United Daughters of the Confederacy facts for kids
Official badge, depicting the "Stars and Bars", the first flag of the Confederacy
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| Abbreviation | UDC |
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| Established | September 10, 1894 |
| Founders |
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| Founded at | Nashville, Tennessee |
| Type | 501(c)(3), charitable organization, lineage society |
| Headquarters | Richmond, Virginia |
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Membership (2015)
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19,000 |
| Jinny Widowski | |
| Publication | UDC Magazine |
| Subsidiaries | Children of the Confederacy |
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Formerly called
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National Association of the Daughters of the Confederacy |
The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) is an American group for women who are descendants of Confederate soldiers from the American Civil War. The group honors these ancestors and helps fund monuments for them. They also promote an idea called the "Lost Cause," which is a way of looking at the Civil War that many historians say is not accurate. This view also supported white supremacy, which is the belief that white people are superior to other races.
The UDC was started in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1894. During the Jim Crow era, a time when laws kept Black and white people separate, the group honored the Ku Klux Klan. In 1926, a local UDC chapter even paid for a monument to the Klan. According to one study, the UDC made the Klan seem like a heroic group and kept its symbols. They also acted like a public relations group for the Klan.
The main office of the UDC is in the Memorial to the Women of the Confederacy building in Richmond, Virginia. Richmond was once the capital city of the Confederacy. In May 2020, the building was damaged by fire during protests related to George Floyd's death.
Contents
What is the UDC's purpose?
The United Daughters of the Confederacy was founded on September 10, 1894. It was started by Caroline Meriwether Goodlett and Anna Davenport Raines. At first, it was called the National Association of the Daughters of the Confederacy. The first local group was formed in Nashville. Soon after, the name changed to United Daughters of the Confederacy.
The group's goal was to "tell of the glorious fight against the greatest odds a nation ever faced." They wanted to make sure the memory of Confederate soldiers would "never die." Their main activity was to support building monuments to the Confederacy. The UDC also says its members support U.S. troops and honor veterans from all U.S. wars.
In 1896, the UDC created the Children of the Confederacy. This group was meant to teach younger generations similar values. They presented a mythical view of the Civil War and the Confederacy. One historian, Kristina DuRocher, said the UDC used this group to teach children their "white-supremacist vision." The UDC, however, denies that it promotes white supremacy.
A scholar named W. Stuart Towns noted that the UDC played a role in asking for school textbooks. These textbooks told the story of the war from a Southern point of view. He added that their work helped keep the "Confederate mythology" alive. The UDC became an official organization on July 18, 1919. Their headquarters building in Richmond, Virginia, was built in the 1950s.
How did the UDC start?
After the American Civil War, many groups were formed in the Southern United States. These groups were often started by women. They helped bury Confederate soldiers and took care of cemeteries. They also organized events to remember the soldiers. These groups sponsored impressive monuments. This was a way to permanently remember the Confederate cause.
The UDC was very good at raising money for monuments. They also asked lawmakers to rebury Confederate soldiers. They worked to shape what was taught in history textbooks. They also raised money to help the widows and children of Confederate soldiers. Most of these memorial groups eventually joined the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The UDC grew from 17,000 members in 1900 to almost 100,000 by World War I.
Monuments and charity work
The UDC was very important in the early 1900s across the South. Their main job was to keep alive the memory of Confederate veterans. They especially wanted to remember the husbands, sons, fathers, and brothers who died in the Civil War. Remembering and building memorials became the main focus of the group.
Historian Jacquelyn Dowd Hall noted that the UDC cared about the role of Southern women. They wanted to support the veterans and keep the memory of the dead alive. But they also wanted to honor the bravery of Confederate women. The UDC believed women's courage was just as important as men's. The UDC used many different methods, which were quite advanced for their time.
The UDC leaders wanted women to have a say in how the South's past was shown. They did this by asking for state archives and museums. They also pushed for national historic sites and special highways. They collected family histories and interviewed old soldiers. They wrote history textbooks and put up monuments in town centers. The UDC worked to put women's achievements into historical records. They also wanted to bring history to everyone, from homes to schools and public places.
After 1900, the UDC became a large organization. It helped coordinate many local memorial groups. The UDC women were good at sponsoring local memorials. After 1945, they put up historical markers along Southern roads. The UDC has also helped with national causes during wartime. During World War I, they paid for 70 hospital beds in a military hospital in France. They also gave over US$82,000 for French and Belgian children who lost their parents in the war. At home, they raised $24 million for war bonds. Members also gave $800,000 to the Red Cross. During World War II, they helped nursing students with money.
In 1933, the Tennessee UDC gave $50,000 to build a Confederate memorial hall. This hall was on the campus of George Peabody College. This college later joined Vanderbilt University in 1979. The university wanted to remove the word "Confederate" from the building. The UDC did not agree. A court ruled in 2005 that the word could be removed if the UDC's donation was returned. In 2016, someone gave $1.2 million to the university for this purpose. The inscription was then removed.
Southern Cross of Honor
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The Southern Cross of Honor was a special medal. The United Daughters of the Confederacy created it for members of the United Confederate Veterans. It was first suggested at a meeting in 1898. By 1913, 78,761 of these crosses had been given out. This medal was never allowed to be worn on the uniforms of the United States Army, Navy, or Marine Corps.
Scholarships and education
When the UDC first started, they cared for Confederate soldiers and their widows. As fewer veterans were alive, the group focused on other goals. Educating the descendants of those who served the Confederacy became very important. Some UDC groups in different states built dorms and offered scholarships. However, there was no national plan for education support.
At a meeting in 1907, Caroline Meriwether Goodlett spoke about the UDC's changing focus. She believed that the "grandest monument" they could build would be "an educated motherhood."
During World War II, the UDC helped the military by setting up a nurses' training fund. Each scholarship gave about $100 per year for a three-year nursing program. Local UDC chapters were asked to find students who needed help paying for their education.
The UDC also sponsors writing contests for essays and poems. In these contests, participants are asked not to use the phrase "Civil War." The UDC prefers the term "War Between the States."
Children of the Confederacy
The Children of the Confederacy, or CofC, is a group for young people connected to the UDC. Its full name is Children of the Confederacy of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. It includes children from birth up to 18 years old. All CofC groups are sponsored by UDC chapters.
Children in the CofC are taught a "Catechism on the History of the Confederate States of America." This book says that people in the North ended slavery because their climate was not good for it. It also claims they never planned to pay the South for enslaved people after slavery ended. The book states that enslaved people in the South were loyal to their owners. It says that owners were kind and gentle, and cruel owners only existed in the North.
Before 2015, the CofC's "Creed" included a line that said the Civil War's "underlying cause" was not to keep slavery. However, the UDC General Convention removed this phrase in 2015.
What are "Lost Cause" views?
History professor Daniel L. Fountain, who was once a CofC member, says groups like the UDC have deeply "implanted the Lost Cause's falsified version of history" in the South. The "Lost Cause" is a way of looking at the Civil War that presents a romanticized view of the time when slavery existed. It often says slavery was not the main cause of the war.
The UDC, led by women like Mildred Lewis Rutherford, pushed for public school textbooks that showed a pro-Confederate view of history. They successfully stopped other books from being used. By teaching this to children, they made sure future teachers and leaders would continue their message. They put their version of Confederate history into homes, cemeteries, churches, and schools. This made it hard to change or remove.
Between 1880 and 1910, the UDC was one of many groups that celebrated the "Lost Cause." They promoted white Southern unity. This allowed white Southerners to use a mythical past to support racial segregation and white supremacy. The UDC worked to define Southern identity based on an "Old South" image. This image showed slavery as harmless and enslaved people as happy. It also showed the Reconstruction period (after the war) as a time when Black people were wild and immoral.
In 1919, Mildred Rutherford's book Measuring Rod to Test Text Books and Reference Books put their "Lost Cause" story into writing. The UDC supported this book and used it to argue about history textbooks across the South. More recently, historian James M. McPherson said the UDC promotes a white supremacist and neo-Confederate agenda. He believes they are dedicated to celebrating the Confederacy and supporting white supremacy.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) sees the UDC as part of the Neo-Confederate movement. This movement started in the early 1890s and is seen as supporting white supremacy. The SPLC says the UDC promotes a very conservative way of thinking. As of August 2018, the UDC's website still stated that "Slaves, for the most part, were faithful and devoted. Most slaves were usually ready and willing to serve their masters."
Connection to the Ku Klux Klan
According to lawyer Greg Huffman, the UDC's relationship with the Ku Klux Klan shows its true nature. He states that the UDC honored the Klan during the Jim Crow era. They made the Klan seem like a heroic group. The UDC collected and kept Klan items and symbols. They even acted as a public relations group for the Klan.
At their national meeting in 1913, the UDC fully supported a book called The Ku Klux Klan, or The Invisible Empire. This book was written by UDC historian Laura Martin Rose. It claimed the Klan had saved the South from violence caused by people from the North. This book was used as an extra reader for Southern schoolchildren. A local UDC chapter paid for a monument to the Klan in 1926 near Concord, North Carolina. This monument is no longer there. As late as 1936, the UDC's official magazine published an article praising the Ku Klux Klan.
Notable members
- Caroline Meriwether Goodlett (1833–1914), a founding president of the UDC.
- Anna Davenport Raines (1853–1915), a founding vice-president of the UDC.
- Virginia Clay-Clopton (1825–1915), a political activist.
- Mildred Lewis Rutherford (1851–1928), an educator and activist who supported white supremacy.
- Laura Martin Rose (1862–1917), a historian and writer who promoted the Ku Klux Klan.
- Kitty O'Brien Joyner (1916–1993), an electrical engineer and the first woman engineer at NACA (now NASA).
- Willie Kavanaugh Hocker (1862–1944), a teacher and designer of the Arkansas state flag.
- Gertrude Dills McKee (1885–1948), the first woman elected to the North Carolina State Senate.
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See also
- List of monuments erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy
- List of women's organizations
