In 1914, the organization championed the Confederate Monument at Arlington National Cemetery, which features panels depicting “loyal” slaves and a “mammy” figure with two white children in tow. Whites’ affection for “colored mammies” glossed over the violence and pain inflicted upon enslaved women who had their families torn apart. Many were the daughters and granddaughters of enslaved women who had been forced to work as caretakers of other women’s children. Being forced to care for white children also came at the price of not taking care of their own children. Asserting the authority of the black community to define and value itself, she vowed that black women would do everything they could to resist the building of the monument.

Source: New York Times February 06, 2020 20:03 UTC