W&L Alumnus' Talk on Lee & MLK Jr. Prompts Student Walkout
Rodney Mims Cook, Jr. focused on reconciliation and peace, unveiling new statue of Dr. King
By Kamron M. Spivey, ‘24
Replica of Martin Luther King, Jr. statue standing in front of Recumbent Lee statue (left). Rodney Cook, Jr. delivering his address (right). (Photo credit Mark Ozboyd).
Brought up from Atlanta, the replica statue — which surprisingly weighs less than forty pounds — rested center stage in Lee Chapel, National Historic Landmark on Thursday, January 12.
According to Rodney Mims Cook, Jr., “the real statue, a 10-foot bronze of Dr. King, will be installed “on the Central Plaza of Rodney Cook Sr. Peace Park in April, the 55th anniversary of [King’s] assassination.”
The 16-acre park in Vine City, Atlanta, opened last year “as a monument to harmony in Atlanta,” intending to recognize 300 years of Georgia peacemakers including Dr. King, Rep. John Lewis, Andrew Young, and Cook’s father, Rodney Mims Cook, Sr.
Cook’s talk highlighted these peacemakers, inviting the Washington and Lee community to celebrate the “billion prayer peace revival” in the new park with him on April 1st.
He also encouraged his fellow alumni, many of whom “are unhappy with [the university’s] direction” to collaborate with the Washington and Lee Shepherd Program in a “peace gesture to bring us all back together.” In keeping with the Shepherd Program’s mission to address poverty and “respect the dignity of every person” involved, Cook suggested they take measures to prevent gentrification in Vine City, an issue that has long concerned its residents.
Former residents of Vine City included Dr. King and his wife Coretta Scott King. A rising Republican politician in Atlanta, Cook’s father befriended Martin Luther King, Sr. — more commonly known as Daddy King — during the Civil Rights Movement. According to Cook, Daddy King’s son, Dr. King, also became friends with the Cook family and would occasionally meet at the latter’s home to discuss civil rights activism.
“My father and others were adamant that Atlanta remained peaceful, and particularly Daddy King,” said Cook. His father helped host a formal ball for Dr. King after he won the Nobel Peace Prize but is more famously known for his speech at the Georgia State Capitol to desegregate a white neighborhood in Atlanta in 1962.
Cook said that when he was 6 years old and his parents were out of town, “the KKK showed up at the house and ignited a cross” on their front lawn. Climbing out of the window with his younger sister, Cook ran to his grandmother’s nearby house for help. “The sirens wailed and the klansmen quickly dispersed,” Cook continued. “I barely spoke for a year afterwards.”
Alveda King, niece of Dr. King, referenced this story when she virtually introduced Cook near the beginning of the event. “He and I have worked together around the world on peace initiatives,” Alveda said, before mentioning that Cook accompanied Bernice King to her talk at Washington and Lee University 5 years ago.
Alveda continued, “Tonight, Rodney returns to share memories and the values of lasting legacies of hope and reconciliation.”
She concluded her introduction by comparing the Civil Rights Movement to today. “Now, we are in another turbulent period in the history of our republic and I am hopeful my words and Rodney’s will help bring your community and our American community back together again.”
Following Alveda’s remarks, Cook approached the lectern to begin his speech, at which point he was briefly interrupted by a peaceful walkout of over 150 students dressed primarily in black.
Student protestors as they file out of Lee Chapel, National Historic Landmark (Photo credit Mark Ozboyd)
The walkout was organized by two law school student organizations, the Black Law Students Association (BLSA) and the American Constitution Society (ACS).
BLSA President, Kobie Crosley, ‘23L, addressed the protestors — a mixture of law and undergraduate students — a few minutes before they entered the chapel around 7:30 PM.
“Friends and allies, I am both sad and ungrateful to be here today,” Crosley began. “This protest demonstrates our opposition to the attempted whitewashing of Robert E. Lee’s legacy. Highlighting the positive nuances of Robert E. Lee’s character minimizes his legacy as the leader of the fight to perpetuate racial oppression.”
“To clarify, this protest is not about the speaker,” Crosley continued. “This is a condemnation of the connection that is being drawn between Dr. King and Lee.”
ACS board member, Katie King, ‘25L, told The Spectator, “We’re just really peaceful. We just want to show that we understand the gravity of what they’re doing and don’t agree with it.” She continued, “I think some people are planning on staying and asking questions; I’m not…As a white woman, this made me feel really uncomfortable.”
Not all law students in attendance were opposed to the event.
Zach Zimmerman, ‘23L, president of The Federalist Society — a law school organization that many students contrast with the ACS — co-sponsored Cook’s talk, along with two undergraduate organizations: College Republicans and Students for Historical Preservation.
Wade Bredin, ‘23L, heard of the event through the Federalist Society. The planned walkout by his peers, Bredin said, “was shocking to me because until then I had not really thought that the event was offensive, especially having not heard it yet.”
After the event, Bredin reflected more on the response of his peers. “It was certainly disrespectful to the King family who explicitly asked the protestors to hear Mr. Cook out. The message of the speech was clearly unity and I thought that everyone would have benefitted from staying and hearing what this venerable person had to say”
Bredin continued, “To me, the connection between Lee and MLK was actually made through Cook, Sr. There was no contradiction between a man who respected and admired Robert E. Lee and someone who fought for Civil Rights.”
Cook’s talk emphasized both his and Robert E. Lee’s connection to the states of Virginia and Georgia, where Lee’s esteemed father, General Henry Lee, died in 1818. Cook discussed Lee’s marriage to the great granddaughter of Martha Washington, Lee’s antebellum military career, and his decision to resign from the United States Army in 1861.
“It is clear beyond doubt,” according to Cook, “that [Lee] would never participate in invasion and conquest of the South.” Nonetheless, Cook maintained that Lee “desir[ed] to postpone his decision until the last hope of peace was gone.”
Cook then discussed his own ancestor, a Georgian unionist. According to Cook, “The fall of Atlanta,” which his great–great grandfather witnessed, “was the turning point in the war and assured the re-election of Abraham Lincoln,” whose “Emancipation Proclamation established the virtuous position of the U.S. government once and for all.”
“Once the war was over,” Cook said, quoting Theodore Roosevelt, “Lee instantly undertook the task of healing and binding up the wounds of his countrymen. This war-torn veteran of a mighty struggle…simply and quietly undertook his duty as a plain everyday citizen bent only upon helping his people and the paths of peace and tranquility.”
Cook’s father, a World War II veteran who returned to Washington and Lee University after the Pacific War, took an interest in the military epics of men like Lee, Napoleon, and Washington. “My father learned a thing in this chapel,” Cook said. “He was convinced that Lincoln won the war, but that Lee won the peace”
Cook said that his father was compelled “to continue Lee’s legacy of rebuilding the South when he returned to Atlanta: that American race relations were the most critical crisis to resolve in his lifetime.”
In other words, Lee served as an inspirational figure of reconciliation to Cook’s young father at Washington and Lee University. “Robert E. Lee built Dr. King’s beloved community [of reconciliation, friendship, and human dignity],” said Cook.
The talk concluded with a Q&A section.
The first speaker, Neely Young, ‘66, commented on the apparent absence of any Washington and Lee faculty or administrator from the event. Following the event, however, The Spectator confirmed that some faculty members watched via livestream.
The next two comments came from students who had intended to participate in the walkout.
Elizabeth Underwood, ‘20, critiqued Cook’s earlier statement that Lee started the Honor System, a claim she says “was debunked in a commission in 2018.”
Elizabeth Underwood (left) asks her question to Rodney Cook, Jr. (right). (Photo credit Mark Ozboyd)
Young, who recently wrote a paper on the Honor System, challenged Underwood’s claim. “When you hear a report, ‘Well Robert E. Lee didn’t start the honor system,’ that’s true in a very limited and very minimally historical way.” Young continued, “Under Lee, two things happened…Lee allowed the students to run the honor system,” and “the single sanction was developed.”
Other comments included a local resident who claimed that Confederates “were not fighting to continue slavery,” followed by an undergraduate senior who asked how the National Monuments Foundation, which Cook is the founder and president of, is supporting public education and helping students “realize history in a full context.”
Following the event, one audience member — who asked to remain anonymous — told The Spectator that Cook’s talk made him think of how urgent it is to “move forward and bring everyone together...Nothing is going to happen through hate.”
He concluded, “I have been involved as an activist in the Civil Rights Movement since I was 17 years old, and I marched with Dr. King. And what we have now is an opportunity to use old techniques to bring more and more people in…to get things done.”