Monuments to White Supremacy

Editorial

I grew up in Birmingham Alabama, a place that once was the front lines of the battle for racial equality. I grew up well aware of my cities sordid past and I was ashamed that such atrocities had taken place on the streets I walked and that I loved. The memorials in my city were to those who fought to right a terrible wrong, those who were hosed and attacked for simply asking to be treated the same as those of a different skin color.  In Kelly Ingram Park, there are numbers of installations that portray the struggles and dangers civil rights protesters endured. In recent months there has a number of protests over civil war “heroes” monuments removed from public spaces. They say by doing so we will forget history. I disagree. These men will be remembered but they will no longer be held aloft like they were more than mere men. There are better people in history that deserve that pedestal then those who fought against their own country because they didn’t want to lose their slaves. Anyone who fights to keep a people down, does not deserve to be remembered as a hero.  Place the statues in museums with the correct context on their actions and place people who sought to do good in the world in city centers. We need to remember our history but it needs to be remembered in the correct way, with brutal honesty.