onfederate monuments have been a hot topic in recent years, and though Hattiesburg has one itself, it isn’t where true remnants of the Confederacy remain. From the name of Forrest County to the picture of a Klansman hanging in the Forrest County Circuit Court Office, Hattiesburg has its share of fragments of the Confederacy. The monument is a small piece in the puzzle of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. According to history professor Susannah Ural, Ph.D., who specializes in Civil War history, the Lost Cause was a movement to re-examine how the country viewed the Civil War and the Confederacy. It retold history as a brave and noble fight for state rights rather than a brutal rebellion sparked by slavery. “Some of the purposes [the United Daughters of the Confederacy] saw for themselves was not only preserving the
memory of the Confederacy and what their own fathers had done but also education,” Ural said. “But whose experiences are you trying to preserve?” Ural said this ideology, which began in earnest in the late 19th century, came up when veterans of the confederacy and their children felt they needed better representation throughout America. Groups like the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the United Sons of the Confederacy began a movement to erect monuments honoring Confederate soldiers. Councilwoman of Ward 2 Debra Delgado said the Lost Cause is the only instance she knows of where a losing side was able to write the history shown today. She said she understands that people feel they are a part of a great heritage in the South, but they should not forget the ugly side of its history. “I can appreciate the fact that some people feel that they are a part of a glorious heritage, but their heritage was improperly framed,” Delgado said. “We were never taught the true history of Mississippi, and from what was taught historically about
the cases of the Civil War, particularly in the South, it was all wrong. It was about slavery.” Ural said confederate monuments are not a monument to the Confederacy but, instead, are monuments to the Lost Cause and should be looked at in that view. In 1910, The UDC erected a monument in Hattiesburg. Hattiesburg and Forrest County were not established until after the Civil War. Originally, the area was part of Perry County. Ural said history is not black and white, especially in the Pine Belt. “If you look at that monument, it talks about this united support that was shown in this community during the war,” Ural said. “Perry County and Jones County and the seminary area were incredibly divided in this war.” Ural said the monument does not cover up the fact that the area was divided, but it does ignore the fact. She said this is the problem with the monument and the Lost Cause ideology because it leads to conflict in memory and people forgetting important events in the history of the area. “One of the most interesting parts of this area of the Pine Woods and South
Mississippi during the Civil War is just how divided this region became,” Ural said. Ural said South Mississippi was not united in the Civil War. She mentioned the Town of Seminary because the man it is named after was a Civil War veteran that started with the Confederacy but later fought for the Union. “That was South Mississippi during the Civil War,” Ural said. “It was Unionist, Separationist or split, so to me, that is what monuments like [the one in Downtown] miss.” Ural said the idea of taking down a monument is not easy either because it has to be agreed upon, voted on, and the cost of removing a monument can add up. She said not only would removal possibly be costly, but there may be no place for the monument to go. She said instead of removing monuments, Mississippi and Hattiesburg should do a better job of teaching the true meaning behind the monuments.
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