In Georgia and Louisiana, Confederate Defenders Fight to Keep Their Monuments

A number of memorials were built throughout the 20th century to pay tribute to leaders of an army that wanted to continue the enslavement of black people. We’re only just now getting around to bringing some of those memorials down, some 150 years after slavery was abolished. But in Georgia and Louisiana, they’re not coming down without a fight.

In Georgia, State Representative Tommy Benton recently proposed a new amendment to the state’s constitution to preserve a Confederate memorial carved into Stone Mountain, near Atlanta. The acre-and-a-half-sized sculpture features the Confederate army generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson along with Confederate president Jefferson Davis, straddling horses and holding their hats to their chests in a show of loyalty.