So, even if African Americans of a Confederate general's time honored him for his life's deeds, you think it is wrong to do so today and his statue should be taken down?
One of the first generals to lead the South in the Civil War in Charleston against Fort Sumter was PGT Beauregard.
Like many generals of the South, he was a man of contradictions. Here is brief summary of his life after the Civil War.
"After his military career, Beauregard returned to Louisiana, where he advocated black civil rights including suffrage."
In 1872, Beauregard resumed an interest in politics. He was one of the guiding leaders to form the Reform Party of Louisiana, a Southern party made up of Louisiana businessmen, advocating an economical state government, and recognized black civil and political rights. The Reform Party demanded that the South acknowledge black political power. It attempted to replace the Democratic party and sought to end Radical Republican taxation.
In 1873, the Reform Party created a detailed and specific plan to induce cooperation between the races in a political union. The plan called for the creation of the Louisiana Unification Movement. Approving letters and interviews about the movement came flooding into the newspapers. The majority of the communications came from New Orleans businessmen who declared that they were willing to work with blacks and recognize their political and civil equality if they would agree to cooperate to lower the high taxes and end the inflammation of racial tension. The chant of the Unification movement was "Equal Rights! One Flag! One Country! One People!"
Beauregard wrote in 1873...
"I am persuaded that the natural relation between the white and colored people is that of friendship, I am persuaded that their interests are identical; that their destinies in this state, where the two races are equally divided are linked together, and that there is no prosperity in Louisiana that must not be the result of their cooperation. I am equally convinced that the evils anticipated by some men from the practical enforcement of equal rights are mostly imaginary, and that the relation of the races in the exercise of these rights will speedily adjust themselves to the satisfaction of all."
in Waukesha, Wisconsin in 1889, he was given the title by a local reporter of "Sir Galahad of Southern Chivalry". A Northerner at the meeting welcomed Beauregard, commenting on the fact that 25 years ago, the North "did not feel very kindly toward him; but the past was dead and now they admired him". Beauregard responded by saying: "As to my past life, I have always endeavored to do my duty under all circumstances, from the point I entered West Point, a boy of seventeen, up to the present". He was then loudly applauded.
Following Beauregard's death in 1893, Victor E. Rillieux, a Creole of color and poet who wrote poems for many famous contemporary civil rights activists, including Ida B. Wells, was moved by Beauregard's passing to create a poem titled "Dernier Tribut" (English: "Last Tribute").
If the black leaders of the day revered this man, shouldn't we ask what they knew that we do not. Are we guilty of stereotyping people without knowing who they were.
Many southern generals were on the front-line leading attempts to reconcile our nation and in the case of Beauregard were on the front lines advocating for African American civil rights. Others like Nathaniel Forrest went on to become the first Grand Wizard of the KKK. Not really fair to put them into the same bucket. I can understand your views towards Forrest, but struggle to understand why you would feel that way about Beauregard.
People are so much more than just a "label" in this case, the label southern general really does not define who they were.
