Thursday March 23, 2023

ANALYSIS: The Culture Wars Are Losing | ANALYSIS: Birds in the Burg (Jon Gerlach) | PUBLICATION

ANALYSIS: It May Not Feel Like It, but the Culture Warriors Are Losing

by: Martin Davis

It can be disheartening to listen to the news. Especially here in Virginia, where Gov. Glenn Youngkin has orchestrated a backlash against anything that suggests racism is a reality.

The series of political victories he has racked up can make it can feel like the culture warriors are winning the day.

Backlash against perceived critical race theory in K-12 (CRT is not taught in K-12) has teachers unsure and worried about what they can and can’t say in their classrooms. Youngkin is working hard to gain both the Senate and the House in the General Assembly come November so he can pass more restrictive measures about how we talk about race (as North Carolina just did).

The greater Fredericksburg area has not been immune to this problem. The conflict in 2022 at James Madison’s plantation - Montpelier - rocked not only our region, but the nation at large.

Montpelier had become a model for whole-truth history when the board of trustees had an agreed to an equal-power-sharing agreement between the foundation board and the enslaved descendants of Madison’s plantation and surrounding plantations (Montpelier Descendant’s Committee). That model nearly collapsed in 2022 when the former board chair and the former chief operating officer tried to back out of the agreement.

Since then, equal power sharing is back, and Montpelier’s board is pushing forward with its work to give the enslaved every bit the attention the site gives the former president and his notable accomplishments.

The winner here is not a particular political world view (liberal over conservative), but reason and reality over fear and ignorance.

The work being done by long-serving leaders Elizabeth Chew (who was fired by the former president and CEO, only to be rehired when they were forced out) and Matt Reeves (chief archaeologist) and a cast of other scholars is not only continuing to prove its worth, but is now attracting the funds that are going to support the work at Montpelier for years to come.

My former colleague Clint Schemmer has been a leader in reporting on Montpelier, and in a piece published in February that noted the now-ousted CEO and president were not meeting their fundraising goals in 2021.

“We discovered that we had inherited a sinking ship, both financially and managerially,” foundation board chair James French told Shemmer. “We responded immediately by conducting a rigorous financial and operational assessment to identify areas for critically needed improvements. This included implementing best practices in accounting and financial reporting, being more efficient and developing a stronger strategic focus.”

The result, wrote Schemmer? “In 2022, Montpelier surpassed its year-end fundraising goals, French said in the foundation’s statement. Donors said they were inspired by Montpelier’s new, nationally prominent board of directors and its groundbreaking governance model, he said.”

Things just got better.

Per a press release on March 21, “The Montpelier Foundation … and Montpelier Descendants Committee … announced today that the Mellon Foundation has awarded TMF nearly $5.8 million to fund the construction of a memorial to enslaved people at Montpelier, the lifelong home of James Madison, fourth president of the United States.”

The gift is part of a larger initiative by Mellon called the Monuments Project.

According to the Mellon website: “Today, our public realm disproportionately celebrates a limited few and overlooks the multitudes who have made and shaped our society, limiting our understanding of our collective history. This failure to represent our multiplicity impacts how we perceive, distribute, and demonstrate power in the US.”

This funding project is about “supporting public projects that more completely and accurately represent the multiplicity and complexity of American stories.”

This sets Montpelier on a level that few other historical sites in America can lay claim to. And we suspect that this is just the start of much more to come.

Nota bene: Because of my current work life as a teacher, I was unable to connect with anyone at Montpelier to conduct an interview for this story. I am in contact with the organization and hope to be writing a longer piece about this grant in coming issues.

This comes at the same time that Fredericksburg has taken its own bold steps in whole-truth history, as exhibited by the success with the auction block, and the hiring of Gaila Sims at the Fredericksburg Area Museum to lead the collection and displaying of the museum’s African American artifacts.

In Charlottesville, the University of Virginia has created the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers, who built Mr. Jefferson’s university.

And much more is afoot.

What people like Youngkin do not understand is that he is just one more reincarnation of a movement that has tried to suppress Black history in America. And for every effort to crush it, there is a stronger response that is grounded in reason and solid scholarship which do not allow the truth to be suppressed.

This response in the past was led by people like W.E.B. DuBois, who told the fuller story of reconstruction; Thurgood Marshall, who ended the patently unequal educational practice of separate but equal; and Martin Luther King Jr. who told the truth of racism in the Deep South.

Youngkin and the culture warriors had their day in 2022. That day is done, and once again, reason and solid academic research in places like Montpelier and in Fredericksburg are again setting things right.

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