(This Letter to the Editor was published in the Northern Virginia Daily on November 5, 2020.)
Editor:
Charles Mills’ letter reflects the most dangerous aspect of our town’s Confederate monument: in its more than 100 years of existence, it has only obfuscated the reality that the Civil War was fought for the South’s quest to uphold the institution of slavery.
There is no denying this disturbing truth, which resounds in Vice President of the Confederacy Alexander Stephens’ “Cornerstone” speech: “Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition.”
Like hundreds of other Confederate monuments, Warren County’s statue was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). The UDC has a long history of promulgating the dangerous “Lost Cause” ideology that downplays slavery as the primary cause of the Civil War, leaving more than 42% of Americans believing this false narrative, according to the Washington Post.
Every day that it stands at our house of justice, the statue serves as a perpetual reminder to Black folks that they were once considered mere property themselves. It’s past time to relocate.
Laura Cascada, Front Royal