I think Greg is right on this one. One could argue that the Reconstruction (1865-77) was more harsh than it needed to be, but white Southerrners responded with a vengeance when it ended. The Democrats, who opposed Reconstruction, regained control of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1874. U.S. Army troops were removed from the South in 1877, ending the Reconstruction.

During Reconstruction, many African Americans were elected to political office in the South. When Reconstruction ended, whites regained power and enacted Jim Crow laws and built the Ku Klux Klan. Most of those Confederate statues were erected in the early 20th century, to celebrate the return of white supremacy to the South.

But if we remove statues, where do we draw the line? Some of those statues were most certainly built to mourn loved ones who served in battle and died on the battlefield or thereafter. Several years ago, I spent a fascinating couple of hours touring Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery in Lexington, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley. The whole town of Lexington reeks of Confederacy. It's the home of the Virginia Military Institute, and Washington & Lee University (where Robert E. Lee is buried). To get rid of the mementos of the Confederacy, you'd have to bulldoze the whole town - and it's a really beautiful town, and I didn't find the mementos of the Confederacy to be overly offensive there. I did find it wonderful to see African American families walking free and proud through the town as tourists, with Barack Obama as President. So, I dunno. I'd like to see open, honest discussion before any more statues are removed - and I think decisions should be made locally.

But Stone Mountain is a big question. I suppose it's a really cool thing, not that I bothered to cough up the admission fee to see it. But it has far too much baggage. The story of the mountain and its carving is just too closely tied to the Ku Klux Klan. The trouble is, the Confederate Memorial is privately owned, while the surrounding property is a state park. This is one memorial that really should be blown to smithereens, but yet the ownership setup makes that very difficult to accomplish. Wish I knew how that one should be handled.

-Joe-