Plans are in motion for the U.S. Army to take down a Confederate memorial in Arlington National Cemetery next week. It is part of its plans to remove divisive rebel imagery from Defense Department property. However, many Republicans in Congress are opposing the decision.
The memorial depicts a woman on a 32-foot pedestal representing the American South. It is one of the most prominent monuments within the Arlington Cemetery. According to the website, the monument portrays a “mythologized vision of the Confederacy, including highly sanitized depictions of slavery.”
This December, Republican lawmakers advised the Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin, that the Pentagon would go beyond its authority by removing the monument. The group also demanded that all plans to release it be halted until Congress sorts out the 2024 appropriations bill. Rep. Andrew S. Clyde leads the group.
The Army operates Arlington Cemetery, and they’ve already told lawmakers that the monument will be removed as planned. Officials told the Washington Post that it had to remove it before the year ran out in line with a law to identify and remove assets commemorating the Confederacy.
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A congressional commission has already decided that the memorial needed to be removed, and it would cost $3 million.
However, the lawmakers cautioned anonymously because of the sensitivity of the issue. They also advised having more security at the cemetery when the removal process begins would be necessary. Workers on site will remove the monument’s bronze parts but leave the granite base untouched because of nearby gravesites.
Additionally, the Army is collaborating with the state of Virginia and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation to relocate the monument to New Market Battlefield State Park. “We want to make sure that it is situated within an appropriate historical context,” a senior Army official said.
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According to Macaulay Porter, a spokesperson for Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), the governor is disappointed with the monument’s removal. He also said that the new location would be a fitting backdrop.
A bipartisan congressional commission recommended the removal of the memorial because of racism in America. The commission flagged over 1,000 assets for commemorating the Confederacy and advised the Pentagon to change or remove them. The assets identified include base names and street signs.
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According to Army officials, the monument at Arlington was the last significant asset on the list, and it must be removed before Congress’s Jan.1 deadline. The memorial depicts the Lost Cause movement, which portrays rebel traitors as noble fighters defending states’ rights. The movement also spread the false narrative that slavery was a good thing.
More so, the Latin inscription on the monument references the mythology of the Lost Cause. The memorial was erected in 1914 as part of a series of Confederate markers. They were prominent during the early 1900s to promote the idea of white supremacy as Black Americans demanded equal rights.
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