Should all Confederate Statues be removed from display?

The family of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, one of the most famous of all confederate generals.

"Confederate monuments like the Jackson statue were never intended as benign symbols," wrote two of Jackson's great-great grandsons.

"Rather, they were the clearly articulated artwork of white supremacy."

In an open letter to the mayor of Richmond, Virginia - where they live - they called for the removal of statues celebrating their ancestor.

"While we are not ashamed of our great-great-grandfather, we are ashamed to benefit from white supremacy while our black family and friends suffer. We are ashamed of the monument," they wrote.

"As two of the closest living relatives to Stonewall, we are writing today to ask for the removal of his statue, as well as the removal of all Confederate statues from Monument Avenue. They are overt symbols of racism and white supremacy, and the time is long overdue for them to depart from public display."

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SW-User Best Comment

I say take them down. Sure there is history behind these "monuments" because they depict real people and real history. But the fact is that these statues did not go up to honor or preserve history. They went up to instill a continued defiance and fear and to send a message. You can do a quick search online and see the time frame of when most of these monuments went up. Most were in the very late 1800's/early 1900's around the time of the Jim Crow Laws being passed and again another spike in them being put up in the 1960's during the Civil Rights movement. That's not coincidence.

https://www.splcenter.org/sites/default/files/whoseheritage-timeline150_years_of_iconography.jpg

sogdianrock · 61-69, M

hi InnocentExile
well said. Great presentation of data.
Best wishes
:)

bijouxbroussard · F

@SW-User Bravo. I'd bet a lot of people going on about "preserving" don't know about that suspicious timing.