Democratic lawmakers and others urged official removal of Confederate monuments at the center of a politically fraught national debate, saying Tuesday that slow action was leading protesters to try to topple statues of defenders of slavery themselves.
A descendant of Confederate military commander Robert E. Lee was among those joining Black historians at a hearing of the House subcommittee on national parks, forests and public lands to urge passage of legislation addressing Confederate statues at national parks and other federal sites. One of the bills would remove a statue of Lee erected this century at the battlefield of Antietam, the site of the deadliest day of fighting in the Civil War.
It’s one of a series of related measures coming before Congress as some demonstrators spray-paint or try to haul down statues of Confederate figures and slave holders, during months of broader national protests that have brought the issue of racism to the forefront of the national conversation.
President Donald Trump has responded by ordering mobilization of federal agencies to protect Confederate statues and other federal property, blaming “wise guys, anarchists and looters … indiscriminately ripping down our statues.”
Frank Smith, director of the African American Civil War Memorial in Washington, D.C., described the Civil War tributes as a daily affront to Black Americans.