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Charlottesville’s Lee Statue Meets its End, in a 2,250-Degree Furnace

The divisive Confederate monument, the focus of the deadly “Unite the Right” rally, was melted down in secret and will become a new piece of public art.
Demonstrators hold Confederate flags near the monument for Confederacy President Jefferson Davis  in Richmond, Va., after it was spray-painted with the phrase "Black Lives Matter."

Confederate Monuments Caused Voting Decline In Black Areas

As Confederate monuments were erected, people turned out to vote in lower numbers in predominantly Black areas.
The statue of Confederate Gen. A.P. Hill was taken down Dec. 12. Hill’s remains beneath it are set to be relocated.

Richmond Takes Down Its Last Major City-Owned Confederate Memorial

Richmond's last major Confederate memorial on city property, a statue of Gen. A.P. Hill, was taken down Monday morning.
A statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, which was previously on display at the U.S. Capitol, now resides at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture in Richmond.

Richmond Tore Down its Statues — and Revealed a New Angle on History

After the 2020 removal of Confederate memorials, museums provide a place to confront the ugly past and find a way forward.
Monument to Confederate War Dead in Hollywood Cemetery

Hollywood Cemetery: The Treatment of Post-War Confederate Dead

While cemeteries are tributes to the dead, they are really about the living. They are about those who want to commemorate something.
Chart of when Confederate monuments and namings occurred, with peaks in the 1910s and the 1960s.

Whose Heritage? Public Symbols of the Confederacy

A Southern Poverty Law Center study identified over 1,500 publicly-displayed symbols of the Confederacy in the South and beyond.
The Virginia monument, an equestrian statue on a pedestal with solders at its base.

The Contested Origins of Gettysburg’s Virginia Monument

Jon Tracey discusses the history of the creation of the Gettysburg Virginia Monument and the true reason it was erected.
Last ride: A statue of Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson is trucked away from Charlottesville, Virginia, in July — and bound for a museum exhibition in Los Angeles in 2022.

The Hot Market for Toppled Confederate Statues

Artists, museums and other groups are vying to claim fallen monuments from the Jim Crow era — but for very different reasons.
John B. Castleman statue in Louisville, Kentucky, on the ground in a field, covered.

Nearly 100 Confederate Monuments Were Toppled Last Year. What Happened to Them?

A striking photo project reveals the maintenance yards, cemeteries, and shipping containers where many of the memorials to white supremacy ended up.
Removal of graffitied Stonewall Jackson statue

The Fate of Confederate Monuments Should Be Clear

We know why they were built and why they have to come down.
Cartoon depiction of a confederate statue, its hat falling off as it is lifted off a pedestal covered in graffiti about love and justice

After the Lost Cause

Why are politics so consumed with the past?
The Confederate statue, center, which was recently relocated from the Greensville County Courthouse, in its new location in the Emporia Cemetery in Virginia. (Julia Rendleman for The Washington Post)

The Confederacy’s Final Resting Place

Are cemeteries the right place to put Confederate statues and memorials being removed from court houses and town squares across the South?
Confederate Monument in Cemetery

Confederate Monuments in Cemeteries, Reminders That We Cannot All Rest In Peace

For people of color in particular, cemeteries can be a cruel reminders of trauma both past and present.
Robert E. Lee Monument in Richmond, Virginia.

Why Honor Them?

In the decades after the Civil War, Black Americans warned of the dangers of Confederate monuments.
Tuskegee history professor Frank Toland speaks to the gathered students at the base of the Confederate monument. (Photo by Jim Peppler; courtesy Alabama Department of Archives and History)

Black Protesters Have Been Rallying Against Confederate Statues for Generations

When Tuskegee student Sammy Younge, Jr., was murdered in 1966, his classmates focused their righteous anger on a local monument.
A black girl walking up to a building with a ghost-lit confederate monument in front of it.

The South’s Monuments Will Rise Again

The Confederate monuments did fall. But not permanently.
Gettysburg Battlefield, with monuments visible in the distance

We Need to Talk About Confederate Statues on U.S. Public Lands

At places like the Gettysburg battlefield and Arlington National Cemetery, there's a new, escalating conflict over monuments that honor the Lost Cause.

Confederate Statues Were Never Really About Preserving History

A series of graphs that help explain why at least 830 monuments were erected many decades after the end of the Civil War.
Robert E. Lee Memorial covered in graffiti and projections and surrounded by protesters.

The Racism of Confederate Monuments Extends to Voter Suppression

GOP-led state legislatures have not only prevented voters from exercising their rights as citizens, they have usurped local control to remove monuments legally.
Part of the pedestal of a monument, inscribed with the words "Bright angels come and guard our sleeping heroes."

The Even Uglier Truth Behind Athens Confederate Monument

It was intended to be a tool of political power, sending a message against Black voting and serving as a gathering point for the Ku Klux Klan.
A man adjusts a protest sign at the base of the Confederate memorial known as the “Lost Cause” in Decatur, Ga.
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Removing Lost Cause Monuments Is The First Step in Dismantling White Supremacy

African American activists have long coupled these efforts with fighting against racist laws and racial violence.
Protesters in front of a Confederate monument hold a banner that reads "Take the statue down."

Ole Miss’s Monument to White Supremacy

New evidence shows what the 30-foot-tall Confederate memorial was actually meant to commemorate.  
Statue of George Washington with an American flag tied to his face to cover his nose and mouth, like a covid mask or a gag.

Direct Action and the Rejection of Monumental History

As people have gathered across the country to oppose police violence, they have targeted statues, monuments, and buildings commemorating white supremacy.

Confederate Monuments Haunt American Democracy

Why Southerners protesting structural racism in the criminal justice system have turned time and again to the monuments in their communities.

There’s a New Way to Deal with Confederate Monuments

Officials in a number of towns and cities are putting up signs to explain the monuments' racist history.

Reflections on a Silent Soldier

After the television cameras went away, a North Carolina city debated the future of its toppled Confederate statue.
Damaged Confederate statue on pallet in warehouse.

A Confederate Statue Graveyard Could Help Bury The Old South

A proposal to follow the model several former Soviet States have pioneered, to deal with our own monuments to the Confederacy.
Robert E. Lee statue

Mistaken Ruling over Lee and Jackson Statues Extends Charlottesville Harm

The Lee and Jackson statues were erected not to mourn their deaths, but to glorify their character.

The Costs of the Confederacy

In the last decade, taxpayers have spent at least $40 million on Confederate monuments and groups that perpetuate racist ideology.
Historical marker in Memphis telling the history of Nathan Bedford Forrest

Naming the Enslaved, Reconciling the Past in Memphis

The roll call for the names of 74 African Americans sold into slavery by Nathan Bedford Forrest in Memphis was solemn.

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