‘Homage to hate, not heritage’: Pelosi demands removal of all Confederate statues from US Capitol
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called for all Confederate statues in Congress to be removed, insisting they represent “cruelty and barbarism” and are a “grotesque affront” to American ideals.
The call to scrap the monuments came on Wednesday, with Pelosi penning a letter to the Library of Congress demanding that the statues be taken down, arguing they do not “embody our highest ideals as Americans.”
“Monuments to men who advocated cruelty and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end are a grotesque affront to these ideals,” Pelosi said, referring to the Confederacy and its drive to preserve chattel slavery in the South.
Their statues pay homage to hate, not heritage. They must be removed.
The statues which fill the halls of Congress should reflect our highest ideals as Americans. Today, I am once again calling for the removal from the U.S. Capitol of the 11 statues representing Confederate soldiers and officials. These statues pay homage to hate, not heritage.
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) June 10, 2020
The statues in question include those of Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens, the president and vice president of the Confederacy, as well as Civil War soldiers and military leaders – most in Confederate uniforms – such as Robert E. Lee, Joseph Wheeler, Wade Hampton III, James Z. George and Edmund Kirby Smith, among others.
Though the monuments have long been a source of controversy, recent weeks have seen a renewed push to topple the statues in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, with activists deeming them a celebration of racial injustice and inequality. Pelosi’s latest call to take down the statues also comes soon after the US Navy and Marine Corps – as well as NASCAR – moved to ban all public displays of the Confederate flag.
Also on rt.com ‘Our history will not be tampered with!’ Trump rules out renaming US military bases named after Confederate generalsAfter opposing a similar initiative to take down statues in 2017, earlier on Wednesday US President Donald Trump came out against a proposal to rename military bases bearing the name of Confederate troops. “My Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations,” he tweeted, adding: “Our history as the Greatest Nation in the World will not be tampered with. Respect our Military!”
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