Richmond is taking down Confederate statues: Is this the end for other Confederate memorials?

[MontyPython]

The statue of Robert E. Lee has towered over Richmond for more than 100 years. In recent days, though, it's been conveying a different message - words like "Black lives matter" are covering its stone pedestal.

At least a hundred people gathered on a muggy Thursday afternoon near the monument to the Confederate commander after Gov. Ralph Northam announced it was to come down "as soon as possible."

Richmond isn't alone. Around the U.S, demonstrations over the death of Floyd and racial inequality have sparked both protesters and city officials to remove, deface or announce plans to take down many Confederate memorials.

While the decision in Richmond signals a positive step for those who want to see the monuments removed, experts warn that the push to take them down and address what sparked them to be erected still has a long way to go.

Among the locations where mayors, protesters and even groups dedicated to Confederate history have taken down statues or announced plans:

• In Montgomery, Alabama, on Monday, another statue of Lee was toppled in front of its namesake high school. Cheers went up among a small crowd gathered to watch the fallen general as cars circled the area and honked.
• In Birmingham, Alabama, Mayor Randall Woodfin ordered workers to take down a 50-foot-tall Confederate obelisk on Monday night after a group of protesters failed to knock it down. The night before, the group dismantled the brass cast of Charles Linn, a captain in the Confederate Navy, from its base.
• The city of Mobile, Alabama, removed a bronze figure of Admiral Raphael Semmes early Friday, without making any public announcement. Semmes was a Confederate commerce raider, sinking Union-allied ships during the Civil War, and the statue had become a flashpoint in the city.
• Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett announced Thursday that a monument dedicated to Confederate soldiers who died at a Union prison camp in the city will be removed from a park.
• 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.
• The United Daughters of the Confederacy removed a statue of a soldier gazing south in Alexandria, Virginia, on Tuesday.
• The Arkansas division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy also announced that a Confederate soldier monument in Bentonville will be removed from the downtown square and relocated to a private park.

Richmond is taking down Confederate statues: Is this the end for other Confederate memorials?

 

[VolStrom]

Erase history, that'll fix everything.

 

[oz615]

seriously,what does any of this solve?

 

[volfanhill]

seriously,what does any of this solve?

Solve? Nothing. But it’s a good step. I am not arguing why the war was fought. I am not arguing who wanted slaves free and when. I am not arguing if the south should have been able to leave the Union. What I will argue is this. Most of the monuments were put up as an FU to the feds either during reconstruction or during the civil rights movement . Secondly, the side that lost was more willing then the other side to continue to enslave what is now a large percentage of our population. How can anyone be surprised that they are bothered buy it? And lastly, to quote our current POTUS, “I don’t like losers.”

 

[McDad]

I think it is silly. But I don't care about any civil war statues. My life is neither improved nor worsened whether they stand or not.

 

[k-town_king]

Erase history, that'll fix everything.

Those statues are ahistorical. Not history. None were put up by actual Civil war vets.

 

[VolStrom]

Those statues are ahistorical. Not history. None were put up by actual Civil war vets.

Okay, since none of these guys are part of history lets get rid of all statues including the MLK statues that dot our landscape all over the country, but I suppose suggesting that would make me a racist, right?

 

[k-town_king]

Okay, since none of these guys are part of history lets get rid of all statues including the MLK statues that dot our landscape all over the country, but I suppose suggesting that would make me a racist, right?

Yep. Also those were out up during the a generation that actually was there for his life.

They also don't make shite up like the fake history of the traitor statues.

 

[Tyler Durden]

Anyone that wants treasonous Confederate statues isn't a real American.

 

[VolStrom]

Yep. Also those were out up during the a generation that actually was there for his life.

They also don't make shite up like the fake history of the traitor statues.

You're no better than the trash I see looting stores. Nothing ever changes with people like you, victimhood until the end.

 

[Lerxtwood]

The statue of Robert E. Lee has towered over Richmond for more than 100 years. In recent days, though, it's been conveying a different message - words like "Black lives matter" are covering its stone pedestal.

At least a hundred people gathered on a muggy Thursday afternoon near the monument to the Confederate commander after Gov. Ralph Northam announced it was to come down "as soon as possible."

Richmond isn't alone. Around the U.S, demonstrations over the death of Floyd and racial inequality have sparked both protesters and city officials to remove, deface or announce plans to take down many Confederate memorials.

While the decision in Richmond signals a positive step for those who want to see the monuments removed, experts warn that the push to take them down and address what sparked them to be erected still has a long way to go.

Among the locations where mayors, protesters and even groups dedicated to Confederate history have taken down statues or announced plans:

• In Montgomery, Alabama, on Monday, another statue of Lee was toppled in front of its namesake high school. Cheers went up among a small crowd gathered to watch the fallen general as cars circled the area and honked.
• In Birmingham, Alabama, Mayor Randall Woodfin ordered workers to take down a 50-foot-tall Confederate obelisk on Monday night after a group of protesters failed to knock it down. The night before, the group dismantled the brass cast of Charles Linn, a captain in the Confederate Navy, from its base.
• The city of Mobile, Alabama, removed a bronze figure of Admiral Raphael Semmes early Friday, without making any public announcement. Semmes was a Confederate commerce raider, sinking Union-allied ships during the Civil War, and the statue had become a flashpoint in the city.
• Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett announced Thursday that a monument dedicated to Confederate soldiers who died at a Union prison camp in the city will be removed from a park.
• 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.
• The United Daughters of the Confederacy removed a statue of a soldier gazing south in Alexandria, Virginia, on Tuesday.
• The Arkansas division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy also announced that a Confederate soldier monument in Bentonville will be removed from the downtown square and relocated to a private park.

Richmond is taking down Confederate statues: Is this the end for other Confederate memorials?

View attachment 285080

Hope so.

 

[NashVol11]

Hope so

 

[Lerxtwood]

You're no better than the trash I see looting stores. Nothing ever changes with people like you, victimhood until the end.

Good lord man! Taking down statues means somebody is “trash”? Get a hold of your racist self...

 

[NashVol11]

Daughters of the Confederacy put up these and KKK statues in their “Lost Cause” push in the first half of the 20th century. There is absolutely nothing “historical” about these.

If anything, their propagandist nature makes them counterproductive for those looking for accurate historical depictions

 

[USMC-TNVOL]

You're no better than the trash I see looting stores. Nothing ever changes with people like you, victimhood until the end.

Robert E Lee said himself he didn’t want statues so what’s the issue? Why defend statues for southern generals who held slaves and probably would’ve lynched runaway slaves if they caught them or treated them subhuman? They lost. We don’t need or want their statues. If it’s at a place like Gettysburg or Antietam, fine, but there’s no reason to have them in cities near courthouses. There’s no reason to respect them morally.

 

[VolunteerHillbilly]

Daughters of the Confederacy put up these and KKK statues in their “Lost Cause” push in the first half of the 20th century. There is absolutely nothing “historical” about these.

If anything, their propagandist nature makes them counterproductive for those looking for accurate historical depictions

A lot of these were put up as the last of the CW veteran generation was dying off, which happened to coincide with some people in the south actually having some money due to the roaring 20s economy. Not to say that your statement is invalid but there were many reasons for the timing. If Lee ws alive now he would not want his image to divide people and would probably support moving the statues to Hollywood Cemetery, Arlington or Lexington where the context would be different.

 

[Franklin Pierce]

What is happening in America is patterned on the Chinese Cultural Revolution. The riots, the statues, etc. is only the beginning.

 

[VolunteerHillbilly]

I'll add that the people who cared about these monuments the most probably should have thought about what would happen when they cut out for the suburbs and left them behind for other people to decide the fate of.

 

[1972 Grad]

We need to replace those statues with statues of people like the Gentle Giant, Michael Brown and a 12 year old Trayvon Martin. Hell, we need Greta up there, too..

 

[Rifleman]

Participation trophies are, in general, a bad idea.

I have two ancestors who were in a Confederate unit totally wiped out in "the hornets nest" at Shiloh. We could never find them in the death counts.

Later we found out they switched sides right before Shiloh and were in a Union regiment until the end. My brother found a letter from another person in the regiment who had been conscripted by the Confederates and then switched to the Union as well. His lofty reasons: better pay, better clothes, better weapons, more and better food, tobacco rations, and boots.

History is a little more complicated than a statue or a bumper sticker can represent.

 

[VolunteerHillbilly]

What is happening in America is patterned on the Chinese Cultural Revolution. The riots, the statues, etc. is only the beginning.

If so, Tennessee is probably the best candidate to be the new Taiwan

 

[Franklin Pierce]

Participation trophies are, in general, a bad idea.

I have two ancestors who were in a Confederate unit totally wiped out in "the hornets nest" at Shiloh. We could never find them in the death counts.

Later we found out they switched sides right before Shiloh and were in a Union regiment until the end. My brother found a letter from another person in the regiment who had been conscripted by the Confederates and then switched to the Union as well. His lofty reasons: better pay, better clothes, better weapons, more and better food, tobacco rations, and boots.

History is a little more complicated than a statue or a bumper sticker can represent.

So, your kin were traitors to their states and the Confederacy.

 

[1972 Grad]

So, your kin were traitors to their states and the Confederacy.

Every single Confederate soldier and anyone who sympathized with their cause owned and beat their slaves and hung the uppity ones. They even used the N word. I hope they are all dead.

 

[VolunteerHillbilly]

Participation trophies are, in general, a bad idea.

I have two ancestors who were in a Confederate unit totally wiped out in "the hornets nest" at Shiloh. We could never find them in the death counts.

Later we found out they switched sides right before Shiloh and were in a Union regiment until the end. My brother found a letter from another person in the regiment who had been conscripted by the Confederates and then switched to the Union as well. His lofty reasons: better pay, better clothes, better weapons, more and better food, tobacco rations, and boots.

History is a little more complicated than a statue or a bumper sticker can represent.

My 3G grandad was in the Panola Cavalry. Served under Van Dorn until he was shot by a jealous husband and later served under Forest, who is responsible for every member of my family being alive because he kept his men in Murfreesboro instead of sending them to be foot cavalry in Hood's folly at Nashville.

 

[theFallGuy]

Still waiting for that Lenin statue in Seattle to come down.