CRIMINAL JUSTICE + POLICING GOVERNMENT + POLITICS LOOK AWAY

In Virginia’s Confederate statue debate, change came slowly — then all at once

By Graham Moomaw | Sarah Vogelsong | Ned Oliver | Kate Masters - June 5, 2020

During a history discussion at a book festival in Charlottesville eight years ago, a local official floated an idea that, at the time, seemed shocking.

After a speech by historian Edward Ayers, then-City Councilor Kristin Szakos asked if it was time to start talking about removing Confederate statues or balancing out the message they represent.

“By the gasps around me, you’d have thought I’d asked if it was OK to torture puppies,” Szakos said later as she recalled the “firestorm of vitriol and hatred” that came her way after her comment was reported in the local newspaper.

Five years later – when Charlottesville’s discussion of removing statues had progressed to the point that the council had voted to act – the world watched in horror as white nationalists rallied around the city’s statue of Robert E. Lee and attacked counter-protesters in the streets, killing one and injuring many others.

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Opinions
Robert E. Lee is my ancestor. Take down his statue, and let his cause be lost.

By Robert W. Lee IV
June 7, 2020 at 8:30 a.m. EDT

Robert W. Lee IV is the pastor of Unifour Church and author of the book “A Sin by Any Other Name: Reckoning With Racism and the Heritage of the South.”

In the small town where I live and grew up, the Lost Cause of the Confederacy didn’t need a special name — it was the education we all received. We were taught that during the Civil War, the Confederate States of America had just motive. Perhaps you’ve heard the mantra: “The Civil War was fought for states’ rights.” It was enshrined in monuments across the country after the war ended.

The catch is that there’s more to that sentence, something we southerners are never taught: The Civil War was fought for states’ rights to enslave African people in the United States of America.

Many of us were never taught the rest of the sentence and are forced to discover it for ourselves, but my reality is unique amid the landscape of southern identity. My name is Robert W. Lee: I’m a Christian pastor, a husband, a friend, a son, a brother. But you undoubtedly realize that I bear the name of the icon of the Southern understanding of the world, and I also bear his heritage.

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