# What should we do with confederate monuments and statues? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 15, 2017, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-do-with-confederate-monuments-and-statues/793694 "2017-08-15T01:11:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 30
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2025, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-do-with-confederate-monuments-and-statues/793694/581 "2025-10-28T22:01:53Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > A Confederate statue in D.C. that was toppled, graffitied and set alight five years ago is being repaired and returned to its perch, the National Park Service said Monday. > > The statue of Albert Pike, a Confederate Army brigadier general whose wartime career lasted less than two years, is scheduled to be back on its plinth about a mile east of the White House in October. And it’s now back: [https://www.npr.org/2025/10/27/nx-s1-5587824/confederate-statue-albert-pike-trump](https://www.npr.org/2025/10/27/nx-s1-5587824/confederate-statue-albert-pike-trump) [https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/10/28/confederate-statue-dc-washington-pike/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/10/28/confederate-statue-dc-washington-pike/) ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2025, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-do-with-confederate-monuments-and-statues/793694/583 "2025-10-29T16:30:30Z")
I really like this idea. Treason and poor Historical knowledge is the issue so rather than educate the unwilling, compare what they are really doing to what they already know and detest. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2025, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-do-with-confederate-monuments-and-statues/793694/584 "2025-10-29T18:18:44Z")
**Moderating:** @RitterSport - while your energy is appreciated, the actions you suggest are vandalism, a crime in most if not all jurisdictions. Please keep suggestions as to what should be done with/too confederate monuments and statues to ones that are legal for the safety of the board and posters. ~~I’ve hidden it for the moment to get a second opinion, but it may require deletion, at which point I’ll update.~~ With the poster’s permission, I’ve deleted the post. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2025, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-do-with-confederate-monuments-and-statues/793694/585 "2025-10-29T18:19:54Z")
Delete away! Sorry about that. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2025, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-do-with-confederate-monuments-and-statues/793694/586 "2025-10-29T18:42:07Z")
Hillsdale College has been erecting statues for persons they consider to be “Heroes of the Civil War”. ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2025, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-do-with-confederate-monuments-and-statues/793694/587 "2025-11-05T20:31:00Z")
I’d like us to carve out a small little park in an area with pretty nice weather year-round. Place all of the statues there and add some concrete walkways for convenience. I was looking at the overhead view of Mar-a-Lago and there seems to be plenty of green space. It will take a bit to see them all, so maybe some sort of rotating (or not) porta-potty setup would be a nice gesture. Somebody probably owns the property already, but we could always just use eminent domain to claim the good green parts and let the owner stay in the residence. Obviously, we have to pay “just compensation”, and it looks like around 10 to 15 acres of green, give or take. Let’s call it an even 15 and a “just compensation” of $3,000 per acre sounds about right. I could even be convinced to round it up to an even $50,000 all in and call it a day. As important as it is, we must ensure that it remains free for all visitors and I believe that it would really stand out at night, so let’s keep it open 24/7. We could probably get some volunteers to maintain the grounds, perhaps allowing them to live there in tents in return. That should make everyone happy. Hell, some of the visitors might be interested in a meet and greet with the property owners, who seem overly fond of the statues in question, and I’m sure they’d be welcomed with open arms. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2025, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-do-with-confederate-monuments-and-statues/793694/588 "2025-11-07T18:16:37Z")
Maybe we should follow Belgium’s example. True, King Leopold II was responsible for horrific acts of mass murder in the Congo when he ruled it as a personal fiefdom. But remaining statues of him in Belgium can apparently be “decolonialized”. > **[King Leopold, I Presume? | Zoey Poll](https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/king-leopold-i-presume)** > > Old monuments can’t learn new tricks, but if their makers are alive, they just might try to put them in a new context. In similar fashion, could we not regard icons like Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson as really good generals, divorced from their role in trying to establish a country based on the rights of slaveholders? /s ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2025, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-do-with-confederate-monuments-and-statues/793694/589 "2025-11-07T19:06:04Z")
You could always do what they did with Benedict Arnold – erect a monument to his boot, with no mention of Arnold at all. Arnold was a brilliant officer who contributed significantly to both battles of Saratoga, but became embittered by being, he felt, neglected and passed over for promotion. So eventually he joined the other side, tried to surrender West Point to the British, escaped, and was granted a command under them that did significant harm to Connecticut. So they couldn’t honor a traitor like Arnold, but they commemorated his accomplishment. Arnold’s leg was severely injured in the battle, and they wanted to amputate, but her refused. He saved his leg, but it was badly set and gave him trouble the rest of his life. So I suppose it made sense to honor the injured leg, which was arguably a casualty of the action. > **[Boot Monument](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boot_Monument)** > > The Boot Monument is an American Revolutionary War memorial located in Saratoga National Historical Park, New York. Erected during 1887 by John Watts de Peyster and sculpted by George Edwin Bissell, it commemorates Major General Benedict Arnold's service at the Battles of Saratoga while in the Continental Army, but he is not named on the monument because Arnold later defected from the Americans to the British. Instead, the monument commemorates Arnold as the "most brilliant soldier of the Cont... > **[Boot Monument (U.S. National Park Service)](https://www.nps.gov/places/boot-monument.htm)** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-do-with-confederate-monuments-and-statues/793694.md?page=29)