The American Historical Association has sent a letter to Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin affirming the “importance of input from qualified historians” in deliberations about monuments in public spaces. “Your appointments to the Board of Historic Resources and other historical institutions fall within that reference to professional qualifications and democratic decision-making,” the AHA wrote. “A productive conversation requires that all participants act in good faith, with an informed understanding of scholarship and a careful and nuanced appreciation of the historical context.” The letter included a copy of the AHA’s Statement on Confederate Monuments, which “urge[s] communities faced with decisions about monuments to draw on the expertise of historians both for understanding the facts and chronology underlying such monuments and for deriving interpretive conclusions based on evidence.”
August 3, 2022
Governor Glenn Youngkin
Richmond, VA
Dear Governor Youngkin,
In 2017, the tragic events in Charlottesville surrounding the removal of a prominent Confederate monument reignited debate about the place of these monuments in public spaces, as well as related conversations about the wider presence of Confederate, neo-Nazi, and white supremacist imagery across the American landscape. The American Historical Association issued a statement, calling for public reconsideration of “people and events honored in our civic spaces” including the importance of input from qualified historians in a community’s deliberations.
Your appointments to the Board of Historic Resources and other historical institutions fall within that reference to professional qualifications and democratic decision-making. A productive conversation requires that all participants act in good faith, with an informed understanding of scholarship and a careful and nuanced appreciation of the historical context. What we recommended five years ago remains imperative today:
“Historians and others will continue to disagree about the meanings and implications of events and the appropriate commemoration of those events. The AHA encourages such discussions in publications, in other venues of scholarship and teaching, and more broadly in public culture; historical scholarship itself is a conversation rooted in evidence and disciplinary standards. We urge communities faced with decisions about monuments to draw on the expertise of historians both for understanding the facts and chronology underlying such monuments and for deriving interpretive conclusions based on evidence.”
As you proceed with appointments to historical boards and entities, we hope you will find the AHA statement, endorsed by two dozen other history-related professional organizations, a useful guide. Please feel free to contact the AHA to request a historian to provide professional consultation.
Below please find the AHA’s Statement on Confederate Monuments in full. The statement is also available on the AHA’s website.
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Sincerely,
James H. Sweet
President
James R. Grossman
Executive Director