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-C June 23, 2015
-R Absolute mad man and stunning fellow
-A By Becca Andrews Mother Jones
-A N/A
-P To persuade, I mean who would want to face this man, let alone try to take his statue down, he would turn you into a statue!

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-C june 1, 2017
-R Talks about impracticalities of removing statues and how most don't support it
-A Sophia A Nelson NBC News
-A I did find none
-P Persuade as it is an opinion article and calls for important actions

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"A great nation does not hide its history, it faces its flaws and corrects them."-President George W. Bush, Opening of the NMAAHC, September 24, 2016

A great Nation does not hide its history. Let that sink in for a moment.

Truer words were never spoken than those offered at the grand opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture last September, by the man who signed the legislation authorizing the Museum, George W. Bush.

Remembering is powerful. Remembering, forces us to become wiser.

We think of the words Never Forget and we instantly remember 9-11 or the Holocaust. We connect because we remember. We look. We learn. We discover. And hopefully, with a little faith, self-discovery and humility we grow into better, more loving human beings.

We do not learn when we run from our wrongs. We learn when we face them.

This is why I, as a black woman, who is a direct lineal descendant of African slaves in my maternal family tree (my grandmother "Viney" was brought to America in the hull of a slave ship in the early 1800s, around 1803 we believe from Africa and was sold to the Henry plantation in Georgia), am opposed to the removal of Confederate statues in the south whether it be here in Richmond, Virginia or deeper south in Alabama.

Although I agree with the powerful words and sentiments expressed by Mayor Landrieu of New Orleans last week about why he thinks Confederate statutes and symbols should come down, I do not think it reflects the great first amendment freedoms America was founded upon.

Let me be clear: I felt very differently about the Confederate flag because it was a waving symbol of hate, rebellion and division flying over modern day state capitols throughout the south. However, I am not opposed to people wearing the confederate flag on their hats or flying it in their yards. That's called "free expression" and in America it is sacrosanct.

Just as we cannot tell people not to buy Nazi paraphernalia or collect it in their homes (no matter how abhorrent we may find it), we likewise cannot tell people they are not allowed to honor family members who fought for the confederacy or that their forbears could not raise monuments to southern heroes like Robert E. Lee or Stonewall Jackson-both of whom were decorated and beloved West Point graduates and union officers before the south seceded from the union in rebellion.

In July 2015 when former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, now UN Ambassador Haley, ordered confederate flags down after the horrific shootings of nine black church members in the historic AME church in downtown Charleston, she was 100% correct.

The symbol was used by Dylan Roof to stoke his murderous rage one night after a Bible study where he killed nine God-fearing black church members. After that incident, the public sentiment shifted and the flag had to come down. More powerfully, South Carolinians taught us all a profound lesson of love, compassion and reconciliation as tens of thousands of them marched together on the famed Arthur J. Ravenel Bridge.
Related: Opinion: Racial Hate Is Infecting College Kids in America
But here is my point: In America, we pride ourselves on free thought. Free expression. Freedom to worship as we believe. Freedom to speak our minds without terrorizing or harassing others (hate speech is not free speech as defined by the US Supreme Court). Freedom to associate with groups and have ideas that may differ from each other, even if they are the "wrong" ideas.

At the end of the day, I don't want statutes of Robert E. Lee to come down.

I attended Washington & Lee University in Lexington Virginia as a first-year law student. It was an experience I will never forget. We had racial threats made against us as the largest black class of law students in the schools storied history, (which I wrote about in a 1998 Washington Post article entitled, "A Black Law Students First Trials"). But our white classmates were as outraged as us, and the Dean reacted swiftly and firmly to handle the perpetrators. We endured.

I don't fear 150-year-old statues of old dead white men. What I fear is the hatred we see in real time in 2017 on social media and in our political rhetoric.

The people who hated having black classmates at their school didn't hate us because there were statues of Robert E. Lee or George Washington (our nation's first President and a slave owner) on campus. It wasn't because of a Gen. Stonewall Jackson monument VMI or downtown.

They didn't like having black classmates because they had racist hearts. They honored racial prejudice. They harbored cultural bias. That, my friends, is what we must work toward eradicating.

And we won't do it by hiding from our racist, slave owning, segregated past. If we start taking statues down, well, we better go for old Thomas Jefferson (master of a slave who was his mistress and mother of at least four of his children). And let's not forget President Trump's favorite president, Old Hickory-Andrew Jackson. Another slave-holding Indian-killing president of our nation. Get my point?

We do not learn when we run from our wrongs. We learn when we face them.

Keep the statues where they are so that people can explain history to their kids. Keep them so that we can have a constructive dialogue at places like Montpelier (the home of President James Madison, who is considered the father of the Constitution).

Montpelier has a series called The Mere Distinction of Colour, a provocative new exhibition examining the institution of slavery and its legacy. Mount Vernon has done something similar with its new slave exhibit as of last year. Monticello announced earlier this year a new wing about Sally Hemings and of course, the new National Museum of African American History and Culture (which was the victim of yet another hateful racial act yesterday) is the place that every American family should go and take their kids, and their grandkids. And teach them, so that they do not repeat our mistakes.
Related: Is Removing Confederate Monuments Like Erasing History?
America is different because we value freedom. Freedom of thought. Of Speech. Of Heritage. Of celebration.

I don't fear 150-year-old statues of old dead white men. What I fear is the hatred we are seeing in real time in 2017 on social media, on our college campuses, in our workplaces and in our political rhetoric (i.e.: Kathy Griffin).

America is advanced citizenship. You have to want it, work at it, and trust that it ultimately works for us all.
Sophia A. Nelson is an NBCBLK Contributor and author of the new book, "E Pluribus One: Reclaiming our Founders Vision for a United America." Follow NBCBLK on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

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Opinion: Confederate monuments should stay and here's why

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I don't fear 150-year-old statues of old dead white men. What I fear is the hatred we see in real time in 2017 on social media and in our political rhetoric.

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-C May 11, 2017
-R In this video it says that statues are being taken down by orders of political officials, as it was a 6 to 1 vote to remove the four states. However if you look at the poll over there, it shares that most people disagree.
-A New York times
-A not any in this video
-P To inform as there is nothing directly trying to adhere to one side

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Video

Crews removed the statue of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, around 3 a.m. and under a heavy police presence. Credit Credit... Jonathan Bachman/Reuters

Workers in New Orleans in the early hours of Thursday took down a statue of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. It was the second of four such statues or monuments targeted for removal as city officials seek to erase the vestiges of an era that celebrated white supremacy and racism.

Crews, wearing masks to cover their faces, worked under a heavy police presence starting at 3 a.m. to dismantle the statue, which was erected in 1911, nearly 50 years after the end of the war, and commissioned by the Jefferson Davis Memorial Association.

It was removed from its pedestal by crane and loaded onto a trailer to be crated and stored at an undisclosed city warehouse, Tyronne B. Walker, a city spokesman, said in an email on Thursday.

"The city is in the process of determining a more appropriate place to display the statues post-removal, such as a museum or other site, where they can be placed in their proper historical context from a dark period of American history," he wrote.

He said the law enforcement officials took extra precautions because of "consistent threats, harassment and intimidation tactics" surrounding the removal.

Some protesters carrying Confederate flags shouted "cowards" and "totalitarianism" as it was removed, The Times-Picayune reported.

Removing the remaining statues requires the use of a heavy crane, and the mayor had told The Times-Picayune that every crane company in the region had received threats.

Other works expected to be removed are a bronze statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee that has stood in a traffic circle, named Lee Circle, in the city's central business district since 1884, and an equestrian statue of P.G.T. Beauregard, a Confederate general. Because of the threat of violence, the city would not release details on the timeline for when the remaining two statues would be removed.

Image

Protesters gathered as the statue was removed. Credit... Jonathan Bachman/Reuters

Workers last month dismantled an obelisk that was erected in 1891 to honor members of the Crescent City White League who in 1874 fought in the Reconstruction-era Battle of Liberty Place against the racially integrated New Orleans police and state militia.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu said in a statement on Thursday: "These monuments have stood not as historic or educational markers of our legacy of slavery and segregation, but in celebration of it. I believe we must remember all of our history, but we need not revere it. To literally put the Confederacy on a pedestal in some of our most prominent public places is not only an inaccurate reflection of our past, it is an affront to our present, and a bad prescription for our future."

No final decision has been made about what will replace the Confederate monuments, Mr. Walker wrote.

The debate over Confederate symbols has taken center stage since nine people were killed at a black church in South Carolina in June 2015. South Carolina removed the Confederate battle flag, which flew at its State House for more than 50 years, and other Southern cities have considered taking down monuments.

In December 2015, the City Council voted 6 to 1 to remove the statues. In January 2016, a federal judge dismissed an attempt by preservation groups and a chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans to keep them.

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Jefferson Davis Statue in New Orleans Is Removed

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Workers in New Orleans in the early hours of Thursday took down a statue of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. It was the second of four such statues or monuments targeted for removal as city officials seek to erase the vestiges of an era that celebrated white supremacy and racism.

# data[].attributes.body
-C Oct 12, 2015
-R Poll was conducted to see if citizens wanted statues removed, about 2/3 Were against it
-A The advocate conducted the poll
-A Nope
-P Inform, it shows that the majority agrees that civil war statues shouldn't be taken down

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-C June 19, 2019
-R The article refers to those of the the far left of the political spectrum have attacked a statue and vandalized it
-A Published by Fox News, by Lucia I. Suarez Sang
-A No spelling errors
-P I believe it is to persuade, as it is toned towards smearing the protesters as mean vandals.

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A Confederate monument commemorating more than 500 Tennessee soldiers who fought during the Civil War was vandalized overnight Sunday with red paint spelling "They were racists" in large letters atop the soldiers' engraved names.

Metro Police Capt. Chris Taylor told local reporters it was not the first time the statue - erected in 1909 in Nashville's Centennial Park - had been vandalized.

He said, however, it was the first time in about seven years and the political nature of the tagging was a marked changed from previous incidents.

"There is video that takes place in Centennial Park. We will review that," Taylor said, according to the Tennessean. "The parks do experience vandalism, usually it's tagging, more of a neutral nature. This is more focused, obviously with a political statement associated."
NORTH CAROLINA CITY REMOVES CONFEDERATE STATUE FROM COURTHOUSE GROUNDS

Red liquid was also used to douse the base of the statue.

The monument is one of two Confederate statues on public land in Davidson County. There are more than 70 across the state of Tennessee.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Critics argue many Confederate statues were built decades after the Civil War to promote white supremacy. Supporters counter the monuments are simply memorials to ancestors who fought and died protecting their homes.

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Confederate monument in Tennessee vandalized: 'They were racists'

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A Confederate monument commemorating more than 500 Tennessee soldiers who fought during the Civil War was vandalized overnight Sunday with red paint spelling "They were racists" in large letters atop the soldiers' engraved names. Metro Police Capt. Chris Taylor told local reporters it was not the first time the statue - erected in 1909 in Nashville's Centennial Park - had been vandalized.

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-C June 19 2019
-R Part of a Fox new article condemning vandals for damaging this memorial statue
-A Fox News
-A The vandals had a horrible font
-P To persuade against vandals

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-C 2010's
-R Statue
-A N/A
-A N/A
-P N/A

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-C August 10, 2019
-R Statue of Robert E, Lee Confederate general
-A The washington post / Mark Wilson Getty images
-A N/A
-P to entertain as it it a simple picture of a statue

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-C December 10, 2019
-R The video is about the Extermly important actions of Robert E Lee, namely the battle of Gettysburg
-A History.com
-A N/A
-P To inform, this is from a history website so they are sticking to facts, and are just trying to educate people on this topic.

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Robert E. Lee: Children & Civil War General - HISTORY

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Robert E. Lee was a Confederate general who led the South’s failed attempt at secession from the United States during the Civil War.

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-C August 10, 2019
-R Washington post saying this statue of Robert E Lee to be removed as it is ¨racist¨ and is the counter argument to my claim
-A Washington Post, By Paul Duggan
-A Possibly found one word missing space describing photos "counterprotesters"
-P To persuade, They say that everyone who is defending the statues are racist, far right neo nazis, but that is no where near the case.

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-C Posted October 29, 2009
Updated, December 10, 2019
-R Yes, It relates to Robert E, Lee whom is one of the most known Civil war generals and has the most statues of any confederate general from the war.
-A History.com A&E Television networks
-A No i did not find any spelling errors
-P It is to inform readers about Robert E, Lee and his actions

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Robert E. Lee: Children & Civil War General - HISTORY

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Robert E. Lee was a Confederate general who led the South’s failed attempt at secession from the United States during the Civil War.

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-C February 4 2020
-R Yes, Civil War the reason there are statues in the first place
-A  Warren W. Hassler and Jennifer L. Weber, Britannica.com

-A Spelling has no errors
-P It is to inform readers

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Prelude to war

The secession of the Southern states (in chronological order, South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina) in 1860-61 and the ensuing outbreak of armed hostilities were the culmination of decades of growing sectional friction over slavery. Between 1815 and 1861 the economy of the Northern states was rapidly modernizing and diversifying. Although agriculture-mostly smaller farms that relied on free labour-remained the dominant sector in the North, industrialization had taken root there. Moreover, Northerners had invested heavily in an expansive and varied transportation system that included canals, roads, steamboats, and railroads; in financial industries such as banking and insurance; and in a large communications network that featured inexpensive, widely available newspapers, magazines, and books, along with the telegraph.

By contrast, the Southern economy was based principally on large farms (plantations) that produced commercial crops such as cotton and that relied on slaves as the main labour force. Rather than invest in factories or railroads as Northerners had done, Southerners invested their money in slaves-even more than in land; by 1860, 84 percent of the capital invested in manufacturing was invested in the free (nonslaveholding) states. Yet, to Southerners, as late as 1860, this appeared to be a sound business decision. The price of cotton, the South's defining crop, had skyrocketed in the 1850s, and the value of slaves-who were, after all, property-rose commensurately. By 1860 the per capita wealth of Southern whites was twice that of Northerners, and three-fifths of the wealthiest individuals in the country were Southerners.

The extension of slavery into new territories and states had been an issue as far back as the Northwest Ordinance of 1784. When the slave territory of Missouri sought statehood in 1818, Congress debated for two years before arriving upon the Missouri Compromise of 1820. This was the first of a series of political deals that resulted from arguments between pro-slavery and antislavery forces over the expansion of the "peculiar institution," as it was known, into the West. The end of the Mexican-American War in 1848 and the roughly 500,000 square miles (1.3 million square km) of new territory that the United States gained as a result of it added a new sense of urgency to the dispute. More and more Northerners, driven by a sense of morality or an interest in protecting free labour, came to believe, in the 1850s, that bondage needed to be eradicated. White Southerners feared that limiting the expansion of slavery would consign the institution to certain death. Over the course of the decade, the two sides became increasingly polarized and politicians less able to contain the dispute through compromise. When Abraham Lincoln, the candidate of the explicitly antislavery Republican Party, won the 1860 presidential election, seven Southern states (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas) carried out their threat and seceded, organizing as the Confederate States of America.

In the early morning hours of April 12, 1861, rebels opened fire on Fort Sumter, at the entrance to the harbour of Charleston, South Carolina. Curiously, this first encounter of what would be the bloodiest war in the history of the United States claimed no victims. After a 34-hour bombardment, Maj. Robert Anderson surrendered his command of about 85 soldiers to some 5,500 besieging Confederate troops under P.G.T. Beauregard. Within weeks, four more Southern states (Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina) left the Union to join the Confederacy.

With war upon the land, President Lincoln called for 75,000 militiamen to serve for three months. He proclaimed a naval blockade of the Confederate states, although he insisted that they did not legally constitute a sovereign country but were instead states in rebellion. He also directed the secretary of the treasury to advance $2 million to assist in the raising of troops, and he suspended the writ of habeas corpus, first along the East Coast and ultimately throughout the country. The Confederate government had previously authorized a call for 100,000 soldiers for at least six months' service, and this figure was soon increased to 400,000.
Jennifer L. Weber

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American Civil War | History, Summary, Dates, Causes, Map, Timeline, Battles, Significance, & Facts

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American Civil War, four-year war (1861-65) fought between the United States and 11 Southern states that seceded to form the Confederate States of America. It arose out of disputes over slavery and states' rights. When antislavery candidate Abraham Lincoln was elected president (1860), the Southern states seceded.