The escalating fight over racist monuments in the South

#perspective

After the end of the Civil War, the Confederate flag as well as monuments honoring the Confederacy and those who opposed racial equality became more popular even as resistance to racial discrimination and Jim Crow segregation grew. Historians say the increased visibility of Confederate symbols was clearly meant to send a message of preserving the racial order. As James Grossman, the executive director of the American Historical Association, put it: “These statues were meant to create legitimate garb for white supremacy.”