Statue Squabble

By Loretta McGraw

Standing tall and proud, while at the same time perhaps a mockery of people’s pain, are many statues and monuments today. Whereas many feel that history ought to remain in the books, others proudly tout it on display.

Southern states are full of figures memorizing confederate officers. America is one of few countries that glamorizes its Civil War in such a manner, although no others tote such an extensive collection. History ought to be remembered, but how and what it’s being preserved for is being called into question.

Iowa State University, located in Ames, Iowa, is not new to controversy. Dating back to 1995 when the Carrie Chapman Catt Hall first found itself in hot water. The 1892 building takes the namesake of an 1880 Iowa State graduate, Carrie Chapman, a prominent leader in the women’s suffrage movement.

Chapman was supportive of permitting women the right to vote. Students revived their protests, calling for a renaming of Catt Hall due to allegations of white supremacy endorsement. The highly debated statement in question reads, “white supremacy will be strengthened, not weakened, by women’s suffrage,” according to a 1996 Associated Press article published in the New York Times.

Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen established a committee following the September 29th movement, protests and debates in various formats, including a petition to establish principles on renaming monuments on campus.

Rita Mookerjee, Assistant Teaching Professor of Sociology, alongside colleagues Ruxandra Looft, the Director of the Margaret Sloss Center For Women and Gender Equity and Michèle Schaal an Associate Professor of World Languages and Cultures co-authored a Collective statement calling for changing the name of Catt Hall in early July in which they obtained 423 signatures from Iowa State students, staff, administrators, faculty and alumni in a span of 72 hours.

“Renaming the building does not mean erasing history,” said Looft, Mookerjee and Schaal.“During this time of unprecedented division in this country and global calls for racial justice, we vow to promote equity and inclusion on campus.”

However, this is not the first time a dedication at the campus caused criticism. A plaque was placed on the Iowa State campus south of LeBaron Hall in 1927 to acknowledge Iowa State graduate William Temple Hornaday’s work as a conservationist. Its removal occurred June 11, 2020, shortly after a thread of tweets from Carleen Silva, a Multicultural Student Affairs summer intern and Iowa State alumna (‘18), surfaced about the history of a Hornaday exhibit which featured Ota Benga, a Congolese pygmy, in the Monkey House of the Bronx Zoo in 1906. The sudden abolition of this marker strikes up hope for individuals requesting the same of Catt Hall’s formal name.

As the Black Lives Matter movement gained traction following the fatal asphyxiation of Minneapolis resident George Floyd on May 25, 2020. With the rising momentum of BLM, there has been an increasing value of public outcry nationwide to remove supposedly racially offensive monuments. 43 out of 771 Confederate Statues are located in Tennessee, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

A local petition has over 23,000 out of the 25,000 signature goal, with the ambition to replace all confederate statues in Tennessee with Dolly Parton.

Brian Meyer, associate director for strategic communications in the Office of Strategic Relations and Communications, serves as one of 20 members of the Committee to Establish Principles on Renaming, chaired by Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion Reginald Stewart and Faculty Senate President Carol Faber.

“The charge from President Wintersteen, given to the Committee to Establish Principles on Renaming in July, is, to develop a policy to ensure a consistent, evidence-based and historically thoughtful means by which to evaluate historical naming and honors, in recognition of Iowa State’s commitment to research and factual evidence, academic freedom and intellectual inquiry,” said Meyer.

Protesters and public officials nationwide have made demands to remove all public statues and monuments perceived to be symbols of racism in the US. Many thus far have been expelled forcibly by protesters, ordered so by city councils or, in the case of the 105-year-old controversial South’s Defenders Memorial Monument in Lake Charles, La., removed via natural disaster.

“ISU needs to denounce hate speech and remember its role as an R1 institution,” said Mookerjee. “We are a university founded on innovation. We can only continue to produce excellent work if our campus climate is equitable, welcoming and supportive to all sorts of people.”

From left to right Model 1: Vest and white button up: thrifted. Pants: Forever 21. Jewelry and Nike Af1s: Model owned. Model 2: Blazer: Banana Republic. Pants and cami: Wal Mart. Hoops: Forever 21.

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