A new Confederate memorial was just unveiled in the U.S.
The nine-foot statue was erected in May 2018 near Mobile, Alabama at a park owned by the “Sons of Confederate Veterans.” And this isn’t the only Confederate-friendly mark in the city — the sheriff’s emblem in Mobile still features a confederate flag, as county representatives voted against removing it in a 2015 vote. And down the road from the new monument is Robert E. Lee Public Elementary School, named after the commander of the Confederate army.
Alabama Legislature also enacted the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act this year, which requires local governments to obtain state permission for before moving or renaming historically significant monuments that are more than 40 years old, which adds more steps for those wishing to remove Confederate monuments.
Because of policies like these, more than 1,700 Confederate symbols remain in public spaces, but dozens of them have been removed in recent years.
“People across the country are waking up to the reality that these tributes to the Confederacy perpetuate the idea of white supremacy and glorify a regime that supported the torture, murder and enslavement of Black people,” explained the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Heidi Beirich. “It’s time for courageous political leaders to say enough is enough.”
