¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥

SALISBURY, MD---In the past year, Confederate monuments throughout the U.S. have been covered up or removed completely as racial justice advocates have called into question their appropriateness.

One such debate continues in ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ as community members have called for both the removal and the saving of a plaque memorializing Confederate General John Henry Winder, placed by the Maryland Civil War Centennial Commission in 1965.

¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥’s Institute for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement (PACE) examines the issue from both local and national perspectives during the panel discussion “Monuments and Memory” 6 p.m. Monday, April 16, in the Patricia R. Guerrieri Academic Commons Assembly Hall.

Panelists include Dr. Jim Buss, dean of the SU Honors College; Dr. April Logan, assistant professor of English; Angela Crenshaw, assistant manager of Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park; and Dan O’Hare, executive producer of the documentary The Sign, about the Winder plaque. Interactive group discussions follow.

Originally standing on South ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ Boulevard, the plaque was relocated to the Wicomico County Courthouse lawn in downtown ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ in 1983 after it was knocked over in several traffic accidents at its first location.

Local advocates began calling for its removal in 2014, noting that Winder, a Nanticoke native, had no connection to ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥.

Those asking that the marker be taken down also have noted that its current placement is directly adjacent to two locations with negative connotations for the African American community: the home of the former Byrd Tavern, where slaves were kept prior to auctions in the late 1700s and early 1800s, and the site of a 1931 lynching outside the courthouse.

Gen. Winder himself also is a controversial figure. He was the commander of military prisons in Alabama and Georgia, including the infamous Andersonville, where 12,920 Union soldiers — more than a quarter of those taken there — died from mistreatment. While Winder’s subordinates were found guilty of war crimes, the general was not charged. (He died of a heart attack within months of the war’s end.)

Community members advocating to keep the Winder marker in place have said that such monuments pay tribute to history — both good and bad — and, in some cases, serve as memorials to veterans.

Admission to the SU discussion is free and the public is invited. For more information call 410-677-5045 or visit the PACE website at www.salisbury.edu/pace.