WHITE NATIONALISM AND MOUNT RUSHMORE | BY: PATRICK KECK
May 11, 2020
When the construction of Mount Rushmore was finished in 1941, the signifier was the carvings of four American presidents in the Black Hills region of South Dakota.
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln helped give the country liberty from the British Empire, slavery, and expanding the American Dream to new boundaries. Heroes in their own right, these four men also had one shared feature: They are white.
The whiteness factor is quite intentional from the choices of the American figures to the actual structures themselves. Beyond their role as political leaders, these men reflected the cultural and racial discussions of the time. Interpellation showed to be American was to be superior and to be the most aspirational of Americans was to be a white man.
Whiteness and Mount Rushmore are inseparable features, connected by its sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, and the prevailing narrative of race in America from its foundation to modernity. A structure meant to build pride in a country has also built sentiments of alienation for many Americans, marking the sharp divide between the white hegemony and the subjugated.
Gutzon Borglum: Before Rushmore
Borglum is best known for the 14 years he spent crafting Mount Rushmore with his son, Lincoln, completing the work after his death. Yet, a deeper look into this figure’s past reveals much more nuance. A man contracted to sculpt four American symbols is also representative of America.
Born in Bear Lake, Idaho in 1867, Gutzon Borglum did not receive formal training for art until attending a private school in Kansas during his late teenage years. He would gain fame for his work before Mount Rushmore, including Civil War memorials, angels at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, and a Abraham Lincoln bust.
Albert Biome described Borglum as, “A creator of monuments to public history, he was a destroyer of his own personal history,” in his article, “Patriarchy Fixed in Stone.”
His quality of work was highly revered, with Robert Lincoln, the late president’s son, saying “I never expected to see father again,” when he saw Borglum’s product. Yet, his personal life was marked with turmoil since childhood.
A product of a broken home where his biological mother, Christina, left the plural, Mormon marriage, Borglum struggled with trust issues. He often feuded with his father and threatened to run away many times as an adolescent.
As an adult, Borglum first married a woman 18 years older than him before abandoning her, remarrying, and erasing her from his memory.
Borglum earned a reputation of being a hothead, often feuding with those that hired him for the work. One feud put him on the other side of history. In 1914, he was approached with a job by C. Allen Pane, president of the United Daughters of the Confederacy to build a “shrine to the South” outside of Atlanta.
Not having any formal allegiances to the Confederacy, Borglum sketched a sculpture including Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, later being hired. “I saw the thing I had been dreaming of all my life,” said Borglum of his assignment.
Further research into Borglum’s life revealed white supremacy leanings. In letters, he expressed his disdain for Catholics, Jews, Native Americans, and Blacks. “Borglum had a rather enlightened view of Native Americans as noble savages,” wrote John Taliaferro in his 2002 book, Great White Fathers: The Story of the Obsessive Quest to Create Mount Rushmore.
His commission to build a memorial for the Confederacy became known as Stone Mountain, which still stands today. Work on the monument was delayed because of World War I, eventually beginning in 1923. The Ku Klux Klan, who was making a reemergence in America at the time, was one of the groups funding the project.
The Klan resurged in America in the 1920s, stronger than what it was during Reconstruction in the post-Civil War South. Amassing over a million members, violence broke out against minorities with beatings, floggings, and even murders. Yet, what attracted a wider audience of those that condemned such tactics, was an emphasized message of what it meant to be American.
Joshua Rothman of The Atlantic wrote, “The Klan owed its popularity less to its endorsement of raw hatred directed toward non-whites and the supposedly immoral than to how it allowed for the expression of white supremacy and moral conservatism in culturally acceptable and even ostensibly laudatory ways.”
The effect was accomplished by casting the Klan in a light of a community-backed service operation. Rothman writes how the Klan sponsored local baseball teams, picnics, and parades, which fostered a sense of civic engagement.
Its influence reached such men as Borglum. Bethy Squires of VICE writes Pane requested Lee be surrounded by KKK members on the Stone Mountain carving. It was in her opinion the KKK, “saved us from Negro domination and carpetbag rule.”
Borglum’s only objection was Lee’s carving was not large enough.
Borglum and Mount Rushmore: Moving Forward
Borglum worked on Stone Mountain for nearly a year, crafting a model and a bust of Robert E. Lee, before being contacted by South Dakota historian Doane Robinson about another project. That other project would turn into Mount Rushmore.
Frustrated by his coordination with Robinson, Borglum was dismissed from Stone Mountain. Ever quick to temper, Borglum destroyed his models and eventually had to flee for North Carolina. He was replaced by Henry Augustus Lukeman, a move that angered Borglum because Lukeman was Jewish. Walker Kirtland Hancock completed Stone Mountain in 1972.
Borglum’s controversial past is not lost on today’s historical framers. While making note of his work with Stone Mountain, the National Park Service’s biography never mentions that the Klan was one of the project’s benefactors.
At the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, there has been a noticeable shift in Borglum’s inclusion in the educational orientation films. The memory of Borglum’s role as creator has been edited from the key focus to a footnote. Teresa Bergman, an Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Pacific, noted the changes in the Memorial’s three films.
The 1965 film, simply titled “Mount Rushmore”, focused its first six minutes on his life. It painted a very positive view of Borglum as a symbol of patriotism. Like the National Park Service, it mentions his work on Stone Mountain, but not his ties to the Klan.
“The Shrine”, the Memorial’s third film, came out in 1986 and was noticeably different from the original. Narrated by Tom Brokaw, Borglum is no longer the focal point as he is replaced by the story of Mount Rushmore’s construction.
“The film’s focus on the Mt. Rushmore workers and their physical prowess delineates successful individual actions in the name of a national interest that is limited to the monument itself,” writes Bergman. “The workers’ representation conveniently avoids identifying Mt. Rushmore’s patriotic symbolism with more contentious arenas of world affairs.”
Summary
Racism. America. These are indivisible concepts. It is only fitting that a monument of four of its central figures is a story mired in racism.
Mount Rushmore is a simulacrum because it’s an original in its own right and its meanings are not definite. For some, Borglum’s history and Mount Rushmore’s history are indicative of the country’s long-held racial issues. For others, there is no correlation.
Considering Borglum’s history and connections it seems his intention was to denote White American supremacy. These carvings will likely stand for hundreds of years, but perhaps one can hope that the ideals of men like Gutzon Borglum will not.