Earlier this month Denton county (Texas) commissioners accepted recommendations to alter a Confederate monument located on the grounds of the local courthouse. The decision follows roughly twenty years of protest by local activist Willie Hudspeth.
This short video produced by Vice follows Hudspeth’s efforts to remove the monument. It’s well done and does a good job of highlighting the salient issues at stake for activists and defenders of these monuments. It will be interesting to see how the proposed changes to the monument impact people’s perceptions of the meaning of this particular commemorative landscape.
I have added the video to my Confederate Monuments Syllabus page.
When I went to library school in Denton in the mid-1990s I volunteered at the county historical museum that was then situated within the courthouse you see on the background. This was in 1996 and 1997. I was there on Tuesdays and I remember someone protesting that monument each week. I do not know if it was Mr. Hudspeth because this video says he started doing this in 1998, by which time I had moved to New York City. Whoever it was, this issue was on the radar well over two decades ago.
I see Denton has one of those spectacular Victorian courthouses that Texas towns built before their decline started. Good for Mr Hudspeth.
Here’s a technical solution. Everyone has a smartphone. Display a link that connects smartphones to the video. Vandal and weatherproof. Low cost, effective, flexible, and the county can get statistics on usage.