I speak as a white man who grew up in the segregated South. Memories of the Civil War were still strong, and log-dead Confederate soldiers and leaders were still lionized. People stood up at high school football games when the band struck up “Dixie.” The Confederate flag was used as a rallying cry and symbol of defiance against the civil rights movement. It is with that background that I feel qualified to discuss the civil war monuments.
Removing the Confederate monuments is not “changing history” as the white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and their apologists claim. Those monuments were not placed where they are to be simply historical. They were placed where they are to honor the memory and actions of the men they represent. History has recorded the deeds of these so-called heroes. At the very least they led a rebellion against their country, a rebellion that cost over 600,000 American lives and which was rooted in the defense of the institution of slavery. The individual actions of some of the actors, including Nathan Bedford Forrest, are also well-documented and disgusting. See https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/11/remember-fort-pillow/
They are correct, however, in the idea that removing the monuments is trying to “change culture.” It is challenging the culture that believed the Civil War was a “noble cause.” (Those words sicken me today.) It is trying to change a culture that ignores the unspeakable harm that slavery caused. It is trying to change the culture that led to the era of Jim Crow laws that sought to hold back a people for over a century and which effects still ripple across the landscape today. It is trying to change a culture that has led to the very need for the Black Lives Matter movement.
I don’t care what is done with the monuments – melt them or place them in a museum. Just get them out of place of honor. They do not deserve it, and we should not grant it.