Mellon Money, Mellon Monuments: Controlling the Past to Control the Future
By Claudia Henneberry
August 2026
Background
The nonprofit, Monument Lab, was founded by Dr. Paul Farber and Ken Lum in 2012. The Lab once claimed they were “driven by anti-racist, de-colonial, feminist, queer, working class, climate-conscious, and disability justice perspectives, and [we know] all forms of oppression must be dismantled for us to truly get free.”
Monument Lab recently cleaned up their mission to read: “We believe that our unreconciled past and our inherited monument landscape continue to reinforce systems of injustice, haunt our present, and impact our individual and collective futures.” Therefore, they are still “dedicated to advancing justice by reimagining monuments….”
In concert with Monument Lab, the Mellon Foundation launched its Monuments Project - ironically, in 2020 when all hell broke loose over the death of George Floyd - in order to apply ‘social justice’ to statues and monuments around the country. They had their crisis and were not about to let it go to waste. Since then, Mellon has invested a half-billion dollars into the Project.
Mellon’s president, Elizabeth Alexander, said, through the Monuments Project, Mellon will “shift who has the power to shape our present and our future.” The Foundation partnered with Farber’s Monument Lab and awarded the operation $4 million to support its National Monument Audit. The Audit focused on a study of existing 50,000 conventional monuments in every U.S. state and territory from 2020-2021 to “create a concurrent dataset of reported protest activities tied to monuments” and establish “ten new Monument Lab field offices that will re-imagine monuments in cities, regions, and communities across the country.”
Monument Lab Director, Dr. Farber, also incestuously serves on Mellon’s Board of Trustees.
World Heritage USA Monuments Toolkit
In 2021, the Mellon Foundation awarded the United States Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS-USA) $1.5 million to support the development of “the Monuments Toolkit, a website and app aimed at answering questions about monuments of oppression.” World Heritage USA supports the work of the ICOMOS-USA.
The Monuments Toolkit team relied upon the following studies (p.4), among others, for the information in its Toolkit:
This Toolkit’s purpose is to provide (p. 3) “elected officials, government workers, community leaders, and the general public who are invested in reimagining the monuments landscape,” guidance on contested monuments, and recommendations for seven possible actions communities can take regarding the installations (p. 9). More often than not, the Toolkit guidance recommends removal, relocation, and destruction of monuments tied to colonialism, the Confederacy, and European historical figures. The seven actions are found on p. 9 of the Toolkit here:
An up-to-the-minute example of the implementation of the Monuments Project is the Chicago Monument Project (CMP).
“The Chicago Monuments Project’s work and 2022 report serve as a model for civic leaders seeking to implement an audit of their monument landscape. The document outlines the Project’s guiding principles, methodology, and recommendations alongside essays by experts. Of over 500 sculptures, plaques, and artworks in Chicago, 41 were identified as in need of further discussion. These include sculptures of Christopher Columbus, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, and William McKinley as well as monuments related to the Fort Dearborn Massacre, “pioneers,” and “discoverers,” among others.”
“The reasons these works were chosen for further public discussion include ‘Promoting narratives of white supremacy,’ ‘Presenting inaccurate and/or demeaning characterizations of American Indians,’ ‘Memorializing individuals with connections to racist acts, slavery and genocide,’ ‘Presenting selective, oversimplified, one- sided views of history; Not sufficiently including other stories, including those of women, people of color, and themes of labor, migration and community building,’ and ‘Creating tension between people who see value in these artworks and those who do not’ (CMP Report, p.12).”
This is crazy. Ben Franklin was a staunch abolitionist and Abe Lincoln freed the slaves and kept the Union together.
These entities - CMP, World Heritage USA, and the Mellon Foundation - share an ecosystem…and Mellon money.
CMP is featured on the World Heritage USA website as one of “6 Working Groups Changing the Monuments Landscape.”
In 2023, the Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Project gave $6.8 million to the Chicago Monuments Project to support “the implementation of eight [CMP] priority projects and related initiatives that reflect the city’s diversity and promote healing through public art. Projects range from a memorial to victims of police violence, to a statue of the legendary gospel singer and civil rights activist Mahalia Jackson, to an intervention by artist Amanda Williams at the George Washington Monument exploring the contradictions of American founding narratives and their connection to Black history.”
With generous support from the Mellon Foundation, the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events will be developing and implementing new Chicago monuments.
Conclusion
The Mellon Foundation is the main financier of the coordinated efforts to locate and target monuments in the U.S. It is the primary funder of the National Monument Audit and the Monuments Toolkit, financing both the data infrastructure (the Audit's comprehensive national database of monuments) and the practical action guide (the Toolkit) that directs communities on what to do about monuments identified by that database.
The disgraced Southern Poverty Law Center’s role (listed on p. 5) in the Monuments Toolkit is as a research source, through its Whose Heritage? Public Symbols of the Confederacy (3rd Edition, February 2022), that provides the historical and ideological framework for how the toolkit categorizes and evaluates monuments.
By Claudia Henneberry
August 2026
- The Mellon Foundation, Monument Lab, the criminal enterprise Southern Poverty Law Center, and The International Council on Monuments and Sites are on a fervent and defiant mission to change the historical landscape of the country, and, in some cases, the world.
Background
The nonprofit, Monument Lab, was founded by Dr. Paul Farber and Ken Lum in 2012. The Lab once claimed they were “driven by anti-racist, de-colonial, feminist, queer, working class, climate-conscious, and disability justice perspectives, and [we know] all forms of oppression must be dismantled for us to truly get free.”
Monument Lab recently cleaned up their mission to read: “We believe that our unreconciled past and our inherited monument landscape continue to reinforce systems of injustice, haunt our present, and impact our individual and collective futures.” Therefore, they are still “dedicated to advancing justice by reimagining monuments….”
In concert with Monument Lab, the Mellon Foundation launched its Monuments Project - ironically, in 2020 when all hell broke loose over the death of George Floyd - in order to apply ‘social justice’ to statues and monuments around the country. They had their crisis and were not about to let it go to waste. Since then, Mellon has invested a half-billion dollars into the Project.
Mellon’s president, Elizabeth Alexander, said, through the Monuments Project, Mellon will “shift who has the power to shape our present and our future.” The Foundation partnered with Farber’s Monument Lab and awarded the operation $4 million to support its National Monument Audit. The Audit focused on a study of existing 50,000 conventional monuments in every U.S. state and territory from 2020-2021 to “create a concurrent dataset of reported protest activities tied to monuments” and establish “ten new Monument Lab field offices that will re-imagine monuments in cities, regions, and communities across the country.”
Monument Lab Director, Dr. Farber, also incestuously serves on Mellon’s Board of Trustees.
World Heritage USA Monuments Toolkit
In 2021, the Mellon Foundation awarded the United States Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS-USA) $1.5 million to support the development of “the Monuments Toolkit, a website and app aimed at answering questions about monuments of oppression.” World Heritage USA supports the work of the ICOMOS-USA.
The Monuments Toolkit team relied upon the following studies (p.4), among others, for the information in its Toolkit:
- Monument Lab's National Monument Audit’s geographic data to select which monuments to study. (co-funded by Mellon)
- The SPLC's Whose Heritage? (3rd ed., 2022) This report “offers an evolving assessment of the threats and harms that find continued life through Confederate symbols, “Lost Cause” narratives and ideologies of white supremacy.”
- The Atlanta History Center's Confederate Monument Interpretation Guide
This Toolkit’s purpose is to provide (p. 3) “elected officials, government workers, community leaders, and the general public who are invested in reimagining the monuments landscape,” guidance on contested monuments, and recommendations for seven possible actions communities can take regarding the installations (p. 9). More often than not, the Toolkit guidance recommends removal, relocation, and destruction of monuments tied to colonialism, the Confederacy, and European historical figures. The seven actions are found on p. 9 of the Toolkit here:
- “Removal – extracted from original location, not publicly accessible
- Relocation – moved to alternate setting, still publicly accessible
- Reinterpretation/Recontextualization – transforming significance through added context
- Repurposing – physically transforming materials into a different object
- Co-location – adding adjacent monuments to temper meaning
- Destruction – physical demolition with no intent to preserve materials
- Status Quo – inaction, monument remains unchanged”
An up-to-the-minute example of the implementation of the Monuments Project is the Chicago Monument Project (CMP).
“The Chicago Monuments Project’s work and 2022 report serve as a model for civic leaders seeking to implement an audit of their monument landscape. The document outlines the Project’s guiding principles, methodology, and recommendations alongside essays by experts. Of over 500 sculptures, plaques, and artworks in Chicago, 41 were identified as in need of further discussion. These include sculptures of Christopher Columbus, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, and William McKinley as well as monuments related to the Fort Dearborn Massacre, “pioneers,” and “discoverers,” among others.”
“The reasons these works were chosen for further public discussion include ‘Promoting narratives of white supremacy,’ ‘Presenting inaccurate and/or demeaning characterizations of American Indians,’ ‘Memorializing individuals with connections to racist acts, slavery and genocide,’ ‘Presenting selective, oversimplified, one- sided views of history; Not sufficiently including other stories, including those of women, people of color, and themes of labor, migration and community building,’ and ‘Creating tension between people who see value in these artworks and those who do not’ (CMP Report, p.12).”
This is crazy. Ben Franklin was a staunch abolitionist and Abe Lincoln freed the slaves and kept the Union together.
These entities - CMP, World Heritage USA, and the Mellon Foundation - share an ecosystem…and Mellon money.
CMP is featured on the World Heritage USA website as one of “6 Working Groups Changing the Monuments Landscape.”
In 2023, the Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Project gave $6.8 million to the Chicago Monuments Project to support “the implementation of eight [CMP] priority projects and related initiatives that reflect the city’s diversity and promote healing through public art. Projects range from a memorial to victims of police violence, to a statue of the legendary gospel singer and civil rights activist Mahalia Jackson, to an intervention by artist Amanda Williams at the George Washington Monument exploring the contradictions of American founding narratives and their connection to Black history.”
With generous support from the Mellon Foundation, the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events will be developing and implementing new Chicago monuments.
Conclusion
The Mellon Foundation is the main financier of the coordinated efforts to locate and target monuments in the U.S. It is the primary funder of the National Monument Audit and the Monuments Toolkit, financing both the data infrastructure (the Audit's comprehensive national database of monuments) and the practical action guide (the Toolkit) that directs communities on what to do about monuments identified by that database.
The disgraced Southern Poverty Law Center’s role (listed on p. 5) in the Monuments Toolkit is as a research source, through its Whose Heritage? Public Symbols of the Confederacy (3rd Edition, February 2022), that provides the historical and ideological framework for how the toolkit categorizes and evaluates monuments.