Confederate Protests

From USA Today:

“Confederate monuments toppled, burned as protests over George Floyd's death continue”

Protests in response to the death of George Floyd — a handcuffed black man who was asphyxiated as a white police officer knelt on his neck — once again spotlighted frustration over the presence of Confederate monuments in some cities as anger over police brutality and racism intensified over the weekend.  A statue outside the Tennessee State Capitol of Edward Carmack, a controversial former lawmaker and newspaper publisher who espoused racist views, was torn down Saturday.  Carmack was known for authoring editorials attacking fellow Tennessee journalist Ida B. Wells' writings in support of the civil rights movement, including encouraging retaliation against her, resulting in the burning of her Memphis newspaper office. The Robert E. Lee memorial on Richmond, Virginia's Monument Avenue was covered in graffiti Saturday night, as was the Stonewall Jackson statute. The headquarters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy was similarly tagged and set on fire, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.  The Confederate Defenders statute along the Battery in Charleston, South Carolina, was also spray-painted. A peaceful protest held there the next morning was dispersed, the Post and Courier reported.   The brass cast of Charles Linn in Birmingham, Alabama was left lying on the ground Sunday night, dismantled from its base. AL.com reports Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said he will work quickly to remove it, but did not provide a time frame.  And it wasn't just monuments.  In Fayetteville, North Carolina, a crowd set fire to the Market House, a National Historic Landmark constructed in 1832 on the site of the old state house. It was used as a town hall and marketplace and was also the site of the sale of slaves.  In recent years, the continued presence of Confederate monuments has come under intense scrutiny. Many were removed following violence at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017.  At the time, protesters in North Carolina toppled a statue of a Confederate soldier near the courthouse in downtown Durham. Statues of two Confederate generals, Robert E. Lee and Albert Sidney Johnston, and the Confederate cabinet member John Reagan, were taken down from the University of Texas. And another four were removed in Louisiana.  

^ I believe Confederate monuments, statues, places named in honor of their leaders, etc. should be removed. I do not believe they should be destroyed (especially by rioters.) They are part of out history (a dark stain on our history) that needs to be remembered – not honored. The monuments should be removed and placed in museums (like many European places did with their Communist monuments) so that Americans will learn and see what the US was like before the Civil War, during the Civil War and into the 1970s in terms of openly honoring the Confederates. ^

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/06/01/george-floyds-death-causes-confederate-monuments-targeted/5310736002/