The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and other civil rights groups vehemently condemned efforts by the Trump administration to whitewash America’s history of slavery and honor the vile Confederacy.
With the planned reinstallation of Confederate Gen. Albert Pike statue in Washington D.C., the controversial monument attempts to minimize the racist impact of the failed insurrection and honor its leaders despite their defense of the savage institution of chattel slavery and white supremacy.
The statue was removed by protestors in 2020 during demonstrations following the murder of George Floyd.
The Trump administration has vocally defended pro-slavery Confederate traitors who lost the Civil War and issued orders to restore those monuments that have been damaged or removed.
Albert Pike was a Confederate leader who fought to protect slavery and joined the Ku Klux Klan after the Civil War.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that another statue commemorating the Confederacy would be returned to Arlington National Cemetery.
The statue, which Hegseth referred to as “The Reconciliation Monument,” commemorated armed rebels who died fighting against the United States of America during the American Civil War.
In March 1906, former Confederate soldier and sculptor Moses Jacob Ezekiel was commissioned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in November 1910 to design the memorial.
It was unveiled on June 4, 1914, the 106th anniversary of the birth of Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States of America.
The Commission on the Naming of Items of the Department of Defense that Commemorate the Confederate States of America or Any Person Who Served Voluntarily with the Confederate States of America recommended that the monstrosity be removed, and it was taken down on December 21, 2023.
The naming commission also provided recommendations on U.S. bases named for Confederate soldiers,
Fort Bragg, one of the largest military installations in the world, which was named for Confederate General Braxton Bragg, was renamed to Fort Liberty.
Hegseth directed the U.S. Army to rename Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg, in honor of Private First Class Roland L. Bragg, a World War II paratrooper, rather than the original namesake, but the move was seen as a gift for American fascists.
“Confederate leaders are not figures to be celebrated or idolized. They should be remembered as defenders of slavery and white supremacy whose primary goal was to destroy our democracy,” said Rivka Maizlish, senior research analyst, SPLC’s Intelligence Project.
“In 2020, activists sought to right the wrong by removing the statue,” said Maizlish. “They continue the l⁷legacy of abolitionists and civil rights martyrs who aimed to make our nation a democracy for all Americans.
“The continued mission of the Trump administration is to erase history and bury past struggles for liberation,” said Maizlish. “The Pike statue should remain down and be replaced with a historical figure who fought for justice and equality, not slavery and white supremacy.”
In April, the Southern Poverty Law Center released the 4th edition of the Whose Heritage Report, which tracks public symbols of the Confederacy across the United States.
In addition to providing historical context about Confederate symbols, the report addresses challenges under the second Trump administration, and points to a Southern heritage that all Americans can embrace, instead of honoring traitors and white supremacists.