Confederate Memorial Hall

Finally.  I have a couple of decent pictures of Vanderbilt University's Confederate Memorial Hall.  They aren't easy to find--especially ones where you can actually read the "Confederate" part.  Also, because of trees out front of the building, it's hard to get a good picture of it.  But thanks to Spencer Crew's kind invitation to speak to his history graduate class at MTSU (on memorials of sites of conscience), I had the chance to drive out to Nashville this summer, where I had a great time and a great opportunity to visit some important monuments.

First, the story about one "Confederate Memorial Hall."  In the depths of the depression, the United Daughters of the Confederacy promised to raise $100,000 to fund the building of a dormitory on the campus of Peabody College.  Preliminary negotiations between the UDC and Peabody College called for Peabody to house young women descended from Confederate soldiers for free there, as well as to name the dormitory "Confederate Memorial Hall."  (Though there is no formal contract to be found in either the Peabody archives or the UDC's, it appears as though that was the agreement.  The UDC raised the money and Confederate Memorial Hall was built in the 1930s.)  It's a beautiful building, by the way.

In the 1970s, Peabody College was acquired by Vanderbilt and Vanderbilt stopped the free housing.  No one at the time complained, so far as we can determine.  But it continued using the  name, though at various times afterwards the name raised some debate on the university's campus.

Now cut to 2002. Vanderbilt's Chancellor Gordon Gee decided that it was time for a name change: the building would no longer be called "Confederate Memorial Hall," but simply "Memorial Hall." A few steps ahead of the sand blasters arrived a complaint from the United Daughters of the Confederacy, seeking to enjoin the removal of the name "Confederate" from the building.  The chancellor found for Vanderbilt on a cy pres theory, but on appeal the Tennessee Court of Appeals made some strange moves and overturned the chancellor. Lots of inside baseball here, but let me telegraph some things that I found strange. First, the court implied a contract on the basis of a course of dealings (even though there was no writing that could be found). Second, it found the contract was still in operation (even though Vanderbilt stopped housing women in the late 1970s); third, it found that the damages were the present value of the entire $100,000 given in the early 1930s, rather than some portion of that. In essence, the housing women for free wasn't given any credit in the award of damages.  I would have thought that opinion was vulnerable in all sorts of ways on appeal, but I suspect that Vanderbilt University just said, "ah, what the heck--this isn't worth pursuing further."  They made their point and the court of appeals decision was a good stopping point.

One other thing, though, that I find absolutely riveting: a concurring opinion quoted extensively from the memoirs of United States General Joshua Chamberlain (who was a professor of moral philosophy at Bowdoin before the Civil War)!  Chamberlain's memoirs, published in 1910, were a key point of reconciliation between the north and south--an attempt to rewrite the history of the war.  What I find particularly interesting is that in 2005 a judge was advocating for a controversial position: that the memory of the Confederacy should be that of people fighting honorably for a cause they believed just (not fighting for slavery).  This is an important example of a controversial cultural idea being promulgated through a judicial opinion.

The picture above and to the right is a plaque placed on the building in 1989 when the building was renovated.

Also, here's a short article about building renaming that talks some about the Vanderbilt case.

Comments

[Bertrall Ross]

Thanks for the post Al, I was looking forward to learning about Confederate Memorial Hall after talking about it the other night. It is very interesting!

[Ingrid]

Thanks for this interesting post!

[harwell wells]

Thanks for the post! As a Vandy Law alum and a native of Nashville, I am embarrassed by the existence of Confederate Hall, not to mention the fact that Vanderbilt did not try to change the building's name until 2002 -- but the story is fascinating. I don't know why Vanderbilt did not appeal the Court of Appeals's ruling, but one reason may be that the COA opinion was written by William Koch who, far from being a reactionary, was one of the best regarded judges on the state and has since been elevated to the TN Supreme Court. Perhaps Vanderbilt decided that, if they couldn't win in front of Koch, they couldn't win anywhere.

[JosephineSouthern]

OMG he says As a Vandy Law alum and a native of Nashville, I am embarrassed by the existence of Confederate Hall!

Embarrassed - I am totally embarrassed by the likes of you. My ancestors suffered totally from the yankee takeover and invasion. But they did not allow themseles to be buried by it.

I am so proud of my Southern Confederate Ancestors because they stood up to tyranny and they stood up to defeat and devastation. They did a lot FOR OTHERS who were in the same boat, black and white.

I used to love the black people in the South they were so good, but not now - i have become like yankeefied and followed their example of being very removed as far as I can get.

Here's a little bit of history for the haves and have-nots.

Christmas in Antebellum Vicksburg:

"(In Vicksburg), as on the plantations, Christmas Day meant "Christmas gifts," surrendered on demand to the servants. The cook in town, Aunt Diddy, arrived in a costume that seldom varied---purple calico dress, black silk apron, hair tied up in a red and yellow bandana. She gave finishing touches to the house decorations which had a Deep Southern touch: gray moss and magnolia leaves on the wall or the tablecloth, in addition to the usual holly and mistletoe.

Aunt Diddy's only occupation on this day was the meal itself. The turkey already had a side use; his wing, covered with calico, had become a brush for the hearth, and his tail feathers were being woven into a Sunday fan...the fowl itself was filled with oyster stuffing and placed in front of the master; before the mistress sat a whole roast suckling pig with an apple in its mouth.

First a serving of turkey, then pig, and with them Irish and sweet potatoes, lima beans, hominy and rice, egg bread, biscuit and Sally Lunn, "baked in a Turk's cap pan." At each end of the table were dishes containing a pound of butter in a handsome print; a pair of glass stands held large cakes---fruit, pound and sponge---the result of days of baking; and the lattice-work fruit stands were full of polished oranges, apple and grapes. Dessert, like many of the things of this day, also came in double style; there were mince pie and boiled custard, "the latter served in tall thin goblets with a little floating island of white of egg on top." As a last touch, the children and adults could select from Canton-blue jars of ginger.

Within a half hour after the meal, "portions" of practically everything on the table were on their way to less well-to-do families of the town.

The day after Christmas had a special meaning in Vicksburg and other river places; it "belonged to the Negroes," whose duties were lightened so that they could leave early for their parties, and for the weddings that took place at Vicksburg as they did at the plantation....Such Christmas-time Negro weddings were conducted with high ceremonial and also high order. At the end the minister would lift his hand: "Well Jim, salute your bride." At that the crowd cried out, the groom would bestow his kiss, and the lighter hours had arrived, with singing and dancing into the night."

(The Southern Christmas Book, Harnett T. Kane, David MacKay Compant, 1958, pp. 166-169)

[JohnT]

Perhaps we should tear down every monument, building, gravestones, or any sort of remembrance of those Tories who fought for the British during the Revolution, as well ?!? Sure..rewrite the history so it's completely one sided. Retards. Talk about Nazis! Jeez! What a bunch of hypocrites, crying about Confederate Memorial Hall!

Maybe they ought rip down every Confederate statue along Monument Ave. in Richmond as well!

Heck, rip down the Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery as well (The Federal Army even honored them by placing it there); dig up those bodies and dump them into an unmarked mass grave! Better yet scatter their bones unto the four corners of the earth!