The Apostle
Andrew was always a favorite of mine. But I have not been fond (to say the
least) of the two U.S. Presidents named Andrew. This blog post is about the
first of those two, Andrew Jackson, who was the seventh POTUS and in office from
1829 to 1837.
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| Statue of Andrew Jackson in front of the Jackson County Courthouse in Kansas City, Mo. The statue was sculpted by Charles Keck and placed here in 1934. |
Honoring Andrew Jackson
Before
becoming President, Jackson was a noted military man. His
victory in 1815 against the British at the Battle of New Orleans made him a national hero. Jackson then led U.S. forces in
the First Seminole War, which led to the annexation
of Florida from Spain in 1819.
On
December 15, 1826, almost two years before Jackson was elected POTUS, a new
county in the rather new state of Missouri was established and named after
General Jackson. It is now home to three of the six largest cities in Missouri:
Kansas City, Independence, and Lee’s Summit.
Jackson County,
Mo., is one of 24 counties (including Jackson Parish, La.) in the U.S.
named after Jackson. There are also numerous cities, towns, and villages named Jacksonville or Jackson. Jacksonville, Florida, was so named in 1822 in commemoration of
Jackson who was the first military governor of Florida Territory.
If you
are a white American, and especially one who believes in white supremacy as DJT
seemingly does, honoring Jackson probably seems good and reasonable to you.
DJT
tweeted on June 30, “This [fight for
preserving the statues] is a battle to save the Heritage, History, and
Greatness of our Country!” And as you probably know, he has a portrait of
Jackson on the wall near his desk in the Oval Office.
There is much heritage, history, and greatness linked to
Jackson, no doubt—as well as to Robert E. Lee.
But how many Black Americans have you heard wanting to save
the heritage, history, and greatness of the country by honoring/protecting the
statues/monuments of Lee?
And how many Native Americans have you heard wanting to
save the heritage, history, and greatness of the country by honoring/protecting
the statues/monuments of Jackson?
Things look different when seen through eyes other than
those of people who have always enjoyed the many, often unrecognized, benefits
of white privilege.
Dis-honoring Andrew Jackson
Twice
recently I have written in opposition to the “lynching” of statues or
monuments, that is, toppling or destroying them by violent, illegal means. But
I am a strong advocate of removing such statues or monuments by legislative
bodies.
The word dishonor
means “bring shame or disgrace on,” and that is not
particularly what I am advocating. As someone said to me recently, if we were
living at the same time and in the same region (as Jackson, or whomever we see
as a problem in the past), we likely would have done, or supported, the same
thing we find objectionable today. Quite probably so.
What I am advocating is that we dis-honor such people, that
is, remove the statues or monuments of those whom we no longer wish to honor.
Clearly, having a statue or monument of someone standing in a
public place, or having a city or county named after a person of the past,
honors that person.
Jackson County, Mo., obviously took its name in 1826 because
of the desire of the decision-makers who wished to honor Andrew Jackson as a
military hero. I seriously doubt that there would have been any single person
of the Seminole Nation who would have agreed with that honoring.
And after Jackson’s Indian Removal Act of 1830, I can’t
imagine there were any Native Americans who thought Jackson deserved the honor
bestowed on him.
There are Native Americans who live in Jackson County right
now. In honor of both their citizenship and ethnicity, I urge Jackson County
officials to remove Jackson’s recently defaced statue (which is now under a
tarp, as you see below) from its current location and to begin the process of
changing the name of the county.
The first comments received this morning were from Thinking Friend Andrew Bolton in England:
ReplyDelete"Last night Jewell and I watched 'Just Mercy.' Thank you for your recommendation of this film. It is still disturbing me in a good way today.
"Having lived in Jackson County for 20 years it is timely and justly symbolic for Jackson to come down off his high horse. A new name for Jackson County would be wonderful. Perhaps a Native American name?"
Thanks for your comments, Andrew, and I'm glad you were able to watch "Just Mercy."
DeleteIt would be highly meaningful, and quite ironic, for Jackson County to be changed to a Native American name. But I don't know of any person with any ties to this area who might be a candidate for that--unless it would be Sacagawea. There is a prominent Lewis & Clark statue in Kansas City, so maybe her connection to them would be enough of a tie to make her name a possibility. But perhaps her name is too hard to pronounce to make it feasible.
Thinking Friend Eric Dollard in Chicago wrote, "Thanks, Leroy, as I once again agree fully with your comments."
ReplyDeleteThen Eric indicated that my figures about the number of counties named Jackson and cities/towns named Jackson or Jacksonville were far too low, and I soon changed that paragraph with the numbers from what was originally posted. What he or I neither know at this point is whether all of those were named after Andrew Jackson, although probably almost all were.
I agree. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteDon't we learn from History and the mistakes made along the way.
ReplyDeleteAs I've said before, if we remove(by Any means)items of History that we don't want to Honor how much would we have left.
I'll leave the answer to you much smarter ones.
As a resident of Jackson County, I also agree with dis-honoring Andrew Jackson. I do question how far it goes. I can also see dis-honoring J C Nichols, but does that extend to Miller Nichols? I realize the money is the same and Miller's name is an extension of J C. How many generations does it extend and is there opportunity for redemption? I have not researched Miller, but it is possible he has had positive influences besides contributing money.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments, Dennis; it was good to hear from you again--and I am glad to have someone who currently lives in Jackson County (as Anton who commented briefly above also does) to post comments here.
DeleteI know little about Miller Nichols (1911-2000), the son of J.C. Nichols, whose name has now been removed from the famous fountain (and parkway) near the Plaza in Kansas City. I didn't even remember that The University of Missouri-Kansas City has a Miller Nichols Library--the name of which (according to a Kansas City Star article on June 18) UMKC is now considering renaming.
As you wrote, Miller Nichols's money largely came from his father's fortune, much of which was made to the distinct detriment of African-Americans in the greater Kansas City area, so with the current (and correct!) movement toward greater racial justice, dis-honoring him as well as his father seems commendable to me. I am sure he was a fine man in many ways and did much to help Kansas City, as well as UMKC. But perhaps he has already received all the honor he deserves. Thus, I would be in favor of dis-honoring (but not vilifying) him.
Well written Leroy,
ReplyDeleteHaving driven some over Italy and Germany I've seen neither a statute of Hitler or Mussolini. Also we didn't drive into any town province nor on a street with either name.
Here are comments from local Thinking Friend David Fulk, who has lived most (or maybe all) of his life near Jackson County:
ReplyDelete"
"I don’t disagree with what you’ve said, Leroy. I, like Dennis, wonder how far does the dis-honoring go? To how many generations? Are the children and grandchildren guilty of the father’s sins?
"Some might think this odd, but my hesitation about re-naming the county...or any county...is a public safety issue. When weather alerts/warnings are issued they are done so by county. What happens to citizens who won’t recognize the name of their new county because they’ve only known Jackson and don’t remember it’s changed in an emergency situation when every minute counts? There are other examples. It seems the scale of the change is what makes it a possible public safety issue."
Thanks for your comments, David. I was just thinking of you a day or two ago and how it had been quite a while since I had heard from you.
DeletePlease read my response to Dennis, as it speaks to the questions you raised. I am not for vilifying people of the past and certainly not their children or grandchildren in the present. But neither am I for publicly honoring people whom I think are not deserving of honor because of the extensive harm they did to other people.
As to the potential name change, surely there would be enough talk about that over a sufficiently long period of time that anyone who watches TV and would see the weather alerts/warnings there would remember the new name for the county they live in or near.
Comments from Thinking Friend Glenn Hinson in Kentucky:
ReplyDelete"A good and well-thought out proposal, Leroy. I don’t like defacing what are often works of art, but we should not honor those who stand in direct opposition to values we now cherish. Removal is, as you argue, the better way to handle this."
Thanks for your comments, Dr. Hinson. If the memorials/statues of famous people we no longer want to honor are significant works of art, I agree that they should not be defaced or destroyed but should, rather, be put in an art museum. But how could that be done with Stone Mountain?!
DeleteHi, Leroy, I agree that the statues of Andy Jackson need to be removed from prominence, but perhaps in a museum with extensive labeling of his entire actions. I thought of Osage county, but there is already one in Missouri, also KS and OK. Ellen Nichols
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading and responding, Ellen. -- Yes, Osage County would be a good name since the current Jackson County seems to have been the original home of the Osage Nation--but as you say, that name has already been taken. The Kansa Nation also lived in this area, but there is already widespread confusion in other parts of the U.S. about Kansas City not being in Kansas; that would make it worse if the county were to be named Kansa!
Delete[Posted yesterday morning; corrected and re-posted now.]
ReplyDeleteKen Grenz, another local Thinking Friend, writes,
"I agree that iconoclastic responses are not the right answer. The issue is quite complicated and needs more of a scalpel than a sledge hammer approach. Like the iconic Saddam statue in Tehran, some deserve obliteration. Others may have historic value beyond the worst side of who they represent, i.e. George Washington. Some, like what iconoclasts destroyed in European cathedrals or on Afghan mountainsides are of artistic value, i.e., perhaps Mt. Rushmore or even Stone Mountain.
"Of course some, and I’d include Andrew Jackson, would fall into a more ambiguous category. In addition to his value as president, he has many reprehensible things in his record. And yes, the feelings of direct descendants of the offended must be considered. It will or at least be a challenge to decide how best to repurpose many statues and monuments.
"Thanks for addressing issue."
Thanks for your comments, Ken. The comments I have just posted to Dr. Hinson above also speak to what you have written here.
DeleteNow, after we finish with Jackson County, what about Clay County? Clay County is named for Henry Clay, author of the "Missouri Compromise" that brought Missouri into the union as a slave state. Henry Clay died in 1852, so at least he was not involved with fighting the Civil War. My solution would be to have a metro merger similar to what Wyandotte County and KCKS did. Suppose KCMO merged with Jackson, Clay, and Platte Counties, so that we had a real metro government (including cities in those counties in merger). I realize, like fighting COVID-19, this is probably impossible in America, but I do get tired of conservatives comparing KC to Oklahoma City, and wondering why our (fragmented) metro does not function as well as Oklahoma City, which has no suburban cities and is all in one state.
ReplyDelete