Walters Museum Tackles Confederate Monuments

The four Confederate monuments removed in Baltimore in 2017 were part of a larger, national movement. The United Daughters of the Confederacy was instrumental in erecting many of these statues, including Baltimore's Confederate Women's Monument and the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument, to promote the "Lost Cause" narrative of the Civil War. Baltimore's decision to remove its monuments came in the wake of the violent "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017. Then-Mayor Catherine Pugh ordered the statues to be taken down overnight to ensure public safety, a move that followed a unanimous vote by the City Council. The removed statues include the Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson Monument, the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument, the Confederate Women's Monument, and a monument to Supreme Court Justice Roger B. Taney, author of the infamous Dred Scott decision. While not a Confederate monument, the Taney statue was removed due to its connection to the legal underpinnings of slavery. After their removal, Baltimore's four monuments were transported to a city-owned lot for storage. They are currently on loan to the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles for an exhibition titled "MONUMENTS," which runs through May 3, 2026. The March 5th discussion at the Walters Art Museum, titled "From Controversy to Conversation: Engaging Monuments and Memory," will feature speakers with deep expertise on the topic. Panelists include Hannah Burstein, curatorial associate for the MOCA "MONUMENTS" exhibition, and Hamza Walker, director of The Brick (formerly LAXART) and a curator of the exhibition. Joining them are multidisciplinary artist Nekisha Durrett, whose work often explores forgotten Black histories, and Martha S. Jones, a historian and legal scholar from Johns Hopkins University who directs the Hard Histories at Hopkins Project. The conversation will address the history of these monuments and the ongoing debate about their future. Other cities have taken varied approaches to their removed Confederate statues. Richmond, Virginia, transferred ownership of its monuments to the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia. Charlottesville's city council voted to melt down its statue of Robert E. Lee to create a new piece of public art. The pedestals where Baltimore's monuments once stood have become sites of public expression and protest. The now-vacant space serves as a platform for new interpretations of history and memory, a physical manifestation of the ongoing conversation the Walters Art Museum aims to foster.