While the debate surrounding slavery and Confederate memorials provides an opportunity for better understanding the complexity of America’s racial history, the current, at times violent, fixation on the removal of Civil War monuments is a muddle of varying criteria. One of the major requirements of removal of monuments appears to be convenience rather than racial history. It is worth examining these memorials. Rather than just focusing on erasing history, however, we should instead seek to establish monuments celebrating or memorializing black history, while simultaneously qualifying some existing monuments. A major risk of the monument destruction movement is the undermining of the great heroes of our nation for the sole reason that their moralities do not accord with our present-day views. More nuance is needed.

But first, some history. Memorialization by the naming of buildings and the erection of statues and plaques in public places has been a means for displaying past civic virtue and courage and for recognizing past heroes or events. A memorial represents pride and a link to national, world, or local history. America’s Civil War, the most violent and tragic event of the nation’s history, accounts for numerous memorials. Some of the Civil War representations are controversial because of their associations with slavery. Others, like those administered by the National Parks Service, are highly regarded explanations of the country’s past. The Vicksburg National Military Park, for example, takes the visitor through the bloody siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi in the summer of 1863. There are