The Mammy Monument

The Mammy Monument

History Research: Memory and Myth

Audrey Hansen

Fall 2014

Mammy, a 20th century caricature and racial fallacy, was a powerful symbol of the post-war tensions that characterized the Jim Crow Era. A fervent nostalgia for the Old South inspired a revival of traditional social structures and black subordination. A fabled narrative, crafted by whites, illustrated the Mammy figure as an affectionate, devoted slave possessing unconditional love for her white superiors. Perpetrators of the Mammy myth regarded the maternal figure as a unifying link between the two diverging races. In the eyes of whites, the proposition of a national Mammy monument in 1923 sought to mitigate racial friction and revitalize traditional ideologies. In

contrast, African Americans vehemently opposed the revival of stereotypes, such as Mammy, that aimed at dehumanizing the black race. The monument perpetuated a former condition of servitude to remind blacks of their proper place within white society. Ultimately, the proposition of the national Mammy monument reflected enduring 20th century racial tensions by illustrating the discrepancy between the prevailing memories and myths of both the black and white races. For whites, the Mammy figure symbolized an idealistic memory of the past, serving to romanticize black's subservient roles, invalidate the oppression of African-Americans, and legitimize white privilege. For blacks, the monument perpetuated a mythical fallacy by glorifying servitude, negating black persecution, and extending the notion of black inferiority.
In January of 1923, Senator John Williams of Mississippi and the United Daughters of the Confederacy proposed a national monument “in memory of the faithful, colored mammies of the South” . Following the American Civil War, whites formed numerous associations to honor and commemorate the Southern Confederacy. Such alliances were “extremely successful at raising money to build Confederate monuments…. they expected to have similar success in dedicating a statue to the ‘Mammy’ in the nation’s capital”. The United Daughters of the Confederacy, through the construction of the national Mammy monument, sought to “recast the ‘Lost Cause’ as a noble defense of a Southern utopia”. Southern coalitions galvanized a popular movement to regenerate social hierarchy and emphasize black subservience through a trend of monument building. Whites constructed artistic portrayals of the Confederate era that called for the resurgence of a romantic past. This “reactionary crusade” honored slaves who “remained faithful out of love of masters, mistresses and their children." As racial tensions escalated throughout the Jim Crow era, white society popularized the notion of the “faithful slave”. Discomfort with black liberty as well as “black migration to the North, race riots, and growing anxiety about what whites called the ‘Negro problem’, made the nation more receptive to Southern images of bygone racial order". During the post-war era, Jim Crow laws and racial segregation lead to many social and economic disadvantages for black Americans. A period of “rampant lynching, and economic peonage had effectively reenslaved blacks in the South. Blacks who migrated north during and after World War One were greeted by the worst race riots in the nation's history”. The dominance of white society continued to victimize blacks with their prevailing social doctrines. The formation of monuments depicting slavery as a benevolent institution further degraded and dehumanized the black race. The movement to revitalize racial order, glorify white supremacy, and nullify black oppression threatened African American liberty, independence, and social welfare.
Throughout the Jim Crow era, the white race invented a compelling myth to advance their social interests. For whites, the Mammy figure represented a valuable connection to an idyllic past; however, the narrative itself contained little evidence or substantiation. The caricature portrayed “an obese, coarse, maternal figure. She had great love for her white ‘family’, but often treated her own family with disdain. Although she had children, sometimes many, she was completely desexualized. She ‘belonged’ to the white family… the white family was her entire world” . Throughout the 20th century, Mammy was “the most visible character in the myth of faithful slave, a set of stories, images, and ideas, that have been passed down from generation to generation in the United States, through every possible popular medium, from fine art and literature to vaudeville stage and cinema, and in countless novelty items from ashtrays to salt and pepper shakers". Mammy was a powerful symbol that penetrated the ideologies of whites in American society. However, Mammies “as they have been described and remembered by whites, like all faithful slaves, bear little resemblance to actual enslaved women of the antebellum period". Although slave women, prior to emancipation, performed domestic activities and cared for white children, the notion of the “Mammy” did not actually arise until after the Civil War. Typically, Mammy was depicted as "black, fat with huge breasts, and head covered with a kerchief to hide her nappy hair, strong, kind, loyal, sexless, religious and superstitious. She spoke bastardized English; she did not care about her appearance. She was politically safe. She was culturally safe.” Mammy’s docile disposition deemed her both politically and cultural “safe”, in contrast with blacks of the Jim Crow era, whose intractable nature was often considered dangerous by white society. Whites crafted Mammy’s unpleasant appearance with explicit intent. The figure was “deliberately constructed to suggest ugliness. Mammy was portrayed as dark-skinned, often pitch black, in a society that regarded black skin as ugly, tainted. She was obese, sometimes morbidly overweight. Moreover, she was often portrayed as old, or at least middle-aged. The attempt was to desexualize mammy”. Perpetrators of the Mammy stereotype emphasized her unappealing physical qualities in order to render the figure sexually unattractive. These characteristics evoked contrast between the degraded black female and the glorified white woman, as well as negated the sexual exploitation of female slaves by former white slave owners. As Mammy’s image continued to circulate throughout the country, the figure was publicized through variety of artistic mediums. Popular films such as The Birth of the Nation (1915) and Gone With the Wind (1939) showcased Mammy figures as devoted affiliates of white households. Additionally, Vaudeville productions employed the Mammy caricature when “white men, wearing black face makeup, did vaudeville skits as Sambos, Mammies, and other anti-black stereotypes.” Perpetuated by media and popular culture, the Mammy figure embodied the degradation of the blacks and the romantic fallacies held by whites. Mammy was a myth fostered by white society and utilized as a technique for pursuing calculated social interest.
The suppression of black liberty throughout The Jim Crow era engendered a period of racial tension and social upheaval.

The establishment of a national Mammy monument appealed to many whites, for it epitomized traditional social structures. When North Caroline congressman Charles Stedman introduced the bill in January of 1923, he stated: "The traveler, as he passes by, will recall that epoch of southern civilization when fidelity and loyalty prevailed. No class of any race of people held in bondage could be found anywhere who lived more free from care or distress.” According to white proponents, the monument would serve as a reminder of the amicable race relations that prevailed throughout the Old South. Moreover, the monument would legitimize white supremacy by emphasizing the beneficial nature of black subordination. As Stedman firmly asserted: "(Mammys) desired no change in their condition of life”. The myth contended that Mammies possessed deep affection for their white superiors and held no resentment for their inferior position. The Mammy figure served, not only to degrade the black race, but also to negate black oppression through an invented history. Mammy accommodated the “political, social, and economic interests of mainstream white America. During slavery, the mammy caricature was posited as proof that blacks -- in this case, black women -- were contented, even happy, as slaves. Her wide grin, hearty laugher, and loyal servitude were offered as evidence of the

supposed humanity of the institution of slavery” As racial tensions intensified in an evolving social climate, whites utilized the Mammy figure as a powerful device to maintain their social superiority. According to historian Micki Mcelya: "Mammy was appealing at a particularly fraught time in national history…Mammy represents paternalism and affection between the races, a world where everyone understands their places." . As traditional structures and order declined, whites held fast to a fictionalized vision of a harmonious past. By proposing a monument to celebrate this fabricated perception, whites “refute(d) the assertion that the master was cruel to his slave” . By depicting harmonious master-slave relationships, whites denied responsibility for perpetrated injustices and negated oppression that blacks faced as a result. The myth of the faithful slave “lingers because so many white Americans have wished to live in a world in which African Americans are not angry over past and present injustices, a world in which white people were and are not complicit, in which the injustices themselves-of slavery, Jim Crow, and ongoing structural racism-seem not to exist at all. The mammy figure affirmed their wishes" The proposition of the Mammy monument in celebration of the fictional character illustrated white ideologies through the Jim Crow Era. As social turbulence continued to ignite racial hostility, whites longed for a romantic vision of the past. Whites portrayed black servitude as a favorable condition and overlooked the injustices of slavery. The Mammy monument intended to legitimize the superiority of whites, while depicting a distorted relationship between whites and their black inferiors. Whites evaded responsibility for injustices and invalided black victimization. The proposal for the Mammy monument served as a powerful mechanism to fictionalize the past and remind the black population of their subordinate position in society.
For African Americans, the proposition of the national Mammy Monument represented an extension of oppressive ideologies and hierarchical structures aimed at the dehumanization of the black race.

White efforts to suppress liberty and romanticize the institution of slavery outraged the black community. The Monument’s bill drew national attention from African-American press and activists. Neval H. Thomas of the NAACP expressed that the monument would “at best will be a symbol of our servitude to remind white and black alike that the menial callings are our place in the scheme of things.” . Furthermore, Thomas added, “"if the South has such deep gratitude for the virtues of this devoted group from which it reaped vast riches, let it remove the numberless barriers it has gone out of its way to throw up against the progress" . Activists like Thomas criticized the perpetuation of black abuses under a façade of artistic and romantic sentiments. Fervent civil rights activist Mary Beth Terrell argued that if the monument were constructed, “there are thousands of colored men and women who will fervently pray that on some stormy night the lightning will strike it and the heavenly elements will send it crashing to the ground.” . The Mammy proposal ignited a vigorous indignation that further exacerbated 20th century racial relations. Terrell’s assertion illustrated the black community’s willingness to fight for the preservation of their rightful liberties and social opportunities.

Criticism of the monument spread arousing a passionate and widespread response from other blacks. Activist W.E.B Dubois encouraged African American News Papers to publicize the injustice and condemn the monument’s creation. Black journalists emphasized the “abuses and sexual exploitation of slavery as well as the brutalities and disenfranchisement of contemporary southern apartheid and the informal segregation prevalent across the nation”. The African American press suggested that white’s “professed love for mammy swelled from the same blood lust and insidious white supremacist sentiment that fueled race riots, lynching, rapes, and other abuses of African Americans”.. St Louis Argus, a prominent black newspaper argued, “No subject has brought forth a more unanimous protest, except lynching, since the Civil War, than has the protested Black Mammy statue” . Strong opposition, controversy, and dissent from the black community put an end to the monument’s proposal. Due to black resistance and perseverance, the Monument, symbolizing a fictitious and dehumanizing myth, was never erected. For the black community, the Mammy figure symbolized an enduring ideology of white supremacy that endeavored to suppress black freedom at all costs. Mammy was not a figure, but a rather a spurious façade and faulty myth that glorified the brutal institution of slavery. For the black community, Mammy epitomized the racial tensions that blacks would continue to face throughout the 20th century.
The proposal for the National Mammy Monument represented the fundamental racial tensions that characterized the Jim Crow Era. As whites invented a fabricated version of the past serving to justify their supremacy, blacks became targets of social repression and invalidation. According the Micki McElya’s Clinging to Mammy, the Mammy narrative is “deeply rooted in the American racial imagination. It is a story of our national past and political future that blurs the lines between myth and memory, guilt and justice, stereotype and individuality, commodity and humanity." The black and white perceptions of the Mammy illustrate the conflicts between racial memories and myths. Whites perpetuated a myth that vastly contrasted with black memory of servitude. The White initiative to recreate a romantic past refuted the reality of black persecution. The white glorification of black’s servile roles served to legitimize white privilege and justify black subservience. These tensions, manifested by contrasting social ideologies and perpetuated by the creation of Mammy, exhibit the racial hostility the characterized the post-war era. Ultimately, the “Mammy” figure served to maintain black inferiority and subordination through a fallacious façade of a romantic and idealized past.