Over the past few years, there have been countless protest concerning the continued celebration of Confederate statues. Around the country, there are 1,503 monuments that celebrate and glorify the people of the Confederacy and their actions. Of the 1,503, there are 8 in Statuary Hall in Congress. These statues celebrate the ‘lost cause’ that was the Confederacy. In 2015, after a neo-Nazi killed nine African-American people in a Charleston, South Caroline church. After this tragedy, the protests to remove Confederate monuments grew stronger. Ever since Donald Trump has begun president, he has belittled this movement saying, “the history and culture of our great country [is] being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments”. With the growth of the movement to remove these monuments, there has also been a movement to erect statues that celebrate the fight against racism and prejudice.
If any other president were in office, more monuments celebrating civil rights activists and other social heroes would have already been commissioned; but Donald Trump’s sympathy for white supremacists and racists has delayed this process for years. There are incredible people who deserve to be recognized for their significance in the civil rights movement. Some people who deserve monuments include The United States Colored Troops, Emmett Till, and Nat Turner. Although all the examples were at different times in American history, they all play a massive role in the journey toward equality in the United States.
Article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/22/confederate-statues-monuments-sidney-blumenthal