A third path emerges in Confederate monument debate: keep statues but put up signs explaining their racist history - Entrepreneur Generations

A Confederate monument in Nashville was vandalized
in June (Associated Press photo by Mark Humphrey)

Confederate monuments have become increasingly controversial in recent years, with some saying they celebrate racism and should be removed, and others saying they should stay because they're simply a way of remembering our nation's history. But some communities "are exploring a new way to deal with the country’s Confederate monuments: place explanatory panels on or alongside the statues detailing the real history behind them. It’s the latest frontier in the nation’s ongoing — and, in recent years, horrifically violent — reckoning with the statues, troubling testaments to the country’s racist past," Hannah Natanson reports for The Washington Post.

There are about 1,700 Confederate monuments across the United States. Most went up between the 1890s and the 1920s with the rise of Jim Crow laws, and more were erected in the 1940s after the desegregation of the Armed Forces and public schools. Their placement was meant to assert white supremacy, according to James Grossman, executive director of the American Historical Association.

"Though many African Americans have disliked and protested against the monuments since their installation, Grossman said, opposition to Confederate symbols exploded into the mainstream following deadly racial violence in Charleston, S.C., in 2015 and in Charlottesville in 2017," Natanson reports. "Towns and cities across the country have been struggling to decide how to handle their statues ever since."

The issue of how to deal with Confederate monuments has been compounded in many places by state or local laws that protect them. "At least seven states passed legislation in recent years to protect their Confederate monuments, a wave that began around the 2000s and includes a law passed as recently as 2017," Natanson reports. "Such statutes, which vary in language but generally prohibit removal of the monuments, are in effect in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia."

So, if the statues can't be removed, many support installing accompanying markers that highlight the racist history of the Confederacy. "Proponents of installing explanatory markers say that — especially in states where removal is illegal — the tactic is realistic, inexpensive and swiftly achievable," Natanson reports.

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2Vf159f A third path emerges in Confederate monument debate: keep statues but put up signs explaining their racist history - Entrepreneur Generations

Posted by Entrepreneur Generations

Tweet