Lee Chapel - Sam Joseph

Walking into Lee Chapel recalls memories from all of the functions I have attended there throughout the past three years.
For me, the chapel has always felt somewhat separate from the Recumbent Lee, regardless of his visibility, and certainly separate from the Lee Chapel museum below.
Today, as we toured both the chapel and museum with Lucy Wilkins, we learned about the history of the chapel and the space below, and, reservedly, about the contemporary history and current climate of the memorialized space.
Understanding the architectural flow of the space matters. There is a sudden break in the architectural form. The ending which contains the Recumbent Lee was an addition whereby altering the original features of the chapel focalized Lee and his importance to and within the school's functions. Since this original change from simple chapel to memorial, the ending has contained in itself a narrative of national conflict. Lee's history alone stimulates conflict (between North and South, as a symbol of both progressivism and recalcitrance, etc.), but the manner in which he is depicted (in Confederate uniform) reveals a greater conflict in a modern narrative of remembering and forgetting and how symbols become violent.
Alone, the Recumbent Lee's dress makes less of a claim about Southern supremacy, though that's not to say that message is absent, and instead seeks to memorialize a man in repose as he was similarly depicted in a picture. However, the later addition of Confederate flags, in combination with Lee's depiction in military garb, does articulate a certain violent or at the very least exclusionary message.
What I found most interesting was that while the additions of the flags did not cause controversy, their removal did and continues to spur conflict around the public and private understanding of the memorial. While the museum and chapel neglected (and still does - though the school now has a placard of acknowledgement) to concomitantly recognize slavery or recognize the negative effects of forgetting unequal treatment, the Confederate flags were a symbolic addition in remembrance that would have charged the space with a violent energy. Moreover, the removal of the flags from the chapel has not erased their presence, which still exists on cyclical loan in the museum below, where their presence no longer nurtures a violent atmosphere (albeit not without continued discomfort from both pro and anti Confederate flag parties).