When activists decided Confederate statues should be taken down, some cities responded.
The city of Richmond, Virginia established a commission to look at whether to remove the statues. In June, the African-American mayor decided they should stay, with added “historical context.”
The Associated Press reported:
“The towering Confederate monuments in Virginia’s capital city shouldn’t be taken down, but instead should be supplemented with historical context about why they were built, Richmond’s mayor said Thursday.
‘Whether we like it or not, they are part of our history of this city, and removal would never wash away that stain,’ Mayor Levar Stoney said.”
Now, things are changing.
Now, the Richmond mayor wants to look at taking them down.
“‘Effective immediately, the Monument Avenue Commission will include an examination of the removal and/or relocation of some or all of the Confederate statues,’ Stoney said in a statement issued Wednesday night.
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Stoney formed the 10-person commission, composed of academics, historians and community leaders, in June and charged it with ‘adding context’ to the Confederate statues lining Monument Avenue, a position he defended in his public comments earlier this week.”
When President Trump weighed in on the controversy, he said it was “sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart.”
Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments. You…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017
…can’t change history, but you can learn from it. Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson – who’s next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish! Also…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017
…the beauty that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks will be greatly missed and never able to be comparably replaced!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017
The Democrat-leaning NPR/Marist poll of U.S. opinions says most Americans agree with Trump.
Sixty-two percent of Americans say that Confederate statues should remain as a historical symbol.
Here are the key results:
The PDF document of survey results is here.
Do you agree that the monuments should remain as a historical symbol?
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