Records show selection of Davis, George statues in Washington steeped in white supremacy
Oct. 15—JACKSON — When former Mississippi Gov. James K. Vardaman thought about endorsing the notion of honoring Jefferson Davis and James Z. George with statues in the U.S. Capitol, his intent was clear.
The unabashed white supremacist who often catered to the racist instincts of rural white voters believed that honoring the two men would be a deserved tribute to the Confederate States of America.
Vardaman, who served as Mississippi's governor from 1904 to 1908, wrote in the newspaper he edited, The Issue, that Mississippi owed it to "the men who wore the grey," an obvious reference to Confederate soldiers during the U.S. Civil War, to erect a statue of Davis and George in what was then called the "Hall of Fame" at the Capitol.
"We want to show the world that we believe in our fathers and that the principles for which they fought against great odds, for four long years, are sacred to us, and vital to the future of this republic," Vardaman wrote in 1910.
Those principles, of course, were to maintain the white power structure that existed at the time and to continue the practice of enslaving thousands of African Americans to to profit off their labor.
"Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery — the greatest material interest of the world," Mississippi lawmakers wrote in the Secession Convention in 1861.
One hundred and twelve years after Vardaman penned those words in his newspaper, Mississippi still continues to honor the legacy of George, a Confederate soldier, and Davis, the first and only president of the Confederate States of America, in the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington.
Around 3 to 5 million people pass through the statuary collection in the Capitol each year to glance at who are supposed to be the country's most reputable figures, according to the Architect of the Capitol's website.
The goal of the national collection is simple: Each U.S. state is allowed to place two statues of people "illustrious for their historic renown" or "distinguished civil or military services," according to the federal law establishing the collection.
But the leaders of the Magnolia State, who often boast about Mississippi's literary, musical and civic impact on the country, continue to honor the legacy of two slave owners who actively worked to maintain the white power structure of their day.
The Daily Journal reviewed dozens of speeches, letters, newspaper articles and historical records to try and determine why the Legislature chose Davis and George as its two representatives in the Statuary Hall Collection and what the sentiment was when the statues were unveiled in Washington.
Though the statues of Jefferson Davis and James Z. George, two white supremacists connected to the Confederacy, would not be placed in the U.S. Capitol for another two decades, Vardaman, the governor often remembered as "the Great White Chief," was one of the first major figures in the state to support the idea.
Vardaman was elected to the U.S. Senate just two years after he penned the editorial in his newspaper, running on a platform of repealing the 13th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
While Vardaman had no direct role in determining which statues were chosen, he would use his influence to leverage public opinion to stoke white supremacy in rural parts of the state, especially with a newspaper publisher in Northeast Mississippi.
Northeast Mississippi newspaper owner played large role
Vardaman found a natural ally in Albert C. Anderson, the publisher of the Southern Sentinel in Ripley, who was also a state lawmaker.
Anderson served in the House from 1900 to 1902. He also served in the state Senate from 1908 to 1914, where he was elected President Pro Tempore, the second most powerful position in the chamber.
It's unclear how the two met, but Vardaman was certainly an admirer of Anderson's newspaper that's now owned by Journal Publishing, the parent company of the Daily Journal. Vardaman wrote to Anderson in a November 1905 letter saying that he liked the tone of one of his editorials.
"Would to God we had more men of your way of thinking and writing," Vardaman wrote in the letter.
That line of thinking clearly included preserving white rule in the state and preventing Black citizens from participating in the democratic system.
In a pair of letters between the two in 1914, Vardaman expressed to Anderson that he was concerned about an effort to establish an initiative, or referendum, process in the state to allow people to directly change the state Code or the state constitution.
The reason: He thought it would give Black people, who were the majority of the citizens at the time, more power.
"You know I am afraid that the effect of that is going to bring the negroes back into politics," Vardaman wrote. "We cannot settle those matters by a white democratic primary. And just as sure as some question of vital importance comes up there is a certain element in Mississippi among the white people who will bring negro back in order to carry their point."
Anderson largely agreed with his friend. He told the U.S. senator that he favored a form of government that allowed for an initiative process, but he couldn't bear the thought of "negroes being back into politics," which he called a "grave danger."
"I don't think they would be permitted to vote generally over the state but we have some white men who would have them vote in some localities," Anderson wrote back to Vardaman.
Anderson, who was also the president of the Mississippi Press Association for several years, introduced a bill to erect the Davis and George statues in Washington, but for unknown reasons his efforts proved fruitless while he was in office.
It wasn't until the United Daughters of the Confederacy formally endorsed legislation about the statues in 1924 — a decade after Anderson's initial bill — that it got through the final hurdle to become law.
The UDC is an neo-Confederate organization that commemorates Confederate veterans, supports Confederate monuments and promotes the ahistorical Lost Cause ideology that's rooted in white supremacy.
Mrs. A. McKimbrough and Mrs. H. P. Simrall, two leaders in the Mississippi UDC in 1924, personally traveled to Jackson to hand the House Speaker and the lieutenant governor a copy of a resolution urging the lawmakers to adopt the law, according to accounts in two newspapers.
The legislators complied with the UDC's request, but they only allocated $20,000 for the monuments.
After Anderson relentlessly advocated for the two statues to go to Washington, his former colleagues thought it fitting for them to nominate the former legislator to lead the commission to construct the statues.
Anderson lands in legal trouble over his role in the commission
Two other men with ties to the Confederacy — David Bramlette Jr. and C.L. Lincoln — would join Anderson on the three-person commission.
Bramlette, a resident of Woodville, was appointed to the commission by the state Senate. He was a member of the House from 1912 to 1916. He later served several terms in the Senate and, according to MDAH records, his father also fought in the Confederacy.
Lincoln, a resident of Columbus, was appointed to the commission by Gov. Henry Whitfield. He served separate stints as Lowndes County sheriff and chancery clerk, according to MDAH files and newspaper articles. Lincoln, himself, fought in the Confederacy.
Lincoln and Bramlette would eventually be the only two of the initial three members to stay on the group because Anderson proved to be a much better columnist than a number cruncher.
Whenever the sculptor sent word to the commission that he had finished the statues and wanted his last payment before he would release them, Lincoln and Bramlette wondered where the rest of the money was.
The two commissioners realized that Anderson, who was supposed to keep up with the money, couldn't account for the rest of it.
So the two alerted state officials to the discrepancy.
Lawmakers appropriated two $10,000 installments for the statutes' construction. But at some point, around half of the money went missing, according to an Associated Press article.
Troubled by the news, lawmakers convened a legislative committee to get to the bottom of the issue.
The investigation revealed that Anderson got permission from the other two commissioners to place half of the money from the state treasury into an account at the Bank of Ripley.
Anderson allegedly took the remaining $10,000 and placed them into an account at the Bank of Blue Mountain in Benton County without gaining permission from the other commissioners, causing the Legislature to appropriate more money for the project.
Anderson later resigned from the committee, and the state Senate appointed Kelly Hammond to replace him.
Hammond represented Columbia in the House from 1928 to 1931 and in the Senate from 56 to 1960. He was a personal friend of former Gov. Theodore Bilbo. Hammond also unsuccessfully ran for governor in 1951.
Bramlette, who is also the father of U.S District Judge David Bramlette III, became the new chairman of the commission after Anderson resigned.
The commission eventually settled the payment issue with the sculptor, and its work came to a close in 1932 when they conducted an unveiling ceremony in the U.S. Capitol.
Capitol ceremony steeped in "Lost Cause" sentiments
The reason for honoring the men was clear, as was the type of people who were invited to the event.
According to a column written by Edgar S. Wilson in the Lexington Advertiser, Bramlette, the chairman of the committee, invited all Mississippians to attend the unveiling ceremony. But the column specifically noted that "general officers of the Confederate organization" were invited to attend.
The article went on to quote Bramlette saying the reason the state honored J.Z. George with a statute was because he was a "great constitutional lawyer and a leader in the preservation of the white, Anglo-Saxon civilization of the South."
Mississippi's two U.S. senators, the dean of the University of Mississippi School of Law and a journalist spoke at the ceremony, giving speeches that included sanitizing the legacies of George and Davis and mythologizing whitewashing the atrocities of the American Civil War and slavery.
Edgar Wilson, a journalist who wrote a regular column, Mirrors of Mississippi, did not use provocative rhetoric to honor Davis, but he read a speech that Davis gave to the Mississippi Legislature in 1884, a few years before his death.
Part of Davis' speech included defending the actions of the leaders of the Confederacy.
"I deliberately say, if it were to do over again, I would again do just as I did in April, 1861," Wilson remembered Davis saying.
The United States Marine Band played "Dixie," known as the Confederate anthem, after Wilson's remarks.
Judge Stone Deavours, the dean of the University of Mississippi School of Law, honored George, the architect of Mississippi's 1890 Constitution by saying that he carefully and wisely re-established "free government among his people."
"And so it was that under his leadership, the people of Mississippi marched, with full faith and confidence in him, to the holding of the constitutional convention in 1890, wise in its provisions and permeated with the spirit of justice, brought hope and peace to the people of Mississippi of both races," Deavours said.
The truth is the state Constitution was meant to bar Black citizens from holding office and restrict them from the ballot box by enacting literacy tests and poll taxes.
A Black person, for example, would not get elected to the state Legislature until Robert Clark was elected to the House in 1968, almost 80 years after George crafted the Mississippi Constitution that still governs the state today.
U.S. Sen. Hubert Stephens also portrayed George as a man who resurrected Mississippi out of the depths of Reconstruction, which he called the state's "Tragic Era" and falsely claimed that "an orgy of crime and corruption resulted," during this period.
"It was a horrible situation," Stephens said of Reconstruction. "Faith was well nigh lost. Hope was dead. Despair covered the State. The shadow of death and degradation was over the people. The mirth of harps was quenched; all the merry-hearted sighed."
