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The political news cycle is fast, and keeping up can be overwhelming. Trying to find differing perspectives worth your time is even harder. That's why we have scoured the internet for political writing from the right and left that you might not have seen. Has this series exposed you to new ideas? Tell us how. Email us at ourpicks@nytimes.com.

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A statue honoring Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Va. Credit... Matt Eich for The New York Times

* Gracy Olmstead in The Federalist:
"We should also consider which parts of our history we are most proud of, and most eager to uphold. Conservatives believe in preserving and carrying on the best of the past - not its worst."
If the events of the past week prove anything to Ms. Olmstead, "it's that these memorials are splitting us further and further apart." She urges her readers - even those who do not want to see these statues taken down - to "seek to understand and sympathize" with those who support their removal. At the very least, she writes, "we can mitigate their toxic effect" by adding context or erecting new memorials. Read more "

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* Ben Shapiro in The Daily Wire:
"Everyone is trying to use the issue of Confederate monument removal as a club to wield against political opposition, and as a broadening mechanism for their own movements."
For Mr. Shapiro, the issue at hand has nothing to do with Confederate monuments. The reason we're really "talking about statues," he writes, is that they serve as a proxy argument for larger, political fights. The "truth" is that "Confederate statue removal is a local issue, not a national one." Read more "

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* Rod Dreher in The American Conservative:
"He fought for the wrong side and deserved to lose. But notice that after he lost, he called on all defeated Southerners to cease hostilities and to commit themselves to the service of the United States. [...] It mattered that he did not urge bitter resistance, but rather nobly counseled patriotism."
After New Orleans decided to take down its statue of Robert E. Lee in May, Mr. Dreher wrote a response to the controversy. He said he is "not losing sleep" over the removal of other Confederate leaders, but he's troubled by the move to take down a memorial to Lee, a "far more complex man" than many people realize. Read more "

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* Jonathan S. Tobin in The New York Post:
"A generation ago, nobody would have thought Washington or Jefferson controversial. Now it appears that even Mount Rushmore isn't safe, since among its quartet of greats, only Lincoln might be exempt from the iconoclasts."

Mr. Tobin believes the slippery slope reasoning of the president and others is not merely hypothetical - the logical result of the left's attempt to take down offensive statues has already been borne out in real life. He cites as his example an attempt to take down a famous statue of Theodore Roosevelt in front of New York's Natural History Museum. Read more "

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The empty pedestal of a statue that was pulled down by protesters in Durham, N.C., on Monday. Credit... Madeline Gray for The New York Times

* Gersh Kuntzman in The New York Daily News:
"Ever wonder why there are no statues of Adolf Hitler in Berlin?"
Mr. Kuntzman argues that Americans should treat their Confederate history the same way that Germany treats its Nazi past. He points out that "monuments are never about history itself" but rather about "what the people putting up the monument think about history." Read more "

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* Tyler Zimmer in Jacobin:
"The Confederate flag lionizes both racists and class traitors - indeed the two are inseparable."
According to Mr. Zimmer, the symbols of the Confederacy are not just about white supremacy, but also, inextricably, about class. Confederate flags and monuments, he writes, signify a "campaign by elites to hoodwink poor whites into throwing their lives away to protect ruling class wealth and privilege." Read more "

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* Adam Serwer in The Atlantic:
"To describe this man as an American hero requires ignoring the immense suffering for which he was personally responsible, both on and off the battlefield."

Mr. Serwer takes on the "myth of the kindly General Lee," arguing that this was a man "whose devotion to white supremacy outshone his loyalty to his country." There's no way, he writes, that one can defend Lee in "good conscience" unless one puts "tribe and race over country." Read more "

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Workers in Baltimore removed a Confederate statue early on Wednesday. Credit... Jerry Jackson/The Baltimore Sun, via Associated Press

* Eric Boehm in Reason:
"Baltimore offers a primer on the nonsensical slippery slope argument offered by defenders of the Confederate monuments."
At his news conference, Mr. Trump posed a rhetorical question to the assembled reporters, "Where does it stop?" Mr. Boehm responds by citing the example of the Baltimore City Council, which just this week unanimously passed a resolution to remove the city's Confederate monuments. Writing in the libertarian publication, Reason, Mr. Boehm puts it simply: "It stops....where it stops." Read more "

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* Ilya Somin in The Washington Post:
"The vast majority of monuments to Confederate leaders were erected to honor their service to the Confederacy, whose main reason for existing was to protect and extend slavery."
There are historical figures that pose a greater moral dilemma than that of Robert E. Lee, posits Mr. Somin. Woodrow Wilson poses one such example. However, he argues, "giving undeserved honor to the evil is at least as grave an error as denying proper recognition to those who merit it." Read more "

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* James M. McPherson in The New York Review of Books:
"The theme of liberty, not slavery, as the cause for which the South fought became a mantra in the writings of old Confederates and has been taken up by neo-Confederates in our own time."

In a 2001 article, Mr. McPherson traces the ways in which Confederate history has been rewritten to excise slavery as the animating issue at the heart of the Civil War and replace it with a "Lost Cause" theory of the conflict. The Lost Cause myth posits that "slavery was merely an incident," and the conflict was in fact all about "a difference of opinion about the Constitution." Read more "

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* Robert E. Lee in 1869 in The Republican Vindicator, via PBS:
"I think it wiser, moreover, not to keep open the sores of war but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife, to commit to oblivion the feelings engendered."
How did Lee feel about Confederate statues? Perhaps it's best to refer to his own writing on the matter. Here, in a letter declining an invitation to attend an event memorializing the battle at Gettysburg, he writes about the importance of moving on. Read more "

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* The New York Times in 1865:
"So long as the South has an admiration for the rebellion, so long will the South be rebel at heart. [...] True patriotic devotion should redeem any portion of the Republic from reproach. It should bury forever every memorial calculated to perpetuate dishonor and disparagement."
On Aug. 16, 1865, 152 years before the most recent debate over memorializing Confederate statues, writers for The Times published this article, advocating the preservation of the "memorials of rebel cruelty." Read more "

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Right and Left on Removal of Confederate Statues (Published 2017)

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The political news cycle is fast, and keeping up can be overwhelming. Trying to find differing perspectives worth your time is even harder. That's why we have scoured the internet for political writing from the right and left that you might not have seen. Has this series exposed you to new ideas?

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The monument has been a divisive symbol on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Its toppling was cheered by protesters who called it a tribute to white supremacy. Published On Credit Credit Image by Julia Wall/The News & Observer, via Associated Press

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Protesters toppled "Silent Sam," the towering Confederate monument at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, on Monday night, swiftly intensifying a debate over a divisive symbol at a renowned public institution.

The guerrilla demolition of the statue on the night before fall classes began, in apparent defiance of North Carolina law, provoked a crush of official outrage that may reverberate for months in Chapel Hill and in Raleigh, the state capital.

But the mood on campus on Monday night and Tuesday was celebratory. Critics of the monument, who condemned the 105-year-old display as an enduring tribute to white supremacy, hailed the potentially permanent demise of a statue that had been reviled for decades.

"It was all smiles and joy and dancing and jubilation, to be honest," said Jasmin Howard, a 28-year-old alumna who was standing in the back of the crowd when the statue fell. "It was really a joyous moment."

Protesters tried to bury the fallen statue's head in the North Carolina dirt. But university officials, who had signaled misgivings about the monument's continued presence on their campus while seeming to do little about it, soon secured and removed the effigy of a Confederate sentinel from the area where it had long stood.

By midday Tuesday, university leaders were sharply criticizing the toppling of Silent Sam, echoed intensely by the Republican lawmakers who control the state legislature.

Carol L. Folt, the university chancellor, acknowledged in an open letter on Tuesday that the statue "has been divisive for years, and its presence has been a source of frustration for many people not only on our campus but throughout the community." Still, the chancellor called Monday night's events "unlawful and dangerous."

The president of the statewide University of North Carolina system, as well as the chairman of its board of governors, took a similarly hard line in their own statement on Tuesday, calling the vandalism of the monument "unacceptable, dangerous, and incomprehensible" and adding that "mob rule and the intentional destruction of public property will not be tolerated." They said the campus police were gathering evidence to "inform a full criminal investigation."

The state's legislature elects the system's board of governors, which in turn names the president. Legislative leaders spent Tuesday angrily denouncing the events of the night before.

Still, while administrators and elected officials were beginning to navigate the political and legal fallout from the toppling of the statue, people in Chapel Hill seemed generally pleased it was gone.

Michelle McQueen, 56, a black woman who earned a degree from the university in the 1980s, posed for a selfie on Tuesday with Evan Dunn, a white senior, as she walked toward the spot where Silent Sam had stood less than 24 hours earlier.

"This is a day that I celebrate unity," Ms. McQueen said. "I hate that it happened this way. I would have loved to see the courage of the university. This university has always had a courage for liberty and for change."

Zach Kosnitzky, 21, saw Monday's events as "a classic case of mob rule," even though "no one within the realm of acceptable discourse at U.N.C. wants to keep Silent Sam standing, because it offends African-American students."

"We want to remember the past in a way that is useful, rather than destroy it altogether," said Mr. Kosnitzky, who has written for The Daily Tar Heel, the campus newspaper. "Ancient Sparta was a society built entirely on the blood and sweat of slaves. Nevertheless, we would consider it a crime to destroy some ancient Spartan artifact to display a commitment to social justice principles."

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Banners were used to cover the statue when people gathered during a rally on Monday. Credit Gerry Broome/Associated Press

Confederate monuments have been a source of friction for years in the modern South, but they have come under particular scrutiny since 2015, when a white supremacist murdered nine black churchgoers in Charleston, S.C. The following month, South Carolina lawmakers removed a Confederate battle flag that had been flying outside the State House in Columbia, and other symbols of the Confederacy have been removed or challenged in a host of towns and cities.

The dramatic demonstration on Monday night followed decades of controversy and protest at the university that had accelerated in the last year, after the fatal eruption of racist violence in Charlottesville, Va.

The university said last year that "removing the Confederate monument is in the best interest of the safety of our campus," but that a state law made it impossible to remove the statue on the university's own authority.

Under that 2015 law, which is similar in language and structure to laws in other states that shield Confederate-themed displays, a "monument, memorial or work of art owned by the state" may not be "removed, relocated or altered in any way" without the consent of a state historical commission.

University officials resisted calls, including one from Gov. Roy Cooper, for them to invoke a loophole in the law allowing "an object of remembrance" to be removed without the commission's approval if it is "a threat to public safety because of an unsafe or dangerous condition."

Nor did the university do much to pursue the formal process under the law for deciding the monument's fate.

Before the protest on Monday, a state panel was planning to meet on Wednesday to weigh the legal standing of private individuals who had sought the statue's removal. The historical commission said it had not received any requests for action from the university system or its board of governors.

It was not clear on Tuesday what the authorities would - or could - do now about Silent Sam. No details were released about the extent of damage to the effigy or whether there were plans to restore, relocate or dispose of it.

Before the statue was brought down, demonstrators, who gathered on Monday to oppose possible sanctions against a student who splashed red ink and blood on the monument in April, marched across the campus and sometimes exchanged verbal barbs with counterprotesters.

Eventually during the demonstration, protesters erected coverings around the monument, shielding some of the statue's critics while they worked to take it down.

Someone handed out bandannas with the words "Sam Must Fall" printed on them.

Eventually, he did.

In a statement released Tuesday evening, university leaders said that "at no time did the administration direct the officers to allow protesters to topple the monument." They also said, without elaboration, that the protest "included a number of people unaffiliated with the university" and that they would rely on "the full breadth of state and university processes to hold those responsible accountable for their actions."

The statue had been a part of campus life in Chapel Hill for over a century. The United Daughters of the Confederacy proposed the monument, which the university's board approved in June 1908.

At the time of the statue's unveiling in 1913, one speaker boasted that, just 100 yards away, he had "horsewhipped a Negro wench until her skirts hung in shreds" after his return from the Confederate surrender at Appomattox Court House, Va. He also declared that "the whole Southland is sanctified by the precious blood of the student Confederate soldier," and that although the Confederacy was defeated, "the cause for which they fought is not lost."

And the university president at the time of the statue's unveiling alluded to Gen. Robert E. Lee and hailed the monument as "an ornament to the campus."

But the protests of recent months had suggested that the statue might endure only so much longer.

Jan Werner, a research engineer at the university, said he worried about how the monument had come down, but was glad to see it go. Mr. Werner, a native of Poland, said he appreciated the historical value of the statue and suggested that its pedestal should remain.

"The base standing here could be a valuable history lesson," he said. "The lack of Silent Sam right now is part of that history."

Jesse James DeConto reported from Chapel Hill, N.C., and Alan Blinder from Atlanta. Andrew R. Chow, Gabe Cohn and Matt Stevens contributed reporting from New York.
Follow Alan Blinder on Twitter: @alanblinder.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: Critics of a Confederate Statue Decide to Take Matters Into Their Own Hands. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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'Silent Sam' Confederate Statue Is Toppled at University of North Carolina

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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Protesters toppled "Silent Sam," the towering Confederate monument at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, on Monday night, swiftly intensifying a debate over a divisive symbol at a renowned public institution.

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Chanting "No K.K.K., no fascist U.S.A.," the protesters slung a rope around the Confederate soldier's neck and pulled.

The crowd stepped back, out of the way, and the soldier came crashing to the ground in a heap of crumpled metal.

From Charlottesville, Va., to New Orleans, officials have removed or considered removing Confederate monuments, to sometimes-violent backlash. But in Durham, N.C., on Monday night, opponents of the relics took matters into their own hands.

Shortly after 7 p.m., the protesters - part of a group of more than 100 that included anti-fascists and members of organizations like the Democratic Socialists of America, the Workers World Party and the Industrial Workers of the World, according to The News & Observer of Raleigh - toppled a statue of a Confederate soldier that had stood in front of the old Durham County Courthouse for nearly a century above the inscription, "In memory of the boys who wore the gray."

The figure fell headfirst, still attached to a piece of its pedestal, and the crowd - men and women, black and white, mostly young - erupted in whoops and cheers. Some protesters ran over and began kicking the statue. Others took photos beside it.

The Durham Police Department said in a statement that it had made no arrests because the episode had occurred on county property, which is under the jurisdiction of the Durham County Sheriff's Office. Members of the sheriff's office filmed the protest as the statue came down, The News & Observer reported, but the office did not respond to a request for comment on Monday night, and it was not clear whether its officers had made any arrests.

Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, wrote on Twitter, "The racism and deadly violence in Charlottesville is unacceptable, but there is a better way to remove these monuments."

The do-it-yourself removal prompted strong reactions on social media, with many expressions of support but also at least one person who likened it to the Islamic State's destruction of historical artifacts.

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Protesters in Durham Topple a Confederate Monument

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Chanting "No K.K.K., no fascist U.S.A.," the protesters slung a rope around the Confederate soldier's neck and pulled. The crowd stepped back, out of the way, and the soldier came crashing to the ground in a heap of crumpled metal. From Charlottesville, Va., to New Orleans, officials have removed or considered removing Confederate monuments, to sometimes-violent backlash.

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Aug. 14 (UPI) -- Protesters in Durham, N.C., pulled down a Confederate monument outside of the county courthouse on Monday night.

Videos and photos of the protest posted to social media show the statute being pulled down from its perch with a yellow nylon rope as protesters cheer.

Once the monument crashes to the ground, several people spit on and kick it.

According to WNCN-TV, the statue is meant to honor "The Confederate States of America" and had stood in front of the courthouse since 1924.

"It needs to be removed," protest organizer Loan Tran said Monday. "These Confederate statues in Durham, in North Carolina, all across the country."

"When I see a Confederate statue in downtown Durham, or really anywhere, it fills me with a lot of rage and frustration," she added.

According to the Herald Sun, 100 protesters who participated in counterprotests against a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday gathered again in Durham to take down Confederate monuments.

In 2015, North Carolina passed a state law that prohibits the removal of any "object of remembrance" on public property that "commemorates an event, a person, or military service that is part of North Carolina's history."

Those suspected of violating the law can be charged with a Class 1 misdemeanor and face a fine of $500 and 24 hours of community service.

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Protesters tear down Confederate monument in Durham, N.C.

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Aug. 14 (UPI) -- Protesters in Durham, N.C., pulled down a Confederate monument outside of the county courthouse on Monday night. Videos and photos of the protest posted to social media show the statute being pulled down from its perch with a yellow nylon rope as protesters cheer.

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N.C. residents support keeping Confederate monuments in place

Full Report with Methodology & Cross Tabs
The latest survey by the Elon University Poll conducted Nov. 4-6, 2019, asked N.C. resident their opinions about whether Confederate statues and monuments should be removed from public property, as well as how they viewed other Confederate symbols and the legacy of slavery today.

NOVEMBER 20, 2019 - There is strong support among North Carolina residents to keep Confederate statues and monuments on public property, even as another monument at the center of a prolonged legal battle has come down, according to the results of a new survey by the Elon University Poll.

Early Wednesday morning, the Confederate statue in downtown Pittsboro in Chatham County was removed from its place in front of the county courthouse following recent court rulings and clashes between demonstrators. But a recent Elon University Poll survey has found that a solid majority of North Carolinians believe those symbols should remain.

The survey of nearly 1,500 North Carolina residents found that nearly two-thirds (65 percent) believe that Confederate monuments should remain on public, government-owned property such as parks, city squares and courthouses. The remaining 35 percent say the monuments should be removed.

"Our findings suggest that a compromise might have broad support in local communities grappling with controversies about Confederate monuments," said Jason Husser, director of the Elon University Poll and associate professor of political science. "While we found a substantial majority do not want the monuments removed from public property, we found an even larger majority who support efforts to add context through historical plaques."

The survey gauged support for other steps that could be taken regarding Confederate monuments, with 72 percent saying adding plaques that offer historical context to the monument was a good idea. Sixty-five percent said moving the monuments and statues to history museums was a good idea, 55 percent said it would be a good idea to move them to Confederate cemeteries or memorials, and 37 percent said it would be a good idea to replace them with monuments to honor Southerners who fought to end slavery.

Asked about the impact the removal of Confederate monuments would have on race relations, 35.5 percent said they believe taking the monuments down will "mostly hurt" race relations while 25 percent said it would "mostly help." The largest segment - 40 percent - said it "does not make much of a difference."

The survey also explored opinions about Confederate flags and symbols, and the level of knowledge about the Civil War.

The survey of 1,467 North Carolina residents was conducted Nov. 4-6, 2019, through an online opt-in sample marketplace. The survey had a credibility interval of +/- 2.8 percent. Different from a margin of error, the credibility interval is used to measure the accuracy of nonprobability surveys such as opt-in online surveys. A fuller explanation of the credibility interval and the survey methodology are available in the full report.

Removing statues, monuments

While two in three North Carolinians support keeping Confederate statues and monuments in place on public property, opinions vary greatly when race and political leanings are taken into account. Among white residents, 77 percent believe the monuments should remain in place, while only 27 percent of black residents hold that view. Republicans overwhelmingly support keeping Confederate statues and monuments on public property, with 91 percent holding that view, while just 36 percent of Democrats support keeping them where they are. Seventy-seven percent of independents want the statues and monuments to remain on public property.

"Perceptions of the past are powerful. We see clear evidence of this in factors that influence support for Confederate monuments remaining on public property," Husser said. "Those viewing the Civil War as more about slavery than states' rights and those seeing slavery as having a lasting legacy on African Americans are quite likely to favor removing the monuments."

Additionally, older residents - those over the age of 65 - are more likely to say monuments should remain on public property than younger residents. Women are more likely to say the monuments should remain (68 percent) than men (62 percent) and those with less than a college education are more likely to say they should remain on public property (68 percent) than those with a college degree (59 percent).

A person's opinions about the legacy of slavery and how different races are treated in modern society also seems to correlate with their view of what should have to Confederate monuments.

Ninety-two percent of those who believe Confederate symbols do not disturb African Americans today and 92 percent of those who believe the legacy of slavery does not have much of an effect on African Americans today say the monuments should remain on public, government-owned property. Similarly, 90 percent of those who believe whites and blacks are treated equally in today's society and 90 percent of those who believe whites are treated less fairly than blacks believe the statues and monuments should remain.

Confederate symbols and Civil War history

The survey also asked for opinions about a range of Confederate monuments and symbols. Residents were much more likely to say that Confederate monuments help people understand an important chapter in American history, and that they honor Confederate soldiers who passed away in the war. Opinions were less clear about whether the monuments glorify for what the Confederacy fought for, with 49 percent saying they agree with that, 29 percent saying they disagree, and 22 percent saying they neither agree nor disagree.

Residents were nearly evenly split on the cause of the Civil War, with 49 percent saying the war was mainly about states' rights, 44 percent saying the war was mainly about slavery, and 7 percent offering some other response.

Sixty-four percent responded that they sometimes or often see the Confederate flag on display around the state, with 32 percent saying they rarely see the flag and 4.5 percent saying they never see it. Residents are split on their reaction to seeing the Confederate flag, with 44 percent saying they have neither a positive nor negative reaction, 36 percent saying they have a negative reaction, and 20 percent saying they have a positive reaction.
There is a recognition that different races may respond to these symbols differently. Sixty-eight percent said they think Confederate symbols are disturbing to blacks today compared to 32 percent who said they don't hold that view.

Legacy of slavery

Nearly two out of three residents said that the legacy of slavery affects the position of blacks in American society "a fair amount" or "a great deal," while 22.5 percent said that legacy affects blacks "not much" and another 14 percent said "not at all."

Additionally, 51 percent said blacks are treated less fairly than whites, while 32 percent said blacks and whites are treated equally and 17 percent said whites are treated less fairly than blacks.

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Elon Poll - Confederate statues and monuments

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Full Report with Methodology & Cross Tabs The latest survey by the Elon University Poll conducted Nov. 4-6, 2019, asked N.C. resident their opinions about whether Confederate statues and monuments should be removed from public property, as well as how they viewed other Confederate symbols and the legacy of slavery today.

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"History is what the present chooses to remember about the past." ~ Carl Becker (AHA President, 1931)
You may have found this webpage thanks to National Geographic Channel's documentary series, "AMERICA INSIDE OUT WITH KATIE COURIC." The premiere episode, "Re-Righting History," discusses various perspectives and controversies in the wake of the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia last August. Historical context is essential for understanding the legacy of Confederate monuments and the contemporary debates over their place in public spaces. The American Historical Association is proud to provide a resource for our communities to engage in these conversations, and we will gladly provide any community with a list of historians qualified to contribute the relevant expertise. We hope you will read through this collection of resources to expand your knowledge of the issues raised in "Re-Righting History."

The American Historical Association is the nation's largest organization advocating for history education, the professional work of historians, and the critical role of historical thinking in public life. We welcome history advocates in all fields of work to join us. You can to learn more about the AHA.

AHA Statement on Confederate Monuments (August 2017)

In the wake of the Charlottesville tragedy, the AHA released a statement about the role of history and historians in these public conversations. Rather than seeking to provide definitive answers to the questions posed by individual monuments, the AHA emphasizes the imperative of understanding historical context in any consideration of removing or recontextualizing monuments, or renaming public spaces.

Resources on Confederate Monuments and History

On this page, you will find links to interviews, op-eds, and other writings that our members, fellow historical societies, AHA Council members, and staff have made about the importance of historical thinking and knowledge within the current debate. If you would like to find a historian who can speak to your community, please contact Jane Green for a referral.

AHA Teaching Resources

The Future of the African American Past Video Resources (August 2017)

AHA Council, Letter of Support for National Monument to Reconsruction (November 16, 2016)

James Grossman, " Whose Memory? Whose Monuments? History, Commemoration, and the Struggle for an Ethical Past," Perspectives on History (February 1, 2016)

Carol Anderson, " K-12 Educators Workshop: The Long Civil Rights Movement," AHA Annual Meeting (January 9, 2016)

Sarah Fenton, " AHA Plenary: "The Confederacy, Its Symbols, and the Politics of Public Culture," AHA Today (January 9, 2016)

Stephanie Kingsley, " Plotting Freedom: Data Mapping Leads to New Visions of Reconstruction," Perspectives on History (October 1, 2015)

Seth Denbo, " All History Is Local: Debating the Fate of a Confederate Soldier Statue in Maryland," AHA Today (July 27, 2015)

Ernie Price, " Footsteps to Freedom: Rethinking the Legacy of Appomattox," AHA Today (May 26, 2015)

James Grossman, " Historical Malpractice and the Writing of Textbooks," Perspectives on History (December 1, 2010)

AHA Council Op-Eds and Interviews

David Bell, " Is It Still Okay to Venerate George Washington and Thomas Jefferson?" Washington Post (August 17, 2017)

Kevin Boyle, " Charlottesville Violence Was the Result of Political Pressure Cooker, Experts Say," Boston Globe (August 13, 2017)

Kevin Boyle, " Donald Trump's response to Charlottesville - too little too late?," CBC (August 15, 2017)

Kevin Boyle, " Five books to shed light on America's problem with white supremacy," The Guardian (August 18, 2017)

Tyler Stovall, " Irena's Lamp," Perspectives on History (December 2017)

AHA Executive Director Interviews

Goldie Blumenstyk, " When White Supremacists Descend, What Can a College President Do?" Chronicle of Higher Education (August 12, 2017)

Jennifer Schuessler, " Historians Question Trump's Comments on Confederate Monuments," New York Times (August 15, 2017)

Michael Steele, " You Can't Erase History. What Has Happened Has Happened," Steele and Ungar Show (August 16, 2017)

Lucía Cohen, " La ignorante comparación que hace Trump de los generales sureños con Washington y Jefferson," Univision (August 16, 2017)

James Grossman, " Monuments Removed," CNN Newsroom (August 16, 2017)

Lindsey Bever, " Politicians Blamed 'Both Sides' during the Civil Rights Movement," Washington Post (August 16, 2017)

Kristine Phillips, " Historians: No, Mr. President, Washington and Jefferson Are Not the Same as Confederate Generals," Washington Post (August 16, 2017)

Judith Siers-Poisson, " Confederate Memorials Removed from Madison Cemetery," Wisconsin Public Radio (August 17, 2017)

Rhod Sharp, " Listen at 1:26:15," BBC Radio 5 Live (August 17, 2017)

Kellie Meyer, " Debate over Removing Confederate Statues on Capitol Hill," Gray TV (August 17, 2017)

James Grossman, " A Historian Explains Why Trump's Defense of Confederate Statues Doesn't Make Any Sense," ATTN: Video (August 17, 2017)

James Grossman, " Listen at 0:00:50," BBC World Service Radio Newsday (August 17, 2017)

Nova Safo, " Are Confederate Monuments Important Works of Art?" Agence France-Presse (August 18, 2017)

James Grossman, " The History of Confederate Statues," Radio National Breakfast - AuBC (August 18, 2017)

Jon Schuppe, " Toppling of Confederate Statues Fuels Opposition to Other Markers," NBC News (August 18, 2017)

Viviana Mazza, " E le statue sovietiche? Spostare I monumenti non cancella mai la Storia," Corriere della Sera (August 18, 2017)

"Interview with James Grossman," Medi1 Moroccan Radio (August 18, 2017)

Interview with Jim Grossman, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (August 18, 2017)

James Grossman, " Weekends with Alex Witt," Weekends with Alex Witt, MSNBC Live (August 19, 2017)

Kimberly Atkins, " James Grossman on Removal of Confederate Monuments," C-SPAN Washington Journal (August 20, 2017)

Miles Parks, " Confederate Statues Were Built to Further a 'White Supremacist Future'," NPR Politics (August 20, 2017)

AHA Member Op-Eds
* Indicates former Council member
Yoni Applebaum, " Take the Statues Down," The Atlantic (August 13, 2017)

Justin Behrend, " Steeped in Racism, Confederate Flag Evokes the Worst of Us," Livingston County News (August 17, 2017)

Günter Bischof, " Why Not a Confederate Theme Park?" New Orleans Advocate (August 20, 2015)

Adam Blackler, " White Supremacy on Campus: An Ahistorical Campaign of Racial Prejudice," The Society Pages (March 14, 2017)

*David Blight, "' The Civil War Lies on Us Like a Sleeping Dragon': America's Deadly Divide-and Why It Has Returned," The Guardian (August 20, 2017)

W. Fitzhugh Brundage, " I've Studied Confederate Memorials. Here's What to Do about Them," Vox.com (August 18, 2017)

Edward Carson, " Confederate Monuments and American Citizenship," Christian Century (March 22, 2016)

Jane Censer, " Historians: 'Defending History' is Complicated in the US," CNN Opinion (August 19, 2017)

Julian Chambliss, " Don't Call Them Memorials," Frieze.com (August 17, 2017)

Marcia Chatelain, " How Universities Embolden White Nationalists," Chronicle of Higher Education (August 17, 2017)

Christopher Church, " UNR History Professor's Letter to Students about Charlottesville," Reno Gazette-Journal (August 16, 2017)

Anthony Comegna, " Debasing Roger Taney," Libertarianism.org (August 21, 2017)

Nathan Connolly, " Charlottesville Showed That Liberalism Can't Defeat White Supremacy. Only Direct Action Can," Washington Post (August 15, 2017)

Jane Dailey, " Baltimore's Confederate Monument Was Never About 'History and Culture,'" Huffington Post (August 17, 2017)

Rebecca Davis, " Condemning Racism Is a Start, But We Have Work to Do in Delco," Delaware County Times (August 17, 2017)

Jerome de Groot, " Monuments to the Past," History Today (August 17, 2017)

Catherine Denial, " Wrestling with America's Past," Galesburg Register-Mail (August 20, 2017)

Chris Doyle, " So, Do We Pull Down George Washington's Statue?" Hartford Courant (August 17, 2017)

Laura Edwards, " Why Confederate Statues Fails to Represent Southern History," The Hill (August 23, 2017)

Jennifer Evans, " The Nazi Next Door-Make No Mistake, White Supremacists Live among Us," Ottawa Citizen (August 18, 2017)

*Eric Foner, " Confederate Statues and 'Our' History," New York Times (August 20, 2017)

Lesley Gordon, " Empty Pedestals: What Should Be Done with Civic Monuments to the Confederacy and Its Leaders?" Civil War Times (October 2017)

Adam Goodheart, " Regime Change in Charlottesville," Politico (August 16, 2017)

Annette Gordon-Reed, " Charlottesville: Why Jefferson Matters," New York Review of Books (August 19, 2017)

Sarah Handley-Cousins, " Falling Out of Love with the Civil War," Nursing Clio (August 21, 2017)

Jeffery Herf, " Lessons from German History after Charlottesville," History News Network (September 10, 2017)

Brian Hosmer, " Trauma, Reconciliation, and Historical Responsibility," Reconciliation Annual Symposium (May 2016)

Kyung Moon Hwang, " Monuments Are Not Untouchable," The Korea Times (August 30, 2017)

Mark Jacobson, " Rename US Army Bases for Heroes, not Confederates," Defense One (August 17, 2017)

Caroline E. Janney, " Why We Need Confederate Monuments," Washington Post (July 17, 2017)

Ibram Kendi, " What Would Jefferson Say about White Supremacists Descending upon His University?" Washington Post (August 13, 2017)

Keri Leigh, " Charlottesville and the Confederate Legacy ," Bill Moyers (August 17, 2017)

Jim Leloudis, " History Speaks on Intentions Behind Confederate Statues," The News & Observer (August 23, 2017)

Earl Lewis and Nancy Cantor, " After Charlottesville," Medium (August 22, 2017)

Patrick Lewis, " History Is a High Stakes Profession," Kentucky Historical Society (August 15, 2017)

Stuart MacKay, " Those Confederate Monuments Are Built on Racist Lies. Tear Them Down," iPolitics (August 17, 2017)

Nancy McTygue, " We Can Do Better: Lessons from Charlottesville," California History-Social Science Project (August 14, 2017)

Keri Leigh Merritt, " Charlottesville and the Confederate Legacy," Moyers & Co. (August 17, 2017)

David Motadel, " The United States Was Never Immune to Fascism. Not Then, Not Now," The Guardian (August 17, 2017)

Carly Muetterties, " The Histories Told and Ignored at Cheapside," Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (August 16, 2017)

Giuliana Perrone, " Confederate Monuments Always Embodied a White Heritage of Hate," Haaretz (August 17, 2017)

David Perry, " Why It's Important To Name The Nazis," Pacific Standard (August 17, 2017)

Katherine Pickering Antonova, " How the British Defeated Homegrown Fascism-and How Americans Can Do the Same," Washington Post (August 16, 2017)

Susan Reverby, " This Doctor Experimented on Slaves: It's Time to Remove or Redo His Statue ," The Hastings Center (August 7, 2017)

Jon Sensbach, " The Face of Terror, 1931 to Today," Daily Progress (August 16, 2017)

Daniel Sherman, et. al., " Tear Down the Confederate Monuments-But What Next? 12 Art Historians and Scholars on the Way Forward," ArtNetNews (August 23, 2017)

Nina Silber, " Worshiping the Confederacy Is about White Supremacy-Even the Nazis Thought So," Washington Post (August 17, 2017)

Manisha Sinha, " Heather Heyer Is Part of a Long Tradition of White Anti-Racism Activists," Washington Post (August 16, 2017)

Manisha Sinha, " What Those Monuments Stand For," New York Daily News (August 18, 2017)

Richard Steigmann-Gall, " How to Resist the Trump Administration: Lessons from Nazi Germany," Huffington Post (January 5, 2017)

Richard Steigmann-Gall, " Star-Spangled Fascism: American Interwar Political Extremism in Comparative Perspective," Taylor and Francis Online (January 6, 2017)

Richard Steigmann-Gall, " One Expert Says Yes, Donald Trump is a Fascist. And It's Not Just Trump," Huffington Post (July 18, 2016)

Paul Sturtevant, " Leaving 'Medieval' Charlottesville," The Public Medievalist (August 17, 2017)

Jeremi Suri, " The Guns of Auguest 'Locked and Loaded'," American Prospect (August 16, 2017)

Marc Tucker, " Teaching History in Troubled Times," Education Week (August 23, 2017)

Nancy Unger, " From 'Sip-in' to the Hairpin Drop Hear Round the World, Protests Can Work," Nursing Clio (March 23, 2017)

Kevin Waite, " The Largest Confederate Monument in America Can't Be Taken Down," Washington Post (August 22, 2017)

Kevin Waite, " The Struggle over Slavery Was Not Confined to the South, LA Has a Confederate Memorial Problem Too," Los Angeles Times (August 4, 2017)

Jason Ward, " The Myth of Southern Blood," Washington Post (August 21, 2017)

Darin Waters, " Whose Story? Democratizing America&rsquo;s Collective Historical Memory," Mountain Xpress (June 16, 2014)

Victoria W. Wolcott, " Six Flags has taken down its Confederate flag. But that's not the only legacy of Jim Crow at the park.," Washington Post (August 28, 2017)

Timothy Wright, " Removing Confederate Memorial Will Not Erase Seattle's History of White Supremacy ," Seattle Times (August 21, 2017)

Jonathan Zimmerman, " The Civil War, Race, and the Whitewashing of History," Newsday (August 14, 2017)

Jonathan Zimmerman, " In Charlottesville, Some on the Left Attacked Free Speech: Even White Supremacists Get to Talk without Being Hit," New York Daily News (August 16, 2017)

Jonathan Zimmerman, " The Progressive Case for Keeping Confederate Statues Standing: We Shouldn't Cart Away Reminders to Our White Supremacist History," New York Daily News (August 21, 2017)

AHA Member Interviews
* Indicates former Council member
Interview with Sean Adams, " Daytona Beach Removes Confederate Markers," Daytona Beach News-Journal (August 17, 2017)

Interview with Jennifer Allen, " What Our Monuments (Don't) Teach Us About Remembering The Past," NPR Code Switch (August 23, 2017)

Interview with David Atkinson, " Before Charlottesville, Purdue Got a White Nationalist Wake-Up Call," Journal & Courier (August 14, 2017)

Interview with Ed Ayers, " Battle over Confederate Monuments Renewed after Charlottesville Violence," NBC Nightly News (August 15, 2017)

Interview with Ed Ayers, " The History of White Supremacist Groups in the US," NPR Here and Now (August 16, 2017)

Interview with Ed Ayers, " The Shifting History of Confederate Monuments," PBS NewsHour (August 14, 2017)

Interview with Brian Balogh, " Moral Leadership in the Wake Of Charlottesville," Christian Science Monitor (August 15, 2017)

Interview with Brian Balogh, "' Sadly, This Is Not New': UVA Professor Reflects on History of Racism in America," EdSurge (August 15, 2017)

Interview with Brian Balogh, " Shock and Outrage at University of Virginia after White Nationalist Rally," NPR Here and Now (August 14, 2017)

Interview with Brian Balogh, " White Supremacists Don't Just Arrive in Charlottesville. They've Always Been There," Washington Post (August 14, 2017)

Interview with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, " President Trump and the Alt-Right: A Test of Leadership," NPR On Point (August 14, 2017)

Interview with Marty Blatt, " Reckoning with the Past: The Civil War and Its Role in Current Politics," News@Northeastern (May 12, 2017)

Interview with *David Blight, " Confronting Hate: Tolerance, Intolerance, and the Rise of White Nationalism," WNPR Where We Live (August 22, 2017)

Interview with Nathan Connolly, " The Statue at the Center of Charlottesville's Storm," New York Times (August 13, 2017)

Interview with *David Blight, " Is America Headed for a New Kind of Civil War?," The New Yorker (August 14, 2017)

Interview with *David Blight, " How the Cult of Robert E. Lee Was Born," History (August 14, 2017)

Interview with *David Blight, " Stunned historians wrestle with calls to remove Confederate statues," Boston Globe (August 21, 2017)

Interview with A'Lelia Bundles, " Trump Defiantly Defends White Nationalists, Provoking Fury," MSNBC (August 16, 2017)

Interview with *David Blight, " Racism in America: Should the U.S. Get Rid of All Confederate Monuments?," Newsweek (September 9, 2017)

Interview with Nathan Connolly, " The History of White Supremacist Groups in the US," NPR Here and Now (August 16, 2017)

Interview with Nathan Connolly, " Terror in Charlottesville," WYPR (August 14, 2017)

Interview with Matt Drwenski, " Matt Drwenski at Houston City Council Public Forum 8/15/2017," Houston City Council Public Forum (August 15, 2017)

Interview with Donna Gabaccia, "' Say No to Hate': Hundreds of Toronto Rally Decry Racial Violence in Charlottesville Attack," CBC News (August 14, 2017)

Interview with Alexi Garrette, " Listen at 0:19:20," BBC Outside Source (August 14, 2017)

Interview with Joy Hakim, " What Should Teachers Say about the Hate Speech Seen in Charlottesville?" USA Today (August 14, 2017)

Interview with David Hopkins, " Midland College Professor Explains Recent Racially Motivated Rallies from Historical Standpoint," News West0 (August 18, 2017)

Interview with Ann Keating, " Confederate Monument Stands on Chicago's South Side as Questions Swirl around the Country," Chicago Tribune (August 17, 2017)

Interview with Ibram Kendi, " Panel Discuss Family Repudiates Son Over Racist Charlottes Ville Rally. #Virginia #Breaking," CNN (August 16, 2017)

Interview with Ibram Kendi, " Washingtonians Process Violence And White Nationalism In Charlottesville, Va.," The Kojo Nnamdi Show (August 14, 2017)

Interview with JoAnne Mancini, " There Has Always Been a Discomfort about the Statues," Newstalk (August 18, 2017)

Interview with Glenna Matthews, " California Confronts Its Confederate Past as Monuments Are Abruptly Removed," Los Angeles Times (August 16, 2017)

Mary Niall Mitchel, " A Tale of Two Cities: New Orleans and the Fight Over Confederate Monuments," The History Channel (May 11, 2017)

Interview with David Nirenberg, " Why the Charlottesville Marchers Were Obsessed with Jews," The Atlantic (August 15, 2017)

News coverage of Jenifer Parks, " Understanding Confederate Monuments: Crowd Hears from Montana Historians at Billings Library," Billings Gazette (October 10, 2017)

Interview with Sara Patenaude, " Group Seeking to Remove Decatur's Confederate Monument May Have Found a Legal Solution," Decaturish.com (August 16, 2017)

Interview with Sara Patenaude, " Legal Questions Loom over Georgia Confederate Memorials," Fox 5 Atlanta (August 17, 2017)

Interview with Christopher Phelps, " White Supremacists Have Been Emboldened by Trump," Aljazeera (August 13, 2017)

Interview with Jason Phillips, " Heritage Vs. Hate: A Military Historian Explains Confederate Memorials in the Mountain State," WV MetroNews (August 16, 2017)

Interview with Jason Philips, " Sunday Edition with Stacy Smith," KDKA-TA Pittsburgh (August 20, 2017)

Interview with Jason Phillips, " Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval," WV MetroNews (August 21, 2017)

Interview with Blain Roberts, " Southern States-and Trump-Resist Calls to Remove Confederate Memorials," McClatchy (August 16, 2017)

Interview with Blain Roberts, " Unsure about Confederate Statues? Ask Yourself If You Support White Supremacy," Fresno Bee (August 16, 2017)

Interview with Blain Roberts, " Fresno State Professor on Confederate Monuments: 'It's the Moral Thing to Do to Take Them Down,'" Your Central Valley (August 16, 2017)

Interview with Joshua Rothman, "#RaceNYT Video," New York Times (Facebook video) (August 16, 2017)

Interview with Adam Rothman, " Confederate Statues Are Coming Down across America," WUSA9 Offscript (August 17, 2017)

Interview with Adam Rothman, " The Story behind DC's Confederate General Statue," WUSA9 Offscript (August 15, 2017)

Interview with Ann Rubenstein, " Say No to Hate': Hundreds at Toronto Rally Decry Racial Violence in Charlottesville Attack," CBC News (August 14, 2017)

Interview with Jonathan Sarna, " Jewish Leaders Say Anti-Semitism around the Nation Is a Disturbing Trend," NPR Around the Nation (August 16, 2017)

Interview with Howard Segal, " WVII Interviews Segal for Story on KKK's History in Maine," WVII Channel 7 (November 22, 2016)

Interview with Manisha Sinha, " FACT CHECK: Did Robert E. Lee Oppose Slavery?" Daily Caller (August 15, 2017)

Interview with Manisha Sinha, " Why The North Honored Confederates: 'These Are Not Just Innocuous Monuments'," Gothamist (August 17, 2017)

Interview with Kevin Waite, " Does Los Angeles Have a Confederate Problem?" KCRW Radio (August 16, 2017)

Interview with Kevin Waite, " Hollywood Forever Cemetery Removes Confederate Monument," KPCC Radio (August 16, 2017)

Interview with Darin Waters, " The Future of the Vance Monument Pt. 1-A Closer Look at Zebulon Vance's Political Career," Blue Ridge Public Radio (August 8, 2017)

Interview with Darin Waters, " NC Confederate statue Debate Likely to Include Vance Monument," Citizen-Times (August 16, 2017)

Interview with Kidada Williams, " A More Perfect Union? The Reconstruction Era," BackStory (March 31, 2017)

Interview with Kidada Williams, " How Should We Deal with Monuments to Deeply Flawed Historical Figures?" WDET Detroit Today (August 17, 2017)

Interview with Jonathan Zimmerman, " Confederate monuments Removed and Covered Up Overnight across the US," The National (CBC News) (August 16, 2017)

Historical Society Statements

On Race and Medieval Studies, A Collective Statement by Medievalists of Color (August 1, 2017)

On Charlottesville and the Study of the South, Center for the Study of the American South (August 15, 2017)

Charlottesville and the Mississippi Flag, Joint Statement of Mississippi College Professors, Jackson Free Press (August 21, 2017)

Statement on Charlottesville, National Council on Public History (August 16, 2017)

Medievalists Respond to Charlottesville, The Medieval Academy of America et al. (August 1, 2017)

NEHA Statement on Charlottesville, Racism and History, New England Historical Association (August, 24, 2017)

ASALH's Position on Confederate Monuments, Association for the Study of African American Life and History (September 2017)

Statement on Confederate Monuments, North Carolina Preservation Consortium (September 26, 2017)

Other Collections

" Charlottesville: HNN's Full Coverage," History News Network

Interactive Resources

See how historians are using the Clio app to offer interpretations of monuments and historic markers around the country. You can join in this crowd-sourced guide to history in your own backyard.

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America Inside Out: Historians on the Confederate Monument Debate | AHA

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"History is what the present chooses to remember about the past." ~ Carl Becker (AHA President, 1931) You may have found this webpage thanks to National Geographic Channel's documentary series, "AMERICA INSIDE OUT WITH KATIE COURIC ." The premiere episode, "Re-Righting History," discusses various perspectives and controversies in the wake of the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia last August.

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The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee sits at the center of the park formerly dedicated to him, the site of recent violent demonstrations, in Charlottesville. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Comment Gift Article
As an anthropologist who has studied the meaning of monuments and sacred spaces in other cultures, the recent controversy and violence surrounding Confederate monuments has been ethically challenging. I love my country, and part of my professional responsibility is to foster tolerance. I have also worked with our military to help thwart the Islamic State, an organization that instituted slavery in our time. As such, I detest the legacy of division, bigotry and slavery these monuments represent. But I think they should remain.

In the 1980s, I worked as an archaeologist at ancient Mayan ruins in Central America and saw how monuments to their rulers were defaced during the tumultuous fall of their civilization. The Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten similarly defaced and destroyed statues of earlier Egyptian gods in his religious reform 3,300 years ago, and Spanish conquistadors destroyed Aztec and Inca monuments and statuary in their war on idolatry in the New World.

And there are plenty of examples of the desecration of monuments in the 21st century. The Taliban blew up the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan in 2001; we aided Iraqis in toppling the statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square in 2003; and nothing can compare to the scale of destruction of monuments at the hands of the Islamic State.

Simply removing monuments and moving them so they are out of sight is likewise not new, either. The Inca Empire of South America removed icons of conquered peoples' gods and effectively held them hostage in a temple in the Incan capital of Cuzco. In our time, the post-Soviet Russian government removed many statues of Lenin and others, which now reside in Muzeon Arts Park in Moscow.

People effectively act as though destruction of a monument exorcises its power and removal banishes the power from their midst. But these pieces of metal and stone only have the meaning we assign to them, and that meaning can take any form we like. They can be revered or reviled; honored or ridiculed; or co-opted for a new purpose.

I understand the affront that Confederate monuments are to those whose ancestors were held as slaves or died preserving our country, and to those who suffer and oppose racism today. However, destroying monuments takes a page out of the playbook of mobs across the centuries, lowering one's self to that moral plane.

Further, removing Confederate statues amounts to whitewashing our history, turning our heads away from the inconvenient truths of our past. We should let them stand and use them to remind ourselves of what we are and are not, the cost our forebears paid for our freedom and to educate our children.

And the facts are plain: The South seceded from the United States over the issue of slavery. Many Americans believed in the superiority of Europeans over Africans at that time. Slave owners used that belief to justify the owning and abuse of millions of human beings. In the late 1800s, the era of Jim Crow disenfranchisement of blacks was ushered in and continued until the 1950s. This period witnessed the greatest spike (especially from 1900 to 1930) in monument building honoring the Confederacy. A smaller spike occurred from 1954 to 1968, in reaction to the civil rights movement.

The Civil War was the single most devastating war our nation ever fought. Nearly as many Americans died in that war than all of our other wars combined. Americans never paid so dearly for their country and what it was to be. With regard to fighting against racist ideology, World War II claimed 400,000 American lives. These two wars may account for 80 percent of the blood spilled for our country.

Civil War monuments bear a constant testimony to all of this history, none of which should be forgotten. The monuments should remain, and we should constantly remind ourselves of what they represent.

When racists revere these monuments, those of us who oppose racism should double our efforts to use these monuments as tools for education. Auschwitz and Dachau stand as mute testimonials to a past that Europeans would never want to forget or repeat. Why not our Confederate monuments?

Destroying or removing monuments is the easy way out of our obligation to understand our past and improve our future. Monuments to our nation's racism can be as much a tool to counter it as they can be a tool to foment it. The choice and obligation is ours.

The Post's View: It's time for a full and fair reckoning with Confederate statues
Read more on this topic:
Tony Horwitz: Is the Confederacy finally about to die for good?

Bree Newsome: Go ahead, topple the monuments to the Confederacy. All of them.

E.J. Dionne Jr.: There's a right way to judge America's past
Dana Milbank: Obama offers the perfect response to the Confederate flag wavers

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Opinion | I detest our Confederate monuments. But they should remain.

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Comment Gift Article As an anthropologist who has studied the meaning of monuments and sacred spaces in other cultures, the recent controversy and violence surrounding Confederate monuments has been ethically challenging. I love my country, and part of my professional responsibility is to foster tolerance.

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This story is part of a group of stories called

Outside contributors' opinions and analysis of the most important issues in politics, science, and culture.

The debate over Confederate monuments has been framed by President Donald Trump - and some who share his views - as a fight between those who wish to preserve history and those who would "erase" it. But let us linger on what history we'll be preserving as long as Confederate memorials stand.

The Confederate monuments in New Orleans; Charlottesville, Virginia; Durham, North Carolina, and elsewhere did not organically pop up like mushrooms. The installation of the 1,000-plus memorials across the US was the result of the orchestrated efforts of white Southerners and a few Northerners with clear political objectives: They tended to be erected at times when the South was fighting to resist political rights for black citizens. The preservation of these monuments has likewise reflected a clear political agenda.

It is going to take equal energy and focus to remove them from the national landscape.

But the story of the monuments is even stranger than many people realize. Few if any of the monuments went through any of the approval procedures that we now commonly apply to public art. Typically, groups like the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), which claimed to represent local community sentiment (whether they did or did not), funded, erected, and dedicated the monuments. As a consequence, contemporaries, especially African Americans, who objected to the erection of monuments had no realistic opportunity to voice their opposition.

Most Confederate monuments were, in short, the result of private groups colonizing public space.

Over the past decade, Southern legislatures have passed laws requiring approval from state legislatures before any historical monuments can be moved, removed, or altered - thereby freezing those private decisions in place.

A controversy in Reidsville, North Carolina in 2011, which failed to attract any national attention, offers a window into the origins of Confederate monuments and their contested "ownership." That year, an errant driver plowed into the generic Confederate soldier memorial that stood precariously beside a major street in the small town, 25 miles north of Greensboro.

Because other motorists had previously hit the monument, the UDC, which had funded and erected the monument in 1910, decided the sculpture would be safer if it was moved to a nearby cemetery. But in a strange twist, the plan was blocked when the Sons of Confederate Veterans, another Confederate heritage organization, sued the UDC to prevent the relocation of the monument. Eventually, the UDC prevailed and the restored monument was rededicated in the cemetery in 2014. The city itself was a spectator in this legal fight.

Had the dispute flared after 2015, when the state legislature passed a law effectively blocking the removal of monuments, the UDC would have had to tangle not only with neo-Confederates but also with state legislators.

A smaller number of monuments, like the one recently toppled in Durham, were indeed funded with public money - but an asterisk must be attached to the word "public." In 1922, Confederate veterans in Durham persuaded the state legislature to allocate $5,000 of county taxes to fund the monument. No one asked black residents, who were denied the right to vote by Jim Crow laws, whether they supported spending their tax dollars on this public, political statement.

Most monuments went up not immediately after the war, but as Southerners put Jim Crow in place - and Northerners gave up on racial justice

Let us acknowledge that the architectural landscapes we have inherited are neither sacred nor unchanging. The timing of the proliferation of the monuments themselves illustrates this point. In the years immediately after the Civil War, North Carolina Confederates understandably mourned their dead, yet the state erected fewer than 30 memorials between 1865 and 1890. Then, during the next half century, they dedicated more than 130.

It is hardly coincidence that the cluttering of the state's landscape with Confederate monuments coincided with two major national cultural projects: first, the "reconciliation" of the North and the South, and second, the imposition of Jim Crow and white supremacy in the South. As part of the process of national reconciliation, white Northerners agreed to tolerate the commemoration of Confederates, and they contributed both moral support and funds to the veneration of a few Confederate figures in particular, especially Robert E. Lee.

Lee became a convenient icon of reconciliation who was depicted as having reluctantly fought to protect his native state - not slavery- and then after the war devoted himself to the uplift of the South and to binding the nation's wounds. For white Northerners, Lee was a military hero who could be venerated without having to embrace the Confederate cause in its totality. (This impulse explains the monuments to Lee in the US Capitol, at the City University of New York, and other sites outside of the former Confederacy.)

Meanwhile, white Southerners used the commemoration of the Confederacy to promote a degree of white cultural unity that had never existed in the region either before or during the Civil War. An observer scanning the commemorative landscape of North Carolina will see little evidence of the tens of thousands of white North Carolinians who fought for the Union, the even larger number of white North Carolinians who actively opposed the Confederacy, or the tens of thousands of African Americans who escaped slavery and joined the Union army.

Confederate commemorators suppressed these unwelcome blemishes to their preferred version of history while simultaneously making the Confederate cause virtually sacred. White Southerners who questioned the Confederate narrative faced ostracism or worse.

Some contemporaries linked the monuments to the defense of white supremacy in shockingly explicit terms

The pursuit of white cultural unity through Confederate commemoration went hand-in-hand with the promotion of white supremacy. The Confederate monuments themselves were sometimes explicitly linked to the cause of white supremacy by the notables who spoke at their dedication. For instance, at the 1913 dedication of an on-campus monument honoring University of North Carolina students who fought for the Confederacy, white industrialist Julian Carr unambiguously urged his audience to devote themselves to the maintenance of white supremacy with the same vigor that their Confederate ancestors had defended slavery.

During the dedication speech, Carr praised Confederate soldiers not just for their wartime valor but also for their defense "of the Anglo Saxon race during the four years after the war" when "their courage and steadfastness saved the very life of the Anglo Saxon race in the South." The "four years after the war" was a clear reference to the period in which the Ku Klux Klan, a white paramilitary organization terrorized blacks and white Republicans who threatened the traditional white hierarchy in the state. Then he boasted that "one hundred yards from where we stand" - and within months of Lee's 1865 surrender - "I horse whipped a negro wench until her skirts hung in shreds because she had maligned and insulted a Southern lady."

Carr admittedly was uncommonly explicit about conflating Confederate memorialization with white supremacy, but Southern memorials inherently celebrated the slave South and white power along with the heroism of Confederate soldiers.

We topple old buildings, move or rename streets, and engage in creative destruction all the time - which is inevitable when the needs of the people living contemporary landscapes change. The somewhat comical events in Reidsville (in which the United Daughters of the Confederacy concluded it would be for the best if fewer drivers crashed into their statue) provide just one example of a decision to move a memorial for a practical reason.

Elsewhere, communities have had other reasons to act. Wilson, North Carolina, for example, has been home since 1926 to a memorial that commemorated the Revolution and the Confederacy: It originally featured a massive central column depicting the Stars and Stripes and the flag of the Confederate States of America, flanked by two water fountains - one for whites, one for blacks. It apparently outlasted its welcome sometime during the 1960s. Without fanfare, the fountain was moved from the court house to an inconspicuous park, and the fountains were replaced by small granite caps. Today you would be unlikely to recognize it as a one-time segregated water fountain.

So how should we move forward to dismantle the Confederate commemorative landscape? We should begin by acknowledging that the American South is now a pluralist society for the first time in its history. Whereas the current commemorative landscape of the South is a product of white privilege and power, the future landscape should be crafted after inclusive public debate and through democratic procedures. New Orleans and Baltimore, which conducted public conversations about the removal of monuments, can serve as models for other communities. New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu has provided an exceptionally articulate justification for the removal of Confederate memorials.

A crucial step in many Southern states will be to repeal laws constraining the removal or alteration of historic monuments, such as North Carolina's two-year-old Historic Artifact Management and Patriotism Act. Let there be no doubt about the intent of this or similar "heritage preservation" laws: They "protect" and perpetuate the racist commemorative landscape that currently exists. Why shouldn't the citizens of Durham have had the choice to preserve, move, or remove the Confederate monument there? Local choice may allow some communities to keep "their" Confederate monuments. So be it. Let them defend their decision if they do so.

We are also sure to hear calls to add monuments (honoring African Americans, for example) as an alternative to removing those we find offensive, and thereby "erasing" history. But removing - or moving - Confederate monuments is not historical erasure. The same logic could have been used to justify maintaining, after 1964, signs that identified "Negro water fountains," "Colored waiting room," and the other markers of Southern segregation.

In an ideal world with unlimited resources, a proposal to add monuments might make sense. But given the vast number of monuments to the Confederacy across the United States it would take decades, and millions of dollars, to add enough statuary to create a more inclusive commemorative landscape. And is there any reason to believe that state legislators are going to appropriate sufficient money for that purpose? Perhaps the defenders of Confederate monuments will demonstrate their good faith by pressing for funding for new monuments to Southerners, white and black, who fought on behalf of the Union or otherwise opposed the Confederacy. Until then, I will view their devotion to heritage preservation with skepticism.

This is hardly the first time that a society has confronted the issue of dealing with art harnessed to objectionable causes. Art museums are filled with medieval and early modern Western art that is offensive to many of our contemporary values - depicting rape, the slaughter of Muslims, or demeaning images of non-Europeans. Like those works of art, those Confederate monuments that have aesthetic significance can and should be preserved in museums where they can be properly interpreted by curators and docents. In such settings, they will serve as historical artifacts rather than civic monuments.

But many Confederate monuments were essentially "mail order" sculptures mass produced by Northern and Southern foundries during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Whatever value they have as historical artifacts, they were not the work of some latter-day Michelangelo.

Before any Confederate monuments are removed, they should be carefully photographed and measured so that the historical record of the monuments in situ can be preserved and made available for historians and art historians in the future. Then they can be transferred to the archives, museums - or the trash heap of history.
W. Fitzhugh Brundage is the William B. Umstead Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the scholarly adviser to the Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina p roject.
The Big Idea is Vox's home for smart discussion of the most important issues and ideas in politics, science, and culture - typically by outside contributors. If you have an idea for a piece, pitch us at thebigidea@vox.com.

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"I've studied the history of Confederate memorials. Here's what to do about them."

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Outside contributors' opinions and analysis of the most important issues in politics, science, and culture. The debate over Confederate monuments has been framed by President Donald Trump - and some who share his views - as a fight between those who wish to preserve history and those who would "erase" it.

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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.