Rep. John Lewis (D-GA)
State capitols aren't the only places Confederate history is given a place in U.S. government—which means they're not the only places from which Confederate history must be uprooted. The U.S. Capitol houses statues of several Confederate leaders, thanks to their home states having chosen them for that honor.
Georgia chose Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederacy and the man who famously said of "our new government" that "its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition." Virginia is represented by Robert E. Lee, and Mississippi by Jefferson Davis. This is a situation Democrats would like to change:
“I want to see it go,” [Rep. John] Lewis said [of the Stephens statue]. “I don’t like taking young people on a tour and telling them that this was the Vice President of the Confederacy.”
“We have to get our own house in order,” Lewis said. “We have to have a cleansing in this place.” [...]
“This Capitol represents the United States of America,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), who suggested to reporters that Confederate statues be moved to a museum.
“They did everything they could to split away from this government,” Thompson said, as he argued that the Congress should not even display the flag of his home state of Mississippi, because of the Confederate emblem on that flag.
It's time for the United States to stop honoring people who fought to destroy it in the cause of slavery.