List of memorials to Jefferson Davis

Statue of Jefferson Davis, given to the National Statuary Hall, Mississippi, in 1931

The following is a list of the memorials to Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America.

Sculpture

Memphis Park

Monument Avenue, Richmond

Memorial at Vicksburg National Military Park

• Jefferson Davis is included on a bas-relief sculpture on Stone Mountain, which is just east of Atlanta, Georgia.
• A monument to Jefferson Davis was unveiled on June 3, 1907, on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, and a life-sized statue by George Julian Zolnay marks his grave at Hollywood Cemetery in that city. The monument was defaced with the words "Black Lives Matter" shortly after the Charleston church shooting of 2015.^[1]
• In May 2015, the student government at the University of Texas at Austin voted almost unanimously to remove a statue of Jefferson Davis that had been erected on the campus South Mall.^[2][3] Beginning shortly after the Charleston church shooting of 2015,^[1] "Black Lives Matter" had been written repeatedly in bold red letters on the base of the Davis statue. Previous messages had included "Davis must fall" and "Liberate U.T."^[4] The University of Texas officials convened a task force to determine whether to honor the students' petition for removal of the statue. Acting on the strong recommendation of the task force, UT's President Gregory Fenves announced on August 13, 2015, that the statue would be relocated to serve as an educational exhibit in the university's Dolph Briscoe Center for American History museum.^[5] The statue was removed on August 30, 2015.^[6]
• A statue of Jefferson Davis stood in Memphis Park (originally, "Confederate Park"^[7]) in Memphis, Tennessee. Removed in 2017.
• A 351-foot (107 m) tall concrete obelisk at the Jefferson Davis State Historic Site in Fairview, Kentucky marks the site of his birthplace.
• A bust statue of Jefferson Davis is located at the Jefferson Davis Memorial Historic Site on the spot he was captured, outside Irwinville, Georgia, near Fitzgerald, Georgia.
• Another bust of Jefferson Davis is located outside the Jeff Davis County Court House building in Hazlehurst, Georgia.
• In Pensacola, Florida, an obelisk was dedicated in 1891 in memory of Jefferson Davis, Stephen R. Mallory, Edward Aylesworth Perry, and the Uncrowned Heroes of the Southern Confederacy.^[8]
• A statue of Jefferson Davis is depicted in the National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol Building, for the state of Mississippi.^[9]
• In New Orleans, there is a carved stone memorial to Jefferson Davis at First and Camp Streets, next to the home where he died, as well as a life-sized statue at the corner of Jeff Davis Parkway and Canal Street. By decision of the New Orleans City Council in December 2015, the statue is to be removed, pending the outcome of opposition lawsuits.^[10] The monument was removed May 11, 2017.
• Davis's former burial location at New Orleans' Metairie Cemetery is inscribed with his signature and the dates of his birth and death.
• A statue commemorating the bicentennial of Davis's birth was recently completed by Civil War artist Gary Casteel, on behalf of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. It arrived at Beauvoir on October 14, 2009.^[11]
• There are statues of Davis in the Alabama, Virginia, and Kentucky State Capitols—in Montgomery, on the grounds in front of the main entrance where he was sworn in as President of the Confederacy; in Richmond, in the old house of delegates chamber; and inside the rotunda at Frankfort.
• Vicksburg National Military Park located in Warren County, Mississippi (where the Davis family plantations, Brierfield and Hurricane, were located), contains two statues of Davis. The first is a stand-alone, larger-than-life figure known simply as the Davis Monument; and the second, a life-sized figure, appears next to a statue of Lincoln as part of the Kentucky monument.^[12]
• A bust of Davis with his second wife Varina is located in the rose garden outside the Old Courthouse Museum in Vicksburg, Mississippi.
• The 1891 Mississippi Monument to the Confederate Dead in Jackson, contains a life-sized, white marble statue of Jefferson Davis which was carved in Italy. At the time of its dedication, the monument's location was on the original State Capitol grounds in Jackson; it is currently in front of the Charlotte Capers Building on State Street, used by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. In 1922, the statue was removed from the monument and placed in the rotunda of the Old Capitol, which was then used as legislators' offices (later becoming the Old Capitol Museum). In conjunction with the restoration of the Old Capitol and in anticipation of the Civil War Sesquicentennial, the statue was returned to its original location in the monument in 2009.

Schools

• Jefferson Davis Community College in Brewton, Alabama (1965). Renamed Coastal Alabama Community College (2017)^[13]
• Jefferson Davis High School in Montgomery, Alabama (1968)^[14]
• Jefferson Davis Middle School in Jacksonville, Florida (1961)^[15]
• Jefferson Davis Middle School in West Palm Beach, Florida. (1906). The school mascot is Robert E. Lee's horse Traveller.
• Jefferson Davis Middle School in West Palm Beach, Florida: Renamed Palm Springs Middle School (2005).^[16][17]
• Jeff Davis Elementary, Primary, Middle, and High Schools in Hazlehurst, Georgia^[13]
• Jefferson Davis Elementary School in New Orleans, Louisiana, was renamed for Ernest "Dutch" Morial, the city's first black mayor.^[18]
• Jeff Davis Elementary School in Biloxi, Mississippi (1960)^[19]
• Jefferson Davis Elementary School in Greenwood, Mississippi (1907).^[13]
• Jefferson Davis Campus of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Gulfport, Mississippi (1965).^[13]
• Davis Magnet School in Jackson, Mississippi (1906). Renamed Barack Obama Magnet School (2017).^[20]
• Jefferson Davis Academy in Blackville, South Carolina
• Jefferson Davis Elementary School in Dallas, Texas
• Fort Davis AEC School and High School in Fort Davis, Texas.^[13]
• Jefferson Davis High School in Houston, Texas (1926).^[21] Renamed Northside High School (2016).^[13]
• Jefferson Davis Middle School in Hampton, Virginia (1960). Renamed Cesar Tarrant Middle School (2018)^[22][23]
• Lee Davis High School in Mechanicsville, Virginia (1959).^[13]

Inhabited places

• Jeff Davis County, Georgia (1905)
• Jefferson Davis Parish, Louisiana (1912)
• Jefferson Davis County, Mississippi (1906)
• CDP of Fort Davis, Texas
• Jeff Davis County, Texas (1887)

Miscellaneous

• The Jefferson Davis Presidential Library and Museum, on the grounds of Davis' last home, Beauvoir, at Biloxi, Mississippi, was dedicated in 1998 by the state of Mississippi and includes a bronze statue of Davis by Mississippi artist Bill Beckwith.^[11]
• Jefferson Davis Memorial Park is located in Fitzgerald, Georgia.^[24]
• The state of Alabama celebrates Jefferson Davis's birthday on the first Monday in June. The state of Mississippi observes Davis's birthday in conjunction with the Memorial Day Federal holiday.
• In the States of Florida and Kentucky, Jefferson Davis's birthday, June 3, is a legal holiday and public holiday.^[25][26]
• Jefferson Davis was honorarily inducted into the Kappa Sigma Fraternity (Virginia Military Institute - Xi chapter) following his son's death. He is currently the only honorary member of the fraternity.

Jefferson Davis grave at the Hollywood Cemetery

• Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution barred from office anyone who had violated their oath to protect the Constitution by serving in the Confederacy. That prohibition included Davis. In 1978, pursuant to authority granted to Congress under the same section of the Amendment, Congress posthumously removed the ban on Davis with a two-thirds vote of each house and President Jimmy Carter signed it. These actions were spearheaded by Congressman Trent Lott of Mississippi. Congress had previously taken similar action on behalf of Robert E. Lee.^[27]
• The desk used by Jefferson Davis on the floor of the U.S. Senate, repaired after Union soldiers damaged it during the Civil War, is reserved by Senate Rules for the senior Senator from Mississippi (currently Senator Thad Cochran).^[28]
• The former transnational Jefferson Davis Highway was named in his honor. A Sons of Confederate Veterans owned "park" alongside Interstate 5 between Vancouver and Ridgefield, containing the two granite markers which used to reside at each end of the Jefferson Davis Highway in Washington state is named in honor of Davis.^[29]

Memorial of Jefferson Davis's final speech.

• In 2009, a bronze plaque was dedicated at the site of the old courthouse in Mississippi City, Mississippi, to memorialize the final speech delivered by Jefferson Davis, where he pleaded for unity of all U.S. citizens after the American Civil War.
• Jeff Davis Peak, the second highest summit in the Snake Range in Nevada, was named in honor of Jefferson Davis in 1855. Davis was then serving as Secretary of War in the United States government.^[30]
• Jefferson Davis Hospital operated in Houston, Texas, from 1924 to 1938. After the hospital (on Elder St.) closed, health services moved to a separate facility, called Jefferson Davis (but not "hospital"), on Allen Parkway.
• The United Daughters of the Confederacy monument to Jefferson Davis at the Fort Crawford Cemetery in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. Davis was stationed at Fort Crawford, Michigan Territory in 1831.^[31]

See also

• List of Confederate monuments and memorials

References