It's customary for many national figures receive the closest thing America has to a "state funeral" in Washington, DC's National Cathedral, a gothic edifice that serves as the home of the Episcopal Church's presiding bishop. Four Presidents -- Eisenhower, Ford, Reagan, and George H.W. Bush -- had their state funerals there. It's also the final resting place of a diverse group, including President Woodrow Wilson, Helen Keller and Matthew Shepard.
But for decades, there was a jarring, offensive feature to the cathedral's structure. In 1953, after intense lobbying by the racist United Daughters of the Confederacy, the cathedral installed two stained glass windows commemorating the lives of treasonous Generals Robert E. Lee, and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, replete with two Confederate battle flags. In September, 2017 the bishop of Washington announced the decision to remove the stained glass windows dedicated to the two champions of slavery. The cathedral has now commissioned artist Kerry James Marshall to replace them with works having a racial justice theme:
"The goal for the new windows is lofty: the church is asking Marshall to create a design that will 'capture both darkness and light, both the pain of yesterday and the promise of tomorrow, as well as the quiet and exemplary dignity of the African American struggle for justice and equality and the indelible and progressive impact it has had on American society.'”
The cathedral's dean Gary Hall stated in 2015, two years before the decision to remove the windows:
"There is no place for the Confederate battle flag in the iconography of the nation’s most visible faith community. We cannot in good conscience justify the presence of the Confederate flag in this house of prayer for all people, nor can we honor the systematic oppression of African-Americans for which these two men fought.”
It's shocking, but perhaps not so surprising, that the church's leadership didn't see a problem with celebrating two combatant traitors fighting to preserve slavery as an issue much earlier. That it will now celebrate racial justice is better late than never.
(image: Stained glass panel of Lee and Jackson, since removed. Washington National Cathedral)
