Culture

Judge Allows Removal of Confederate Memorial at Arlington Cemetery

DEC 20 2023·Updated DEC 21 2023

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Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The Facts

US District Judge Rossie Alston issued an 18-page opinion on Tuesday allowing the Arlington National Cemetery (ANC) to remove a century-old Confederate memorial, thereby lifting a temporary injunction decision that he granted on Monday to block the move.
ap
Alston had previously halted the removal process due to claims that contractors were desecrating and disturbing nearby gravesites. His ruling came following a tour to the cemetery, where he reportedly saw "no desecration of any kind."
Daily Caller
On Sunday, the group Defend Arlington filed a lawsuit arguing that the controversial removal would damage and likely destroy the Memorial longstanding at ANC as a grave marker and jeopardize its eligibility for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
Forbes
The 32-figure Reconciliation Monument atop a 32-foot granite pedestal, which was commissioned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1910 and unveiled by Pres. Woodrow Wilson in 1914, is set to be removed by Dec. 22.
Blaze Media
According to spokesperson Macaulay Porter, Virginia's Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin has expressed disappointment over the removal. He plans to relocate the monument to the New Market Battlefield State Historical Park in the Shenandoah Valley.
CNN
A 2021 congressional commission required "names, symbols, displays, monuments, and paraphernalia that honor or commemorate the Confederate States of America or any person who served voluntarily with" the Confederacy to be removed from all assets of the Department of Defense by Jan. 1, 2024, except headstones, markers and burial receptacles.
ABC News

Sources Split

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The Spin

Left narrative

This monument presents a sanitized depiction of slavery that isn’t just historically inaccurate but also hurtful to marginalized communities in the US. The hateful message it sends outweighs the memorial’s historical value — it must be torn down along with other Confederate symbols that have been identified by Congress.

nytimes

Right narrative

The country has healed since the Civil War, and this monument is a tribute to the fact that the US has made progress. But the left seems determined to keep relitigating slavery and the war by virtue signaling and, in some cases, rewriting history. The left should look to the future instead of the past.