Southern Pride

When you are traveling through the southern United States and pull into a town, whether it has only one stoplight or is the size of Atlanta, you can be sure to find two things: a street named after Martin Luther King, Jr., and a statue of Robert E. Lee. These two people, despite their differnet walks of life, have forever been imortalized in Southern culture and become a representation of one of the main pillars of Southern Culture...pride.

Southerners are proud of their cities, they are proud of their tea, they are proud of their manners, but most importantly they are proud of their heritage and history. The statues of Robert E. Lee which permeate the South are a prime example of this. From their very youth, Southern children are taught to revere this man for his honor in fighting for his country and what he believed in. It is the South's pride that has made this man a national hero even when his country lost the war and was abolished. It is Southerner's pride in their forefathers willingness to risk and loose everything for what they believed in that defines the region. It is this same pride, the pride of a nation who fought for its independence and lost it, that still perseveres in the South today and provides it with an air of chivalry, freedom, and grander.

This statute of Robert E. Lee is positioned in downtown Richmond, VA, the capitol of the Confederacy. It stands in Richmond almost as a gateway to the south, representing the transition from the North to the South. Similar statues exist throughout the South of other Civil War hero's and significant figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr. The picture was obtained from www.sandstead.com which shows the work of an artist who photographs these famous statues. See our blogs map to see a link to the Robert E. Lee Statue in Richmond.

-Parker