PRINTER'S NO. 4211
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE RESOLUTION
No.
954
Session of
2020
INTRODUCED BY RABB, ZABEL, OTTEN, DELLOSO, KINSEY, YOUNGBLOOD,
HOWARD, SCHWEYER, SHUSTERMAN, GREEN, McCLINTON, CIRESI,
KENYATTA, SANCHEZ, HARRIS AND LEE, AUGUST 6, 2020
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON RULES, AUGUST 6, 2020
A RESOLUTION
Urging the removal of all Confederate monuments and statues in
Pennsylvania.
WHEREAS, From April 12, 1861, to April 9, 1865, the Civil War
was fought between the northern Union states and the southern
Confederate states; and
WHEREAS, The Civil War was fought to determine whether this
nation, established on the principle that all men were created
with an equal right to liberty, would continue to exist as the
largest slave holding country in the world; and
WHEREAS, By 1864, the goal of the Union became "total war,"
where the new strategy meant destroying the entirety of the Old
South and its institution of slavery; and
WHEREAS, The General Assembly voted on February 3, 1865, to
ratify the 13th Amendment ending slavery in the United States;
and
WHEREAS, This ratification was 85 years after Pennsylvania
instituted the gradual abolition of slavery; and
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WHEREAS, On April 9, 1865, after being cut off from returning
to the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, General Robert
E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant, effectively
ending the Civil War; and
WHEREAS, Following the end of the war, the first memorials
built were commemorative markers that mourned lost soldiers and
Confederate leaders such as General Robert E. Lee, former
President of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis and General Thomas
"Stonewall" Jackson; and
WHEREAS, The first major spike in the dedication of
Confederate monuments and statues began in 1900 and lasted
through the late 1920s when Southern states were enacting Jim
Crow laws in an effort to disenfranchise African Americans and
re-segregate society after several decades of integration that
followed Reconstruction; and
WHEREAS, This was also a time where the nation was witnessing
a strong revival of the Ku Klux Klan that was not only anti-
Black, but stood against individuals of the Roman Catholic and
Jewish faith, immigrants and organized labor; and
WHEREAS, The second major spike in the dedication of
Confederate monuments and statues occurred between the mid-1950s
and the late 1960s when the modern civil rights movement was
becoming prevalent and began pushing back against segregation
and discrimination; and
WHEREAS, The erection of Confederate monuments and statues
eventually decreased, however, around 800 Confederate memorials
are currently displayed on public property throughout the
country; and
WHEREAS, The vast majority of these monuments can be found in
the South, however, remaining statues are scattered throughout
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the remainder of the country, including Pennsylvania; and
WHEREAS, Two monuments are located in McConnellsburg, in
Fulton County, near the Pennsylvania-Maryland border; and
WHEREAS, One statue marks the location of the first
Confederate soldiers to be killed on Pennsylvania soil, while
the other marks the last Confederate camp north of the Mason-
Dixon Line; and
WHEREAS, Another monument is located in Mechanicsburg, in
Cumberland County, less than 10 miles from the Pennsylvania
State Capitol; and
WHEREAS, The ten-foot obelisk sits outside of the Rupp House
and commemorates General Albert Jenkins and his Confederate
troops for their hostile occupation of the West Shore where they
forced John Rupp and his family to flee their own home; and
WHEREAS, It is clear that the intent of these monuments was
to elicit hostile messages during periods of progression for
African Americans; and
WHEREAS, Public commemorative Confederate monuments and
statues memorialize individuals that were on the wrong side of
history and promote Confederacy ideals which comprise treason
and traitors to this nation; therefore be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives urge the removal
of all Confederate monuments and statues in Pennsylvania.
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