Texas, monuments, toward a politics of self-reckoning

In this article, I examine the efforts of a group of anti-Confederate monument activists in Williamson County, Texas. The article begins with the history of the monument itself, 100 years before the activists initiated their efforts. The intransigence to removing the Confederate monument is symbolic of white resistance to struggles for racial equality more broadly. Second, I discuss how the local legal impasse has contributed to distinct anti-monument activist strategies that deploy counternarratives and memories, from performances, to challenging narrative claims regarding who is more patriotic. Finally, I explore the politics of self-reckoning—the process by which white people find that they have to answer for racism deep within themselves as well as in relation to violent white supremacy and the legal and institutional fortress that protects whiteness generally. Battling both racists and racist institutions is hard and lengthy, and monument activism persistently exposes what is at stake.

Knick and the Elephant in the Courtroom

In Knick v. Township of Scott, the Supreme Court corrected one of the most egregious and inexplicable blunders of its 230-year history. For more than three decades, plaintiffs who alleged a violation of the Takings Clause by state or local governments were barred from suing for compensation in federal court. The source of this prohibition was Justice Blackmun’s 1985 opinion in Williamson County Regional Planning Commission v. Hamilton Bank of Johnson City—a decision that most scholars and practitioners believe rested on a fundamental misunderstanding of both constitutional text and legal procedure.

Cultural Resources Survey for the City of Florence Municipal Facilities Complex Project, Williamson County, Texas

On behalf of the City of Florence, Texas, SWCA Environmental Consultants (SWCA) conducted an intensive cultural resources survey of the proposed City of Florence Municipal Facilities Complex (Project) in Williamson County, Texas. The 1.2-acre parcel scheduled for redevelopment is located on land owned and managed by the City of Florence, a political subdivision of the state of Texas; therefore, the Project requires compliance with the Antiquities Code of Texas (ACT). In addition, the project will receive federal funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA); therefore, the work was conducted to comply with the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). This cultural resources investigation was conducted under ACT Permit No. 9142. On behalf of the USDA, SWCA has also issued engagement letters to the six Tribes identified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as having overlapping interest with the Project area. To date, SWCA has yet to receive comments from the identified Tribes. The parcel on which the Project is proposed contains four extant buildings/structures: the Florence City Hall, the Chamber of Commerce, a large Veteran’s Memorial, and a thrift store. As part of the Project, all but the Veteran’s Memorial are scheduled for demolition and a larger municipal complex is expected to be constructed in their stead. Impacts are expected to include widespread surficial modifications with deeper impacts in locations of foundations and utilities. The cultural resources investigation consisted of a background and historical map review followed by intensive pedestrian survey augmented by shovel testing conducted by an archaeologist, and an assessment of the extant buildings conducted by an architectural historian. SWCA’s background review determined that there are no known cultural resources within the Project area. Additionally, the historical map review identified only two potential historical structures within the Project area. During field investigations on September 25 and November 5, 2019, SWCA confirmed that the four extant buildings/structures on the subject property are of modern construction, and therefore, are not eligible for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and are not considered eligible for designation as a State Antiquities Landmark (SAL). In addition, the two potential historical structures identified during the historical map review within the Project area are not extant. SWCA excavated a total of 12 shovel tests within the Project area, three of which were positive for cultural materials. The cultural material includes an axe head, an unidentifiable metal fragment, a round nail, and a white-bodied earthenware sherd. The artifacts found within the shovel tests cannot be securely identified as being from a historic origin and were found with, or near the same depth as, modern plastic fragments. Furthermore, the soils within the Project area exhibited a high degree of disturbance due to decades of construction, landscaping, and tree planting, as well as buried utilities. Due to the lack of soil integrity and the lack of artifacts that can securely be attributed to a historic origin, SWCA finds the three positive shovel tests as constituting an isolated find and does not rise to the level of an archaeological site. As such, the isolated finds do not meet the criteria for NRHP listing nor SAL designation. No other cultural resources were identified within the Project area. In accordance with the ACT and with Section 106 of the NHPA (36 Code of Federal Regulations [CFR] 800.4 (b)(1)), SWCA has made a reasonable and good faith effort to identify historic properties within the area of potential effects. SWCA recommends a finding of No Historic Properties Affected per 36 CFR 800. 5(b) and no further archaeological investigation of the current Project area is recommended. No artifacts or samples were collected during this survey. All survey-related documentation will be curated at the Center for Archaeological Studies, Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas.

Cultural Resources Survey of the City of Hutto Transmission and Distribution Pumping Stations Phase I Project, City of Hutto, Williamson County, Texas

This report documents the substantive findings and management recommendations of a cultural resource inventory conducted by Integrated Environmental Solutions, LLC (IES) for the City of Hutto (COH) Transmission and Distribution Pumping Stations Phase I Project in the City of Hutto, Williamson County, Texas. As the COH is a political subdivision of the State of Texas, the COH is required to comply with the Antiquities Code of Texas (ACT). The goal of the survey was to locate, identify, and assess any cultural resources, which include standing buildings/structures and archeological sites that could be adversely affected by the proposed development, and to evaluate such resources for their potential eligibility for listing as a State Antiquities Landmark (SAL) or eligibility for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). The cultural resources inventory was conducted by Project Archeologist Anne Gibson and Archeological Field Technician Will Clow on 03 and 04 March 2020, under Texas Antiquities Permit No. 9196. The Area of Potential Effects (APE) encompasses approximately 6.63 acres (ac) and is comprised of three distinct APE areas. The Frame Switch Pumping Station (PS) is 1.2 ac in size and is located approximately 900 feet (ft) south of the intersection of Farm-to-Market Road (FM) 3349 and U.S. Highway (US) 79 midway between the City of Hutto and the City of Taylor. The Inline PS is 4.05 ac in size and is located southwest of the intersection of FM 112 and Williamson County Road (CR) 432. The Shiloh PS is 1.38 ac in size and is located approximately 1,700 ft southwest of the intersection of FM 481 and 482. During the survey, a newly-recorded, historic-period site (41WM1419) was documented within the APE. Based on the lack of association with historically-important individuals or events, absence of significant architectural features, the degree of prior disturbance, and lack of contextual integrity, site 41WM1419 is recommended as not eligible for listing in the NRHP or designation as SALs. In addition, four historic-age architectural resources were identified within the indirect APE during this survey. All records will be temporarily curated at the IES McKinney office and permanently curated at the Center for Archeological Research (CAR) at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). No further work is warranted. However, if any cultural resources, other than those documented within this report, are unearthed during construction, the operators should stop construction activities, and immediately contact the project environmental representative to initiate coordination with the THC prior to resuming any construction activities.

Reassessing Middle Archaic Stratigraphy and Chronology of the Anderson Site

The Anderson site (40WM9) is located on the Harpeth River in Williamson County, Tennessee, and is the only shell-bearing Archaic site off the main channel of the Cumberland River in the Middle Cumberland River Valley to have undergone controlled archaeological testing. The site is further significant in that it is the oldest known shell-bearing Archaic site in the region and despite its size and depth presents a mid- to lateMiddle Archaic component with no direct evidence of occupation before or after that time. In addition, the Anderson sitehas produced some of the earliest evidence from the interior Southeastern United States for long-distance trade of marine shell. However, while the Anderson site has been widely cited in the literature on Archaic adaptations in the interior Southeastern United States, much of the data from the site have never been synthesized in a modern professional setting. This chapter presents a modern reexamination of the data from Anderson, for the first time fully correlating the site stratigraphy and associated cultural phases. When combined with Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon data, this effort clarifies the duration and sequence of site occupation and places it within the framework of more recent data from the region.

A Woodland Period Goose Creek Plain, var. unspecified Sherd from 41WM1382 in Central Texas

41WM1382 is in the Brushy Creek valley in Williamson County, Texas, near the community of Normans Crossing. Brushy Creek is an eastward-flowing tributary of the San Gabriel River in the Blackland Prairie natural region in the Brazos River basin. The site’s principal archaeological deposits date to the Late Archaic period (between ca. 4000-1200 years B.P.), but one ca. A.D. 900-1200 Kiam Incised sherd has been found here (Perttula and Mikulencak 2018).