This is an insight written by Stella Hudson on the recent Bahá’í Chair for World Peace Lecture on “Confederate Streets and Black-White Labor Market Differentials” co-sponsored by the Critical Race Initiative and the Department of African American Studies on November 16, 2021.
Maryland never seceded from the union, yet we still have plenty of streets named after Confederate figures like Robert E Lee. Houses are adorned with Confederate battle flags despite the state never being a part of the Confederacy, and the statue of Chief Justice Taney, who ruled against Dred Scott in 1857 was only recently removed from its place of honor in front of the State House in Annapolis. Because Maryland remained in the Union, the Emancipation Proclamation, delivered in January of 1863, did not free the people enslaved here. Slavery was not outlawed in Maryland until 1864.
The American south, and the country as a whole, has been reckoning with the existence and influence of Confederate monuments. In her talk “Confederate Streets and Black White Labor Market Differentials” Dr. Jhacova Williams points out that it is not only statues that represent the continued legacy and prominence of Confederate ideals. Across the South, there are schools, universities, and streets bearing the names of prominent Confederate figures. In her lecture, Dr. Williams uses economic regressions and data sets to demonstrate that while street names have not received as much public debate as monuments, there is evidence that the number of Confederate street names in a community is correlated with the level of success of black people in the labor market when compared to their white counterparts.
In her analysis, she controlled for factors including gender, education level, education quality, marital status, age, geographic migration, and historical markers of racism like lynchings. At each stage the data was consistent. Higher numbers of Confederate street names were correlated with lower employment for black people, higher instances of low-status occupations, and lower wages. These findings also extended to other minority groups including Hispanics, Asians, and foreign-born people.
In her talk, Dr. Williams touched on an important aspect of this discussion that is often overlooked. Confederate street names do not cause the labor market differentials; they are a measure of a bigger issue. Streets are named by those in power, and if the authorities want to honor racist figures, they are also more likely to enact legislation and fiscal policies that are discriminatory and detrimental to non-white people.
Statues of racist generals do not make people more racist. Rather, they are symbols of an ideology and legacy that has had a widespread and lasting impact on this country. The College of William and Mary has recently remanded several buildings after facing significant backlash about the number of facilities named after slave owners, and racist figures from later in Virginia’s history. Removing the symbols of that legacy is a positive step, however, it is not a solution to the underlying problem. The same people who originally named an academic building after John E. Morton in 1972, were the ones making admission and policy decisions for the university. Morton was a history professor and department chair at William and Mary who staunchly supported the narrative of the Lost Cause Myth and who believed that Reconstruction was a dark and corrupt period in history. He pushed these ideas in the classroom and in published books from 1921-1968.
The administration that honored him and his legacy was also in charge of the governing decisions of the school. The first three African-American students were admitted in 1971, a year before Morton Hall was opened. This year, Morton was renamed Boswell hall, to honor a professor who championed LGBTQ+ rights. While I am glad the building that housed my minor’s academic department no longer bears the name of a man whose legacy should not be perpetuated, in many ways the renaming of buildings feels like a hollow victory. While the current administration focuses on appearances and symbols, which are important, it seems to overlook the necessary examination of the policy decisions made by the people who named Morton Hall, which still impact students of color.
Similarly, renaming streets will not fix the disparities in the labor market. The remaining symbols of the Confederacy are indicators that the legacies and impacts of our racist history are still in effect. In medicine, sometimes the only course of action is to treat the symptoms, typically when the underlying disease is unknown or untreatable. Neither of those cases is true when it comes to addressing racism in our country. We know the problem, and there are many many ways we can treat the root causes. Treating symptoms, like Confederate street names are part of the solution, but only a part. We need to follow the more easily visible clues to the implicit problems and address each for a more equal society.
About the Author:
Stella Hudson is a Graduate Assistant with the Baha’i Chair for World Peace. She graduated from the College of William and Mary in 2021 with a B.A. in English. She is attending the University of Maryland and pursuing a Master’s of Library and Information Science.