At the turn of the 20th century, Southern sympathizers started building monuments to Confederate leaders. Black newspaper editors saw these emblems clearly for what they stood for – a lost cause.
Demonstrators hold Confederate flags near the monument for Confederacy President Jefferson Davis on June 25, 2015, in Richmond, Va., after it was spray-painted with the phrase ‘Black Lives Matter.’
AP Photo/Steve Helber
The drive to remove Confederate monuments links those monuments to modern racism. An economic historian shows that the intent and effect of those monuments from inception was to perpetuate racism.
Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas, who fought for the Union army during the Civil War, stands in uniform for a photo.
Heritage Images/ Hulton Archive
A Southerner, Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas was a racist enslaver before the Civil War. But he fought for the Union because he prioritized his oath to defend the Constitution over state interests.
People pose next to a newly unveiled Fort Moore sign on May 11, 2023.
Cheney Orr/AFP via Getty Images
Texas’ most famous statesman, Sam Houston, was a slave owner who opposed the Confederacy. But white Texans tend to omit his dissent in current debates over removing Confederate markers.
The Mississippi state flag, with a representation of the Confederate battle flag, is raised one last time over the state Capitol building on July 1, 2020.
AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis
Public officials and individual citizens alike are more likely to oppose the presence of Confederate symbols when informed it may be bad for local business.
Protesters at the Richmond, Virginia monument to Confederate General Robert E. Lee on June 18, 2020.
Zach D Roberts/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Shannon M. Smith, College of Saint Benedict & Saint John's University
Protests of Confederate flags and monuments have grown since 2015, but resistance is not new. African Americans have been protesting against Confederate monuments since they were erected.
Richmond’s towering Robert E. Lee statue is transformed by protests following the killing of George Floyd. Is removal next?
John McDonnell/The Washington Post via Getty Images
On June 19, a court will decide whether Virginia must obey a 1890 deed that gave the state a plot of prime Richmond land as long as it would ‘faithfully guard’ the Robert E. Lee statue erected there.
Decorated with ornaments purchased, created and inherited for years, even generations, Christmas trees are a reflection of a family’s history and tastes.
John Morgan/flickr
Take a good look at those old Christmas ornaments before hanging them on the tree – you may find it’s time to retire some family keepsakes.
A damaged Confederate statue lies on a pallet in a warehouse in Durham, N.C. on Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017, after protesters yanked it off its pedestal in front of a government building.
AP Photo/Allen Breed
Where do old Confederate statues go when they die? The former Soviet bloc countries could teach the US something about dealing with monuments from a painful past.
Marx’s tombstone was vandalised with a hammer in February 2019.
Paasikivi via Wikimedia Commons
In scrutinizing statues honoring Confederate figures, journalists have overlooked military bases named after generals who fought to defend the slavery of black people.
Protesters toppled the ‘Silent Sam’ Confederate statue on Aug. 20 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Gerry Broome/AP
Anne C. Bailey, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Toppling statues devoted to Confederate soldiers may be a joyous moment for protesters who fight white supremacy, but after the statues fall, structural racism remains, a scholar on slavery argues.
‘Early Days.’ Detail of Frank Happersberger’s pioneer monument, San Francisco, California, 1894. Photo by Lisa Allen.
Cynthia Prescott
Many cities are removing their Confederate statues. But pioneer monuments represent a racist past, too. There are at least 200 of them, and their future is now being debated.
A Confederate statue lies on a pallet in a warehouse in Durham, North Carolina after protesters toppled and defaced it.
AP Photo/Allen Breed
A Fremantle monument to three white explorers was revised in 1994 to acknowledge the violence committed against Indigenous owners. As Australia struggles to reconcile its racist past, perhaps this monument shows a way forward.
A Confederate memorial to Jefferson Davis and Robert E Lee in Georgia.
EPA/Erik Lesser
The violence sparked by the removal of Confederate statues in the US shows the ideas that collect around historical monuments. Sometimes it’s better to remove them; yet they can be an important way of remembering trauma.