Tug-of-war over Confederate monuments rages on
By Natalie Pompilio • Washington Post 4 hrs ago
... Last summer, an Alabama bill seeking to change the name of the Edmund Pettus Bridge — the site in Selma of a bloody confrontation between civil rights protesters and police in 1965 — died in the state Legislature. The proposal was to replace the former Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan leader’s name with “Journey to Freedom” signage. One African-American congresswoman, Democrat Terri Sewell, argued against the change, saying that it “would change the course of history and compromise the historical integrity of the voting rights movement.”
In Baltimore, a mayoral task force has recommended removing two Confederate monuments from public parks. One depicts Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. The other is a massive sculpture of Roger B. Taney, the fifth chief justice of the Supreme Court, who wrote the 1857 Dred Scott majority opinion that persons of African descent, free or enslaved, could never become citizens.
In Alexandria, Va., the City Council has asked an advisory group for recommendations on what to do about the nearly 50 streets named after Confederate generals and military leaders, as well as a statue of a Confederate soldier smack in the middle of Washington Street, a major thoroughfare through the historic city’s downtown.
In Austin, the University of Texas removed a 1933 statue of Jefferson Davis from its prominent spot outside the Austin campus clock tower in August, after withstanding a legal challenge from the Southern Legal Resource Center, which says its mission includes “advocating for the Confederate community” ...
http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/tug-of-war-over-confederate-monuments-rages-on/article_50fe22e7-330c-518f-a3eb-e4b1131295f1.html
