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Confederate statues must come down

Confederate statues must come down
By NICHOLAS SINGLETON

The removal of statues honoring Confederate war heroes has stirred a national conversation  about racism and honoring history.

The Confederacy is the shameful history of the United States. Local governments – including the city of Dallas, which last week removed a statue of Robert E. Lee from a city park – are justified in getting rid of Confederate monuments.

It is important to remember that the Confederacy promoted inequality, hatred and racism.

Slavery was a burning issue in the Civil War. In 1850, about 400,000 families owned more than 4 million slaves in the United States.

President Abraham Lincoln and his Republican comrades aimed to abolish slavery, which resulted in his failure to receive a single electoral vote from the Southern states.

Southern states despised Lincoln because of his stance on slavery.

Their desire to sustain slavery culminated into the Civil War.

The Confederacy wanted slavery to be determined by the states so they could continue to promote their  white supremacy.

The Union wanted to embrace equality within the United States by freeing African-Americans. The citizens of the United States should be honoring the statues of heroes that helped abolish slavery.

Instead, individuals are worshipping Confederate statues that symbolize racism.

Slaves were tortured, degraded and humiliated.

Confederate monuments only remind us of racism and slavery.

The Confederate soldiers and generals fought to sustain the institution of slavery because of economic growth.

Lee married into one of the wealthiest slave-owning families and commanded the plantation after his father-in-law died.

In addition, the Confederate flag represents the actions and values of the South. The flag should be removed from public view.

William T. Thompson, creator of the Confederate flag, wanted the flag to symbolize the heaven-ordained supremacy of the white man.

The Confederate flag has no place in the 21st century.

We must reject the racist beliefs of the Confederacy and take down their statutes.

We live in a different America.

It is now time to embrace true American values and look toward the future.

Some say that removing the statues of the Confederate soldiers will erase an important piece of history.

The fact is that we are just removing the monuments from public places, not the history of the Confederacy from school curriculum or textbooks.

The goal is to remove the statues without inciting violence from supporters or opposition.

The solution is to remove the statues from public view and into museums – retaining their history while removing them from places of prominence.

­— Nicholas Singleton is a reporter and a chemistry major

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