‘HIGHLY SANITIZED’

Arlington’s Confederate Memorial to Be Dismantled Despite Conservative Fury

More than three dozen House Republicans demanded the Pentagon step in to stop the memorial’s removal in a letter last week.

A 100-year-old Confederate memorial in Arlington National Cemetery is to be removed before the end of the coming week after an independent commission informed Congress it was “problematic from top to bottom.” The cemetery announced the memorial’s forthcoming removal in a Saturday news release, adding that the surrounding gravesites would be protected. The memorial’s dismantling comes despite a fierce push from more than 40 House Republicans, who signed onto a letter to the Department of Defense begging it to step in and halt the removal, Fox News reported last week. The move has also been met with disapproval from Virginia’s Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. A spokesperson for the governor told the Associated Press that he plans to have the memorial moved to the New Market Battlefield State Historical Park in the Shenandoah Valley, calling it a “fitting backdrop for [sculptor Moses Jacob Ezekiel’s] legacy.” The 32-foot-tall monument, unveiled in 1914, depicts Rebel soldiers alongside what the cemetery’s website calls a “highly sanitized depiction of slavery,” including a Black woman described as a “mammy” and a Black man following his white owner to war.