Workers were scheduled to begin removing a towering Confederate monument from Arlington National Cemetery this week, moving one of the nation’s most prominent Confederate monuments on public land.
The monument’s removal, which has been criticized for its antiseptic depiction of slavery from the nation’s most famous cemetery, is part of a military-wide effort to remove Confederate symbols from bases, ships and other facilities. It is. Dozens of Republican lawmakers opposed the monument’s removal.
A cemetery spokesperson said safety fencing was installed around the monument over the weekend and the towering statue is expected to be removed by the end of this week, making it the first monument of its kind to be removed in 2020. This will be the last time since the public backlash against Confederate statues after the war. The murder of George Floyd.
The movement helped push Congress to establish a naming commission in 2021. The commission was created to develop a plan to remove statues and monuments commemorating Confederates from the military.
The Department of Defense has ordered that Confederate monuments at Arlington National Cemetery be removed by January 1, 2024.
A cemetery spokeswoman said it will remain in storage until its fate is determined.
over 40 Republican members of Congress signed the letter Last week, they asked Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to halt the removal. They say the monument, funded by the Daughters of the Confederacy and erected in 1914, does not commemorate the Confederacy, but rather “reconciliation and national unity” between North and South. he claimed.
They said the monument was commissioned by the government to honor “the nation’s common reconciliation from its troubled divisions” and complements previous efforts to move Confederate remains to national cemeteries. writing.
But for others, including members, naming committeethe intricate images and inscriptions engraved in bronze depict the Confederate rebellion as a noble defense of Southern values and fetishize the story of the Lost Cause, a myth that depicts slavery as benign. Masu.
The monument features representative women of the American South standing on a 32-foot-tall pedestal. According to the cemetery. Near the base are dozens of life-sized Confederate soldiers, mythical gods, and two enslaved African Americans.
According to the cemetery’s description, one was a “mother” holding a Confederate officer’s child, and the other was a man who “followed his owner to war.”
“This is the clearest example of a Lost Cause statement in a public space in the form of a monument,” said Kevin M., a Civil War historian who frequently gives tours of cemeteries. Levin said. “Most Confederate monuments are large equestrian monuments honoring a specific person.”
“I think what the Daughters of the Confederacy wanted to see in Arlington was an unapologetic defense of the Confederacy,” she said, referring to the Southern Women’s Organization that raised money for the monument. added.
Since 2020, hundreds of Confederate monuments have been renamed or removed from state and city lands. One such monument, a statue of Robert E. Lee on a horse, was removed two years ago in Charlottesville, Virginia.
This year, it was melted down to be reused as public art.
Jalane Schmidt Professor at University of Virginia The person who led the movement to melt the statue said the argument for removing Arlington’s Confederate monuments is like any other.
Monuments on public land “need to tell a story that is inclusive of all people and consistent with our democratic values,” she says.
The cemetery will continue to feature Confederate monuments, including the graves of hundreds of fallen soldiers and the Tomb of the Civil War Unknown, which is believed to contain the remains of both North and South combatants. be.