Time for Transparency: Open the Museum!

March 6, 2025

Last week, we shared my op-ed in The W&L Spectator calling for the reopening of the museum in the basement of Lee Chapel. And alumni aren’t the only ones demanding this change.

The Spectator’s Editorial Board released their official position on the subject last week. Like me, they call for the reopening of the basement museum, which has been closed since before those students enrolled at the university.

But beyond the immediate concern about that space, they identify a “tradition of manipulation” among university administrators who ignore or hide one side of campus history, while exaggerating or even fabricating others.

As someone who has clashed with the Museum staff and the University Administration for the past four years, I certainly agree with The Spectator’s description.

The physical alterations to campus monuments—the forced closures, the plaque removals, and the chapel renaming, for example—are only part of the problem. Beyond that, administrators, docents, and spokesmen treat the wider community dismissively and appear imperceptive to the obvious bias that has driven Institutional History decisions.

I could give dozens of examples that I witnessed firsthand, from the digging-up of Traveller’s headstone to the multiple encounters I’ve had with hostile museum attendants.

But those are all issues of the past, and frankly, dwelling on them will not accomplish much.

Instead, The Generals Redoubt is looking ahead. We are doing everything we can to showcase, preserve, and restore Washington and Lee history: not just because that’s how we remember it, but because our namesakes are an invaluable asset to the curricular and moral quality of campus.

A huge part of our mission hinges on our new headquarters at Fancy Hill, where we can develop educational programming to celebrate our past rather than scorn it.

Fancy Hill enables us to root ourselves throughout the community, to emphasize our endurance and longevity. As long as Fancy Hill stands, so will the legacy of our namesakes, George Washington and Robert E. Lee.

The former welcomes us to be benevolent in our support of education; Washington knew how fragile his rising empire was, and thus, he invested passionately in its future, leading by example and setting a timeless model of moral character and integrity.

The latter namesake echoed these virtues, adding perhaps most notably a reconciliatory spirit to a battered generation. Without Lee, a divided nation would have anguished before the duty and civility expected of them.

And so, we close today by asking the Washington and Lee Administration to echo the examples of their namesakes. Heed the many pleas articulated by alumni, students, and faculty in The Spectator.

Let us be transparent about our past and celebrate it in the new museum—as well as the old one. Let us have a discussion on how to move forward together. TGR is not going anywhere, and we won’t stop fighting for students to have the best education possible. Don’t let, as The Spectator fears, our school degrade into “_____ and _____ University.”

Sincerely,

 Kamron M. Spivey ‘24
Campus Director & Research Fellow
The Generals Redoubt