'We Always Knew What It Stood For': Small Texas Town Torn Over Its Confederate Statue

[Nevilledog]

https://www.npr.org/2020/08/03/897760392/we-always-knew-what-it-stood-for-small-texas-town-torn-over-its-confederate-stat

The figure of a young Confederate soldier holding a rifle has gazed out from his pedestal in front of the Harrison County Courthouse in the piney woods of northeast Texas for 114 years.

The 8-foot statue was a gift — like hundreds of others across the South — from the United Daughters of the Confederacy. They are memorials to the war dead and, historians say, monuments to white supremacy and Jim Crow laws.

"Growing up, we always knew that it was here on the courthouse square," says Demetria McFarland, the implacable fifth-grade teacher and community activist who is spearheading the campaign to relocate the statue in the county seat of Marshall. "We always knew what it stood for. It was just one of those taboo things, you know."

More than 60 monuments that celebrate the Confederacy and its military men have come down in cities all across America — from San Diego to Raleigh, N.C.— since the death of George Floyd. Many have been removed in medium- to large-size cities, according to a tally by The Associated Press.

*snip*

[ProfessorGAC]

1. They Knew, It Was Taboo

Then they were either ok with what it stood for (blatant racism) or too cowardly to object.
Not defending themselves much, are they?

[Mariana]

5. Demetria McFarland is African American.

Stop blaming the victims.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. Hilarious!

I'm victim blaming.?!?
That's preposterous.
Is she the only one in that town?
She was talking about the town!!!
So was i!
How you missed that is a mystery.

[LiberalArkie]

2. I have a problem with just about all the statues that glorify the civil war.

However the "Whipping Post" that was removed from what ever city square needed to stay. So that when young kids asked their parents "What's that?" so the parents could tell the kids "that is where people would whip their slaves".

Without things like that the decision would never come up and that part of our history would be erased like it never took place. Kind of like The Holocaust never took place because it is not in a lot of the kids history books. "It's too terrible for kids to have to read", and thus we have people that never really knew what happened.

[hunter]

3. Put it in the local cemetery...

... under the dirt.

[bobbieinok]

4. Thanks for posting. Local cemetary does seem to be most appropriate place

Remember but do NOT glorify!!