Priorities In Memorials

There are at least 23 memorials of various types to the Union armed forces of the US Civil War in Manhattan alone. (See here, scroll down to New York County.) There’s nothing wrong with that per se, but it does tend to obscure the meaning of the war. As a matter of fact, only one of those 23 memorials – the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Riverside Park – is dedicated to someone other than an officer. Most of the 23 were built between 1890 and 1930, which was an era in New York and the US when putting up classical memorials was in vogue. There are three memorials in New York (that I know of) for the victims of slavery: the African Burial Ground on Duane Street, the Frederick Douglass Memorial at the circle that defines the northwest corner of Central Park, and the Ark of Return on the UN grounds. All three were built between 2007 and 2015, or roughly a century after the Civil War generals got their monuments. The Ark of Return – The Permanent Memorial to Honor the Victims of…