Upcoming Protest Calls for Removal of Confederate Mound in Oak Woods Cemetery

On April 22 the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) will hold their annual memorial service at the Confederate Mound in Oak Woods Cemetery honoring Confederate soldiers. The group will be met by Smash White Supremacy (SWS), an organization that has been mobilizing to call for the removal of the monument that stands at the helm of the confederate mound.
On April 22 the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) will hold their annual memorial service at the Confederate Mound in Oak Woods Cemetery honoring Confederate soldiers. The group will be met by Smash White Supremacy (SWS), an organization that has been mobilizing to call for the removal of the monument that stands at the helm of the confederate mound.

Upcoming Protest Calls for Removal of Confederate Mound in Oak Woods Cemetery

BY KATHERINE NEWMAN

On April 22 the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) will hold their annual memorial service at the Confederate Mound in Oak Woods Cemetery honoring Confederate soldiers. The group will be met by Smash White Supremacy (SWS), an organization that has been mobilizing to call for the removal of the monument that stands at the helm of the confederate mound.

Smash White Supremacy is made up of anti-racist organizations and individuals working for social and economic justice for all people, according to their Facebook page.

“We have two goals really, one of them is to form a coalition in Chicago against white supremacy and then the long-term goal also is to get this huge statue removed. We are both educating the community about our campaign and also kind of taking leadership from the community so we aren’t doing something in their backyard that they don’t want,” said Savannah Webb, an organizer for Smash White Supremacy.

On the southwest side of Oak Woods Cemetery, there is a 30-foot granite monument dedicated to the thousands of Confederate soldiers who died at Camp Douglas as prisoners of the civil war. The monument marks a mass grave containing the remains of thousands of Confederate prisoners, according to the Nation Park Service.

“We gather to honor the 6000 men buried at Confederate Mound, who suffered through harsh winters, extreme summer temperatures, starvation, human cruelty by the hands of Federal guards only to die in a prison camp and never be able to return home,” said Matthew Evans. Camp Commander of the SCV Camp Douglas Memorial chapter.

Both groups are planning to peacefully organize in the cemetery on April 22.

“We respect their right to the First Amendment. We respect their right to gather, but it is a two-way road. We hope that they can respect our presence there at Confederate Mound and realize that this ceremony is not to divide or open old wounds, but to pay respect for the dead. Confederate Mound is not a monument, but a headstone, a headstone for 6000 men who never got to go home,” said Evans.

Likewise, Webb said their intention is to not have any sort of conflict with the SCV.

“Outside of the cemetery we are going to wait for the Sons of the Confederacy to go in and start their memorial service and then we are going to go in after them. We don’t want to have any contact with them,” said Webb.

While they wait, SWS will be displaying two timelines. One being the life and work of Ida B. Wells, who is buried in the Oak Woods Cemetery, and the other shows the history of the monument.

“Our goal for the 22nd is to offer a counter-narrative to the memorial service that they hold. We are going to have our own memorial service to honor the right side of history, and to us, that’s honoring Ida B. Wells,” said Webb.

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