U.D.C.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy were first allowed to put their initials, U.D.C., on the room’s door in 1909 after helping to furnish the room with tables, chairs and other items following a fire at the courthouse, the local grand jury’s foreman at the time previously testified in court.

Over seven years, Logue’s U.D.C. did build quite a bit of public housing — 117 separate developments in 49 cities and towns, 33,000 dwelling units for 100,000 people, about a third of them low-income.

Daisy McLaurin Stevens, for example, was the daughter of Anselm McLaurin, a senator and governor of Mississippi; she became president-general of the U.D.C. in 1913 and spoke at the unveiling of the Confederate monument in Arlington National Cemetery.

They also formed Children of the Confederacy chapters for boys and girls ages 6 to 16, intended to serve as a pipeline for membership in both the U.D.C. and the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a parallel organization.

Those “citizens of tomorrow,” who drank from the cup of history brewed by the U.D.C. for generations, became the “living monuments” that Southern white women sought to build.