As protests over police brutality and racial injustice continue across America, symbols of white supremacy are disappearing. Memorials to confederate soldiers are being torn down by protesters or being removed by officials.
A landmark in Virginia’s state capital of Richmond for more than 100 years is the statue of General Robert E Lee, is one of 110 confederate monuments in the state.
But it’s been transformed into a new kind of icon. The city of Richmond was the capital of the confederacy – a flashpoint for the battle between the slave-owning southern US states and the rest of the country. Now it’s a flashpoint for the battle over how America remembers its history.
“We here simply because we believe inequality. We believe that no one race or person is superior to the other and everybody should be treated equally,” says a protester.
“Our ancestors started it and we have to finish it. For us Americans this where it first started. Especially Richmond. It started here and it has to finish here,” adds another protester.
Some protesters have set up camp saying they’ll stay until the statue comes down. The state governor has ordered its removal but a judge blocked that with an injunction.
Jeffrey Peters is offended by it – and the image of white supremacy he believes it embodies. His mentally-ill nephew, Marcus-David Peters, was killed by police officers when he was unarmed.
“This statue is the reason why my nephew was killed. A defensive (sic), unarmed man. Back in slavery that’s what they did, they killed the defensive (sic) unarmed people and it’s still going on today. So this has to come down so we can move forward”, says Jeffrey Peters.
Symbols of white supremacy
But there are those who say removing objects won’t help.
John Daniel Davidson, political editor The Federalist “I think you need to be sensitive to people’s feelings about this but at the end of the day we can’t let this be a discussion ruled by individual emotions. “We can’t litigate all of that by pulling down statues and renaming buildings you get on this treadmill and there’s no getting off because what’s offensive yesterday will not be offensive today and in 5 or 10 years from now we’ll have to rename it again. It’s lose, lose and I don’t think it will actually change anything or improve anything by tearing down statues and renaming buildings.”
But some protesters believe it will. They say they’ll no longer tolerate what they see as, grand symbols of white supremacy, that tower over their city and their country.
More than 150 years since America went to war with itself it seems to be doing it again. Wounds that never truly healed have been reopened.
America is still grappling with its short history and how that history should be told.
In the video below are calls for confederate monuments to be removed:
