{"id":10460,"date":"2016-05-30T00:26:33","date_gmt":"2016-05-30T04:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillyhistory.wpengine.com\/?p=10460"},"modified":"2016-05-30T12:07:36","modified_gmt":"2016-05-30T16:07:36","slug":"the-zigzag-drama-of-a-memorial-day-monument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/2016\/05\/the-zigzag-drama-of-a-memorial-day-monument\/","title":{"rendered":"The Zigzag Drama of a Memorial Day Monument"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Colored<\/a>
Colored Soldiers Memorial – [original location] Lansdowne Drive East of Belmont Avenue – Fairmount Park, January 15, 1935 (PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\u201cAll monuments have a message,\u201d writes Dell Upton in Commemoration in America<\/a><\/em>, \u201cthey direct us not simply to remember, but to remember in a certain light.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the first of Upton\u2019s “three rules of thumb for monument-building,” principles especially useful in explaining the zigzag drama of Philadelphia\u2019s All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors<\/a>, dedicated eighty-two years ago today at one of the most off-the-beaten-track places in all of Fairmount Park.<\/p>\n

Upton tells us that monuments \u201cinterpret the subjects they honor for an intended audience: people who are thought to need the message.\u201d By installing this piece\u00a0on Landsdowne Drive<\/a> behind Memorial Hall and not<\/em> permitting it at the intended public place on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, its message was blunted and stunted; its audience disrespected.<\/p>\n

Upton\u2019s second rule of thumb is further revealing: \u201cMonuments always say more about the people, times and places of their creation then they do about the people, times and places they honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

On May 30, 1934, if this monument had been dedicated where it was intended, Philadelphia\u2019s Art Jury (the predecessor of the Art Commission) would have made a definitive declaration. By denying<\/em> that site, and hiding the memorial in one of the farther recesses of the Park, we see a declaration of another kind.<\/p>\n

\"Caption\"<\/a>
All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors, 1934. J. Otto Schweitzer, sculptor. (Wikimedia)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIf a Negro is fit to fight and die for his country on the battlefield then no site is too great for a war memorial,\u201d claimed a contemporary news story. But racial equality in the American Armed Forces<\/a> was still 14 years off in 1934. Even at the start of World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt still worried that the \u201cintermingling of White and Colored personnel\u201d would be a \u201cnew social experiment\u201d that might \u201cconfuse the issue of prompt preparedness.\u201d By 1948, when President Harry S. Truman finally issued Executive Order 9981 integrating the Armed Forces, the memorial\u2019s move from banishment was still<\/em> 46 years off.<\/p>\n

Can Upton\u2019s third rule of thumb help us understand why? \u201cMonuments are almost always promoted by interested parties who claim to offer \u2018the nation\u2019s gratitude.\u2019 By setting a monument in a public space, the builders claim to speak to everyone. This is a fundamental, necessary fiction of monuments,\u201d he writes, \u201cbut it is a fiction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ironically, memorials commemorate facts by employing fiction. Between, and rising above, six very representative African-American servicemen on the front of this memorial is an allegorical figure of \u201cJustice\u201d holding a pair of wreaths signifying \u201cHonor\u201d and \u201cReward.\u201d On the back are four additional, equally unreal human figures. On the left is War\u201d with a shield and \u201cLiberty\u201d with torch and tiara. On the right are “Peace\u201d and \u201cPlenty.\u201d All are abstract allegories, idealistic personifications of classical attributes. All are unflinchingly represented by Anglo-Saxon Caucasian females, idealistic spokesfigures for the same authorities who kept this memorial out of the public view for six long decades.<\/p>\n

In 1994, the\u00a0All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors was refurbished, rededicated and finally reinstalled\u2014this time on Logan Circle\u2014a place of prominence and respect.<\/p>\n

[Sources include: Bill Duhart, \u201cMonument to Black soldiers may get its due, 67 years late,\u201d The Philadelphia Tribune,<\/em> December 24, 1993; Peter Landry, \u201cBelated But Monumental Move Sixty Years Later, A Memorial To Black Soldiers Will Go On The Parkway<\/a>,\u201d The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em>, March 29, 1994.]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAll monuments have a message,\u201d writes Dell Upton in Commemoration in America, \u201cthey direct us not simply to remember, but to remember in a certain light. That\u2019s the first of Upton\u2019s “three rules of thumb for monument-building,” principles especially useful in explaining the zigzag drama of Philadelphia\u2019s All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10460\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}