Debate Confederate monuments to America's original sin of slavery, then take them down
The Editorial Board USA TODAYEver eager to exploit a cultural rift, President Donald Trump deployed troops and federal officers, and signed an executive order last week, to safeguard aging relics of America's slave-ridden past because "the left-wing mob is trying to demolish our heritage."
For what heritage is he the self-appointed guardian? The nearly 1,800 monuments, statues and plaques, and names of schools, streets and military bases across the nation celebrating a Confederacy that a century-and-a-half ago defended America's original sin of slavery.
In the aftermath of George Floyd's death at the hands of law enforcement in Minneapolis, and the historic protests there and throughout the USA, these Confederate shrines have come under renewed scrutiny. They shouldn't be removed by vigilantes, but it is time for them to come down, especially those erected during the Jim Crow era as a way to intimidate African American communities.
Moving statues from Monument Avenue
One of the purest examples is stately Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, with its towering stone figures from the Confederacy that include Gen. Robert E. Lee. The neighborhood was established in the late 19th century to sell segregation to wealthy white homebuyers. Blacks were barred. Virginia has wrestled with this shrine to a bygone era for too long, and the statues at long last are being removed.
ANOTHER VIEW: Use Confederate statues and names to educate
Why is this change so glacial, and how is the inertia about removing them not evidence of stubborn and persistent racial animus? Only Sunday did the Mississippi Legislature finally vote to remove the Confederate battle banner from the state flag.
When there were similar demands to pull down rebel monuments after the massacre of nine African American church members in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015, and after the killing of a counterprotester by a white supremacist in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, the Editorial Board urged careful, community-by-community deliberation.
Vandalism only serves to feed Trump
Too many of these statues still stand and Americans, particularly people of color, have grown understandably impatient. This certainly doesn't excuse reckless, unlawful destruction of property — tearing down statues, burning them or dumping them into lakes. Acts of vandalism only serve to feed the divisive rhetoric of someone like Trump.
Due process and honest debate over altering town squares remain vital. These deliberations should take into account why a monument was erected, when it was erected and who was being honored.
Such discussions can lead to a more contextual understanding of controversial historical figures. Many of the monuments could find appropriate homes in museums, where the Civil War story can be told without glorifying Confederate leaders at taxpayers' expense in the public square.
Debate and discussion, however, shouldn't turn into excuses for endless inaction. The job needs to get done. Important changes are afoot in the wake of Floyd's killing, opportunities not just to enlighten American institutions such as law enforcement but also to revise American landscapes still fostering images of exclusion.
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