As it sometimes happens, two seemingly unrelated news stories from two different cities are reported at virtually the same time, and then, we discover that there might be some dots to connect. Such is the case with a planned housing project in High Point, and a statue in Lumberton.
Let’s begin in High Point.
For as long as anyone can remember, the name Daniel Brooks adorned a large housing complex in the City, and the recognition was well deserved. Rev. Brooks, born in 1837, was a free person of color who grew up in Cleveland County but spent most of his adult life in High Point, where he was active in the community from the late 1800s until his death in 1933. Brooks was pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church and has been described as an educator of Black children, and an influential civic leader. The housing complex that bore his name was demolished recently to make way for a more modern version. So far so good. But then the High Point Housing Authority announced that the new community would be named “Legacy Ridge”, and the name Daniel Brooks relegated to a small plaque.
Upon hearing of the HPHA’s decision late last month, Rev. Angela Roberson, pastor of the Congregational United Church of Christ, lodged a complaint and started a petition to reinstate Rev. Brooks’ name to the new development when it is completed this summer.
Speaking with the High Point Enterprise, Rev. Roberson said, “It seemed to us they (the Housing Authority) did not recognize there were people in the community who would want to retain the name. They made the decision without any input from us.”
That lack of disclosure and transparency concerns Rev. Roberson because, as she told the Enterprise, “Legacy Ridge is being developed in part with public funds.”
Meanwhile, as the Legacy Ridge controversy simmered in High Point, over in Lumberton, the NAACP made news by protesting the status of another kind of structure. Back in 1907, a statue was erected in front of the Robeson County Courthouse to honor the Confederate dead. In fact, a sculpture of a Confederate soldier sits atop the marble obelisk for all to see. The problem is that ever since the Charlottesville protests of 2017, Confederate monuments have been falling like dominos all across the nation. Not so in Lumberton.
Speaking with the Robesonian, local NAACP president Rev. Tyronne Watson, Sr., said, “How can we move as a county in the direction of equality…when we still idolize the dark history that has caused so much pain and division by allowing this statue to stand at the people’s house?”
OK, so what does the Lumberton statue have in common with High Point’s Legacy Ridge housing complex? Ostensibly nothing, except for the fact that Rev. Daniel Brooks was, you guessed it, a veteran of the Confederate army. Of course, he wasn’t the only man of color to don a gray uniform. Writing for the Harvard Gazette, professor John Stauffer noted that, “Blacks who shouldered arms for the Confederacy numbered more than 3,000, but fewer than 10,000.” However, most of those recruits were slaves. Brooks, on the other hand, was a “free man of color” who enlisted in Jeff Davis’s rebel army of his own free will. Interviewed in 1925 by Sara Alderman of the High Point Enterprise, Rev. Brooks said of his time in the army, “I didn’t use a gun the whole time. Some of the time I cooked for the officers.” Brooks said he also worked on road and bridge construction. And though he didn’t kill anyone in battle, and he never owned slaves, Brooks still wore the uniform of those who fought for slavery, and that begs the question, if America is determined to purge all things Confederate, then how can you reinstate Daniel Brooks’ name on a publicly-funded housing development?
Let’s be clear about something. I couldn’t care less about Confederate monuments, and I’m certainly not trying to provide fodder for racists who love to make straw man arguments against those who want to tear down Confederate statues. I’m just suggesting that it might be less divisive if there were consistent standards in place for determining which monuments must be removed, or which buildings should be renamed. For example, statues of Robert E. Lee have all but disappeared from the American landscape because he owned slaves, but so did Washington and Jefferson, yet monuments, buildings, and highways bearing their names are still intact. If only Rev. Brooks were alive today, he could make sense of all this. That’s the kind of man he was, and maybe that’s the very reason we should keep his name on Legacy Ridge.
Confederates of All Colors
As it sometimes happens, two seemingly unrelated news stories from two different cities are reported at virtually the same time, and then, we discover that there might be some dots to connect. Such is the case with a planned housing project in High Point, and a statue in Lumberton.
Let’s begin in High Point.
For as long as anyone can remember, the name Daniel Brooks adorned a large housing complex in the City, and the recognition was well deserved. Rev. Brooks, born in 1837, was a free person of color who grew up in Cleveland County but spent most of his adult life in High Point, where he was active in the community from the late 1800s until his death in 1933. Brooks was pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church and has been described as an educator of Black children, and an influential civic leader. The housing complex that bore his name was demolished recently to make way for a more modern version. So far so good. But then the High Point Housing Authority announced that the new community would be named “Legacy Ridge”, and the name Daniel Brooks relegated to a small plaque.
Upon hearing of the HPHA’s decision late last month, Rev. Angela Roberson, pastor of the Congregational United Church of Christ, lodged a complaint and started a petition to reinstate Rev. Brooks’ name to the new development when it is completed this summer.
Speaking with the High Point Enterprise, Rev. Roberson said, “It seemed to us they (the Housing Authority) did not recognize there were people in the community who would want to retain the name. They made the decision without any input from us.”
That lack of disclosure and transparency concerns Rev. Roberson because, as she told the Enterprise, “Legacy Ridge is being developed in part with public funds.”
Meanwhile, as the Legacy Ridge controversy simmered in High Point, over in Lumberton, the NAACP made news by protesting the status of another kind of structure. Back in 1907, a statue was erected in front of the Robeson County Courthouse to honor the Confederate dead. In fact, a sculpture of a Confederate soldier sits atop the marble obelisk for all to see. The problem is that ever since the Charlottesville protests of 2017, Confederate monuments have been falling like dominos all across the nation. Not so in Lumberton.
Speaking with the Robesonian, local NAACP president Rev. Tyronne Watson, Sr., said, “How can we move as a county in the direction of equality…when we still idolize the dark history that has caused so much pain and division by allowing this statue to stand at the people’s house?”
OK, so what does the Lumberton statue have in common with High Point’s Legacy Ridge housing complex? Ostensibly nothing, except for the fact that Rev. Daniel Brooks was, you guessed it, a veteran of the Confederate army. Of course, he wasn’t the only man of color to don a gray uniform. Writing for the Harvard Gazette, professor John Stauffer noted that, “Blacks who shouldered arms for the Confederacy numbered more than 3,000, but fewer than 10,000.” However, most of those recruits were slaves. Brooks, on the other hand, was a “free man of color” who enlisted in Jeff Davis’s rebel army of his own free will. Interviewed in 1925 by Sara Alderman of the High Point Enterprise, Rev. Brooks said of his time in the army, “I didn’t use a gun the whole time. Some of the time I cooked for the officers.” Brooks said he also worked on road and bridge construction. And though he didn’t kill anyone in battle, and he never owned slaves, Brooks still wore the uniform of those who fought for slavery, and that begs the question, if America is determined to purge all things Confederate, then how can you reinstate Daniel Brooks’ name on a publicly-funded housing development?
Let’s be clear about something. I couldn’t care less about Confederate monuments, and I’m certainly not trying to provide fodder for racists who love to make straw man arguments against those who want to tear down Confederate statues. I’m just suggesting that it might be less divisive if there were consistent standards in place for determining which monuments must be removed, or which buildings should be renamed. For example, statues of Robert E. Lee have all but disappeared from the American landscape because he owned slaves, but so did Washington and Jefferson, yet monuments, buildings, and highways bearing their names are still intact. If only Rev. Brooks were alive today, he could make sense of all this. That’s the kind of man he was, and maybe that’s the very reason we should keep his name on Legacy Ridge.