Martha's Vineyard: History is not dead, or even past

This Civil War era soldier figure still dominates the Oak Bluffs ferry landing on Martha's Vineyard. I've been wondering about it for years. What's a monument to Confederate soldiers doing on the green in Oak Bluffs? Or so I thought, apparently oversimplifying a slightly more complex story. In the early 20th century the figure was donated by a former Confederate officer "in honor of the Confederate soldiers" as some kind of token of reconciliation with his former antagonists in the Union army. A plaque added in 1925 read "The chasm is closed." That seems an effort to "disappear" this country's bloodiest war.

Such gestures aimed to whitewash the truth: the Civil War was fought to determine whether African-descended human beings were property or people. There was plenty of death, gore, and cruelty -- and darn little honor and brotherhood -- in that war, but ex-Confederates had an interest in drawing a pretty picture to obscure the reality. Hence Mr. Strahan's gift to the town, already a place long occupied by and often visited by Black citizens.

Last spring, at the prompting of the NAACP, the town selectmen (local council) held a public forum.

David Vanderhoop, a member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) and founder of Sassafrass Earth Education, was one of the first people to speak. He said he wanted to see the plaques removed and replaced with a memorial representing the resilience of all people, specifically Wampanoag and African Americans.

“Martha’s Vineyard should not and does not stand for white male supremacy — a symbol of the Confederacy,” Vanderhoop said. “We need to be able to look each other in the eye and stand side by side for the sake of our children, our grandchildren, and their children, and so on.”

Jocelyn Coleman Walton said the plaques should be removed because it hurts people of the Vineyard and those who visit.

“The chasm has never closed for me,” Coleman Walton said. “Think about how this affects all our African American, our Wampanoag, our people of color.”

Tom Rancich, a Navy veteran, spoke about his combat experience, and said he is glad his children will never have to experience what he went through. “I can tell you stories that will make you all cringe. I can tell you about the horrors of what humans do to each other,” Rancich said. “War is horrible, humans are fallible … I think those memorials ought to be removed.”...

The selectmen voted to consign the "chasm is closed" plaque to the Martha's Vineyard Museum and cover its space on the statue with plywood. I found the plaque hanging in a back corner without, yet, an explanatory display.

The museum is still studying the fraught question of how to explain its new artifacts to visitors.