Conservatives tend to think the same way. Allen Guelzo:Right. This impulse, though, is a mistake. The statues are an unnecessary affront to black citizens, who shouldn’t have to see defenders of chattel slavery put on a pedestal, literally. No charge. They have been graffitied, assaulted, and torn down, while authorities rush to remove them. “In Virginia, that version of history has been given prominence and authority for far too long.”. Big statues in prominent public spaces erected to make a point about the supposed glories of the Confederacy should be transferred elsewhere (ideally to museums or battlefields). ... For the past two years, activists in Memphis, Tennessee, have campaigned to have a pair of Confederate statues removed from the … But after years of debate, the statue was recently removed. Finally, learning about, say, Robert E. Lee doesn’t require staring up at a 60-foot-tall statue of him on a major Richmond, Va., thoroughfare. I’d make a couple of points in reply. And in Birmingham, Ala., on Sunday, protesters spray-painted the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument, a 52-foot-tall sandstone obelisk, and chipped at its base. Statues of the Confederate generals J.E.B. “While we respect the opinions of all of our citizens, we are simply not in a position to legally pursue any efforts with regard to the Robert E. Lee Confederate Memorial,” Mr. Rogers said on Wednesday. “The tragic killing of George Floyd has magnified the deep pain experienced by African-American and other members of our community,” the group wrote. Like in a tale from Shakespeare, he brought it on himself. But this should be done lawfully, not via mob action. Alexander Stephens, the vice president of the Confederacy, would have scoffed at this. Its 1890 unveiling was a key moment in the creation of a cult of Lee as a man of “moral strength and moral beauty,” as a speaker put it that day. I’ve lived in Wilmington since 1980. We should make distinctions, of course. The controversy pits those affected by the bitter memory of … Sometime this month, Botetourt County supervisors will be formally presented with a proposal to move the Confederate monument in front of the … Debate over US Confederate monuments intensifies While activists fight for removal of Confederate monuments, far-right groups turn them into venues for confrontations. The shocking summer of 2017 was an inflection point in Virginia’s long-running debate over its Confederate symbols, pushing Democratic politicians to take stronger stands on a topic previously seen as taboo. So, can you just give us an overview of how cities ended up erecting Confederate statues after the Civil War? In Charleston, S.C., “BLM,” for Black Lives Matter, and “Traitors” were spray-painted in red on the base of the Confederate Defenders of Charleston statue, erected in 1932. As debate over the takedown of Confederate monuments continues, 60 Minutes examines why and when the statues went up in the first place 2018 Jul 15 Correspondent Anderson Cooper In the wave of cancellations sweeping America, Confederate statues have been particularly hard hit. The event was live streamed on Youtube to an audience of more than 500. (Dustin Chambers/Reuters) Kyle has written a fantastically well-done (of course) piece in response to my column arguing against Confederate statues. The U.S. is engaged in a national debate about how to … George Floyd Protests Reignite Debate Over Confederate Statues Dozens came down after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017. A state law passed this year, which goes into effect on July 1, gives local governments the ability “to remove, relocate, or contextualize the monuments in their communities.”, “These monuments tell a particular version of history that doesn’t include everyone,” Governor Ralph S. Northam said when he signed the legislation in April. Following the protests and death of George Floyd, the governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, has promised to remove the Confederate statues on Monument Avenue. Alan Dershowitz Makes an Unpersuasive Argument against Late Impeachment Trials, Fourteenth Amendment Worries Should Not Stop Republican Senators from Convicting Trump, Fauci Refutes Biden Admin Claim that Trump Left ‘No Plan’ for Vaccine Distribution, On Day One, the Biden White House Dodges on Abortion. It insisted, after all, on a federal Fugitive Slave Act. Frederick Douglass appropriately scorned this movement. The United Daughters of the Confederacy, the group that owns the statue, notified the city on Monday that it would remove it the next day, a spokesman for the city said. In Memphis, the fight is about the removal statues from a park that portray Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest, President Jefferson Davis and a Confederate war correspondent. the Confederate Defenders of Charleston statue, erected in 1932, a Confederate monument at the State Capitol, dozens of plaques, statues and other monuments to the Confederacy, at least 138 Confederate symbols have been removed, wrote a public letter to the town’s mayor, legal battle between the state attorney general and the city, planning had begun months ago to relocate the statue. Protest signs at the Confederate Monument at Stone Mountain Park in Stone Mountain, Ga., June 16, 2020. As protests against racism and police violence spread across the nation, demonstrators in at least six cities focused their anger on symbols of the Confederacy, seizing the opportunity to mar Confederate statues and monuments that have ignited debate for years. Many of them were erected as part of the push to enshrine a dishonest, prettied-up version of the Confederacy. In Oxford, Miss., the words “spiritual genocide,” along with red handprints, were painted on a Confederate monument on the University of Mississippi campus on Saturday, The Oxford Eagle reported. “They are a constant reminder of the dehumanization of African-Americans and the pushback against our civil and human rights.”. According to the poll, in August 2017, 39% supported the removal of Confederate statues compared to 52% who wanted to get rid of them in June. Ryan M. Kelly/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images. In Norfolk, Va., on Saturday, protesters climbed a 15-foot figure of a Confederate soldier and spray-painted its base. For me, Both statues Confederate or Communist can stay or both can be taken down. Protesters outraged over the death of Mr. Floyd are targeting some that remained. Names are being scrubbed from … Confederate statues shouldn’t be vandalized, but they should go. On Monday, a day after protesters began chipping away at the statue’s base, Mayor Randall Woodfin, over the objections of the state’s attorney general, ordered a crew to finish the job. Get our conservative analysis delivered right to you. Confederate monuments debate heads to the courts. People on both sides vigorously defend their position, pointing out disturbing facts about the Founding Fathers and the founding of America as reasons why the Confederate monuments aren’t so different from Revolutionary monuments. I deplore vandalism, but no one should shed a tear for the removal of Confederate statues erected to nullify the emancipation of the Black Americans that the Civil War had accomplished. The school’s chancellor said planning had begun months ago to relocate the statue from the center of campus. He has come out in favor of preserving the names of military bases named after Confederate generals and pointedly said that we should build on our heritage rather than tear it down. Stuart, Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee, all of which stand on the city’s Monument Avenue, were marked. The bases are a harder case, since their names have themselves entered the American military tradition. Penn State’s Joshua F.J. Inwood and Derek H. Alderman study the way memory and places interact with trauma. In the 2018 Senate special election, photos surfaced of Hyde-Smith in Confederate memorabilia at Davis’ home Beauvoir, which is now a private museum operated by the Sons of Confederate Veterans on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Secession was a traitorous act that threatened to destroy the American nation, to create a rump republic built on slavery, and to make impossible the subsequent rise of the United States to a world power. If confederate statues come down, Communist statues should come down also (like they did in Ukraine, And Poland). Gov. Confederate statues, which sentimentalise and glorify the “lost cause” of the civil war, were put up to bolster all that. The debate for removing statues and renaming buildings has reignited in the wake of protests surrounding racial injustices and police brutality. “I am a black male,” the coach, Sherman Neal II, wrote. The Mississippi statues were placed in 1931 after they were approved by the state Legislature in 1924. The group has estimated that at least 138 Confederate symbols have been removed from public spaces since 2015, when it started tracking them after a white supremacist killed nine black congregants at a church in Charleston, S.C. “There has been a consistent drive, primarily in the South, to remove these monuments,” Ms. Brooks said. Last, with the usual defenses for Confederate statues and monuments debunked, the remaining and most likely reason for keeping these monuments is (a) an implicit denial that the Confederacy was wrong, (b) a proxy for racial resentment, or (c) all of the above. The apotheosis of Lee was an element of a Lost Cause mythology that maintained that the Civil War wasn’t truly about slavery, only Southern states defending their legitimate prerogatives. He said he did not know what the group planned to do with the statue. “The conversation has never really died,” said Lecia Brooks, outreach director at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala. In Alexandria, Va., just outside Washington, D.C., a Confederate statue that had been slated to be removed next month was taken down on Tuesday. The mayor, Bob Rogers, said the memorial sits on land owned by Calloway County and not the city. Communist have been full of rape (illusionist rape), And confederacy those … In his notorious Cornerstone Speech in 1861, he said the new government was built on “the great truth” of slavery. Still, supporters fought until the end and pointed out how the former Confederate officer changed his views on race later in life. The debate over removing Confederate statues continues to rage. It is impossible to evaluate these monuments without considering the context of why they were created. The theory of states’ rights that the Confederacy used to justify secession wasn’t meant to preserve our constitutional scheme, but to demolish it. Many statues and monuments can be re-located to museums where a much of history is saved, or to private historical sites, cemeteries, or to the families of the artists who created aolstatues. But as the source of those names becomes more widely known, it’s going to be harder to ask African-American soldiers willing to sacrifice life and limb for their country to look past them. Gay Marriage: An Analysis of Both Sides of the Debate. They reflexively oppose politically correct campaigns to destroy anything giving offense. They value tradition and worry we are trashing part of our history. In response, at least two cities this week have seen them removed from public spaces. On the other side, opponents of the statues argue that they celebrate white supremacy. Northam is expected to announce plans on Thursday for the removal of the Lee statue, according to an administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the move had not yet been publicly announced. 28 Jun 2017 The Great Courses:Since there’s a lot of debate going on now in the country about the status of Confederate statues, we thought it would be interesting to talk to you both about some of the historical background of these statues. “It would seem,” he wrote sarcastically, “that the soldier who kills the most men in battle, even in a bad cause, is the greatest Christian, and entitled to the highest place in heaven.”. The Confederacy didn't approve slaves actively joining the Army until the beginning of 1865, after tumultuous debate in their Congress, and only a year after Patrick Cleburne was nearly censured for … Push To Remove Confederate Monuments Opens Debate On Other Honored Historical Figures Statues have been taken down. US: Confederate Statues Likely To Go Undisturbed In SC In 2021 The Heritage Act mentions a wide range of events from the Revolutionary War to the Persian Gulf War. The Robert E. Lee statue at the center of the 2017 protests in Charlottesville, Va., still stands, surrounded by a small plastic construction fence and “No Trespassing” signs. Many of the monuments were vandalized with spray paint; protesters tried to topple others from their bases. Direct commemorations of the Confederate war dead — obelisks with lists of names, Confederate cemeteries — should be preserved to mark the human cost of a terrible conflict. It’s John Brennan’s Authoritarianism That Threatens Democracy, Media Bootlickers Hurl Themselves at Biden’s Feet, Trump Trial Puts Fundamental Question to Chief Justice Roberts, Ted Cruz Denounces Trump’s ‘Rhetoric’ during Riot. In an open letter dated Sunday, the chancellor, Glenn F. Boyce, said the death of Mr. Floyd and those of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky “have evoked much anger, horror and disbelief” and “continue to tear apart the fabric of our country and impact our campus.”. Confederate statues and symbols deserve to be reevaluated, and often mothballed. The idea had been developed by former vice president John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, who believed the country had set off on an erroneous, nationalist path from the very beginning. The United Daughters of the Confederacy did not respond to a request for comment. Debate over US Confederate monuments intensifies. A toppled statue of Charles Linn, a city founder who was in the Confederate Navy, in Birmingham, Ala., on Monday, following a night of protests. Even as workers arrived to tidy up the destruction, the protests have freshened the conversation around the fate of these controversial memorials, many of which have been the subject of legal challenges, especially in the years since a deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 over the city’s plan to remove a statue of Lee. It’s a murky situation that could see none other than Vice President Harris preside. A vote from the U.S. House of Representatives has caused quite the debate online. January 30, 2018 by Scott Bomboy . But in its more than 20 years on the books in South Carolina, it has almost exclusively protected Confederates and segregationists. By Liz Hardin. Secession was a traitorous act that threatened to destroy the American nation, and the South’s leaders don’t deserve to be given a place of honor. August 5, 2020 2.35pm EDT. ‘I think, yesterday in particular, the president's language and rhetoric crossed the line and it was reckless,’ Cruz said. How Conflict Resolution Can Help in the Debate Over Confederate Statues. Its leaders don’t deserve to be given a place of honor in our landscape denied to worthier men. Mihir Zaveri, Christopher Mele and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs contributed reporting. The official spoke on Wednesday, the same day Richmond’s mayor said he would propose removing additional Confederate monuments from the state capital. “I am no longer willing to accept state-sponsored symbols of institutional racism in my community.”, In an interview, Mr. Neal said he wrote the letter because “you don’t get opportunities like this in history more than once in a lifetime to take action that can result in a change.”. Dozens came down after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017. The New York Times estimates there are about 700 statues and monuments dedicated to Confederate figures and themes. Virginia has more than 220 public memorials to the Confederacy, according to the governor’s office. They think the original intention of most Confederate statues – and the context in which they were built in the years after the Civil War – make it tough to defend keeping them in place: While it certainly doesn’t solve problems of inequality that exist today, removing memorials that continue to “exact a painful toll on the sense o… They fear where the slippery slope of woke iconoclasm will lead — first it’s Jefferson Davis, ultimately George Washington. On June 4, many Black Lives Matter protesters gathered around the famous statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia. About 100 miles south of Huntsville, Birmingham’s Confederate monument had been covered since last year amid a legal battle between the state attorney general and the city. In Huntsville, Ala., where protesters gathered on Monday to demand the removal of a Confederate monument from the grounds of the Madison County Courthouse, according to AL.com, a group of business owners wrote to the city on Tuesday asking that it be moved. On Tuesday, Alabama’s attorney general, Steve Marshall, announced that the state had filed a lawsuit against the city over its removal of the monument. The tragic events in Charlottesville, Virginia, have re-ignited debate about the place of Confederate monuments in public spaces, as well as related conversations about the role of Confederate, neo-Nazi, and white supremacist imagery in American political culture.The AHA has released the following statement about the role of history and historians in these public conversations. George Floyd Protests Reignite Debate Over Confederate Statues. Confederate statues shouldn’t be vandalized, but they should go. Confederate monuments that survived the protests are facing renewed scrutiny as protesters, angered by the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25, have taken to the streets in at least 140 cities across the country. That is a very, very big question, simply because there are so many statue… This includes the removal of statues of anyone who voluntarily served the Confederacy, and it would force states to replace such figures in the National Statuary Hall Collection. For his part, President Donald Trump has been a steadfast defender of the statues and other forms of recognition of the Confederacy. In the weeks after Charlottesville, dozens of plaques, statues and other monuments to the Confederacy were challenged or removed from public places across the country. It’s even affecting an Aggieland staple. As part of the University of Michigan’s Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Symposium, the Ford School of Public Policy hosted a talk Monday afternoon to discuss the national debate over confederate statues and their place on American soil. The Confederate flag should be shunned, as a symbol of a viciously flawed cause. In North Carolina, a Confederate monument at the State Capitol in Raleigh was marked with a black X. Since then, there has been no unified plan for what to do with these landmarks. In Confederate statue debates, common values can bring meaningful resolution. The tragic events in Charlottesville, Virginia, have re-ignited debate about the place of Confederate monuments in public spaces, as well as related conversations about the role of Confederate, neo-Nazi, and white supremacist imagery in American political culture.The AHA has released the following statement about the role of history and historians in these public conversations. When I first read the debate resolution, I thought of the confederate statues I’ve seen in downtown Wilmington. United States Confederate Statues, symbols, and memorials debate thread. Then, according to news reports, they tried to topple it. “Alexandria, like all great cities, is constantly changing and evolving," the city’s mayor, Justin Wilson, said on Twitter, sharing images of its removal. Removing the statue from Linn Park, he said, would “prevent more civil unrest.”. Sheelagh McNeill contributed research. On Wednesday, the House approved legislation to remove Confederate statues from the Capitol building. Confederate monuments in Gettysburg spark debate among historians ... Martz argued there’s a difference between the statues coming down across the country and the ones in Gettysburg. The protests at the Confederate capital was focused on the removal of statues on Monument Avenue. In Richmond, Va., this weekend, graffiti was scrawled on the headquarters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the building also burned for a time. County officials declined to comment. A football coach in Murray, Ky., wrote a public letter to the town’s mayor on Tuesday asking for the removal of a statue of Lee — and offered to help take it down himself. Some have been auctioned, moved, stored, covered or dismantled in recent years; others have remained while legal challenges have played out or failed. In Richmond, Va., an oversized statue of Lee that towers over the city’s Monument Avenue was covered with graffiti, including the phrases “No More White Supremacy” and “Black Lives Matter.” The statue of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States, on the avenue was also painted. The Richmond statue of Lee, which Virginia governor Ralph Northam has said is coming down, has long been a point of contention. 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