Today a solidarity rally for Charlottesville merged with a march to the Albert Pike memorial in Washington DC.
More fascinating is how some confederate statues have more complex sectarian political opposition. In this case is Freemasonry more of a motivation than being a racist traitor. In some cases the reasons become merged.
Quite a historical shibboleth among others.
Pike's memorial has often stirred controversy throughout its history, beginning with the Grand Army of the Republic's lobbying efforts against its erection to protesters arguing it honors a traitor and alleged racist.
Starting in the 1990s, there was renewed interest in removing the statue.
In late 1992, members of the LaRouche movement, including civil rights activist and Lyndon LaRouche's vice presidential candidate James Bevel, began a series of protests demanding the memorial be removed, citing Pike's alleged links with the KKK. During one such event, LaRouche supporters draped Pike's statue with a KKK pointed hat and gown.[16] Bevel stated: "One way or the other, this statue is coming down. Either the statue will be taken down gracefully or it will be torn down." The protesters sought a congressional resolution to have the statue removed and replaced with a monument inscribed with the Declaration of Independence.[17]
Historian and LaRouche activist Anton Chaitkin called the statue a "monument to terrorism" and members of the Council of the District of Columbia petitioned to have the statue removed.[18][19]
Michael Farquhar, a former writer and editor at The Washington Post, called Pike a "blustering blowhard, a feeble poet, a laughable hypocrite, a shameless jingoist, a notoriously insubordinate military officer, and yes, a bigot with genocidal inclinations."[19]
John W. Boettjer, then managing editor of the Scottish Rite Journal, wrote a rebuttal op-ed in The Washington Post in defense of the memorial and pointed out that only an Act of Congress could result in the statue's removal. He stated: "[Pike] received a full pardon from the federal government for his service in the Civil War as a Confederate general. There is not a jot of reliable proof that Albert Pike was ever a member, much less an officer, of the Klan." Boettjer also claimed a LaRouche video promised the Middle East conflict would be solved and World War III averted if the statue was removed.[20] The weekly protests by LaRouche supporters continued into 1993. That year Bevel and Chaitkin were convicted of "unlawful statue climbing" and sentenced to one week in jail.[21]