Confederate Monuments

At least 581 people have been lynched in the state of Mississippi throughout U.S. history, the vast majority of whom were hung because of one thing: they were black. This history is troubling enough, but it’s even more so when you see Mississippi’s junior Senator, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, making a joke this month at a political fundraiser where she laughs about how if one of her donors invited her, “she’d attend a public hanging.” The comment drew sharp responses from voters on the left and the right, noting that Sen. Hyde-Smith’s opponent is an African American. But Sen. Hyde-Smith has yet to apologize. This kind of language would be unacceptable in so many places around the country. But not yet in Mississippi, my home state, where one of the most violent and destructive symbols in all of American history -- the Confederate emblem -- still adorns our state flag. It’s time to say enough is enough. Join me in calling on Mississippi to remove the Confederate symbol from its state flag. Over the last few years we’ve seen so many communities come to terms with the racist and shameful legacy of the Confederacy, and pull their support of this symbol which for so many people represents the violence and hatred that led to hundreds of “public hangings” all around the South. South Carolina’s government stopped displaying the Confederate symbol; cities around Mississippi, including tourism-friendly places like Biloxi, have also stopped flying our state flag because it bears the Confederate emblem. Even a judge in Mississippi over the last month removed the Mississippi State Flag from his courtroom because he felt the Confederate symbol sent the message that not everyone was welcome or equal in his court. The Confederate symbol in our state flag is a dying, hate-filled relic, and it’s time for a change. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith’s comments are appalling and show a complete lack of understanding at the race-based violence so many people in Mississippi have faced for the last 150 years. But her comments are just a symptom of a larger issue in our state that stems directly from the tolerance, acceptance and celebration of the Confederate symbol in our state flag. A symbol that for so many years has been championed by those who want to hurt, minimize, humiliate, and enslave an entire population of people. I'm proud to call Mississippi my home state, but I know that it not only can do better -- it needs to do better. Now is the moment to show Mississippi and the rest of the country that hateful symbols have no place in our politics. Let’s send a message now to Mississippi lawmakers that the historic emblem that normalizes so much violence toward people has no place in our State Flag. Join me in calling on Mississippi lawmakers to remove the Confederate symbol from our flag.

Woodrow Wilson, 28th president of the United States, revered by whitehouse.gov as a “a leader of the Progressive Movement”, was one of the most passionately racist leaders in all of U.S. History. Elected in 1913 and again in 1917, Wilson’s legacy is embellished with the racist exploits of his entire political career. Infamous for his hosting of a special White House screening of "Birth of a Nation", during which he reportedly remarked, “It's like writing history with lightning. My only regret is that it is all so terribly true,” Wilson believed that African Americans were inherently inferior to the white race.  He echoed this sentiment throughout his presidential career, resegregating government agencies that had been integrated during reconstruction and offering vocal support to the Ku Klux Klan terrorizing African Americans across the country. Wilson’s legacy grew in 1935 with the establishment of Woodrow Wilson High School in the Northwest corner of Washington DC. Originally an all white school, it still serves as his namesake today. Following the May 2020 death of 47 year old George Floyd, an African American man suffocated by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser announced plans to change the name of Woodrow Wilson High School after 85 years of baring the former president’s name. Officials for District of Columbia public schools opened an online form for name suggestions through October 30th to gather suggestions for the name change, which is estimated to cost 1.2 million dollars.  Following a summer of racialized strife and conflict, the decision to finally change the name of Woodrow Wilson High School symbolizes a long-overdue commitment to honoring the truth, a duty preciously upheld by the late John Robert Lewis.  When John Lewis began protesting racial injustice alongside Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr during the Civil Rights Movement, he gave the country a stunning reminder of the dark truths still facing African Americans across the country. His commitment to civil rights and racial equality ultimately carried him to congress, where he served as a U.S. representative for Alabama’s 5th congressional district for over 30 years. John Lewis’ legacy represents the commitment to America’s original truths- those which we hold to be self evident, that all men are equal and so must be their access to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. As a champion of civil rights, in an effort to break free of America’s dark history of racial violence and intolerance to look ahead to a brighter future, by adding my name I hereby propose the name John Lewis High School to replace its former name.

Lewis Thornton Powell, co-conspirator of John Wilkes Booth and failed assassin of Secretary of State William H. Seward, currently has a well marked headstone adorned with Confederate decoration in the Geneva Cemetery in Geneva, Florida. Remove, modify, or otherwise make clear Powell's role in a traitorous conspiracy. For comparison, the other Confederate assassins lay in unmarked graves, including John Wilkes Booth, David Herold, and George Atzerodt. At the very least, Powell's grave should make reference to his traitorous crimes. 

Recently there has been a attack on monuments dedicated to Confederate soldiers and Generals. Recently in New Orleans the mayor Mitch Landrieu has broken the city of New Orleans by removing monuments of US Veterans. Yes, they fought in the Confederacy but they were Americans before, during and after the Civil War. Landrieu, is a form of what the Nazis, what ISIS has done around the world. Instead of taking down these monuments of our country's history, we should learn from them, so the same mistakes aren't repeated. Landrieu has used the following to break the law. Tax payers money for monument removal NOFD and NOPD personnel for the removal and destruction of the monuments  Lied in front of a judge, stating that once the monuments were removed, they would be placed in a safe, secure and enclosed city warehouse. The Beauregard statue and parts of the Jeff Davis monument are outside next to a garbage pile.    This is how we treat our history? We erase it and throw it away like trash.    I am calling for a look into the corruption of Mitch, the NOPD and NOFD. The return or proper/suitable relocation of the monuments that have already been taking down and a bill that states NO military monument can be moved, regardless of a small group's feelings towards it. You 3 say you are for America and the American people. Well the American people want our history protected. We want it respected and we want DC to work for us. Your voters, supporters and everyone else who loves our country, our country's rich history to do this for us.  Personally, I had 14 ancestors that fought for the Confederacy. Not one owned a slave. These men, these generals are all Americans and according to our government are US veterans. What Mitch did was take down US veteran memorials for his own political gain and to make a small group of people happy. Also HB-71 in Louisiana is gaining ground so he is taking these monuments down before and if that bill passes. I ask out government to make a bill not allowing mayor's or states to take any monument down unless voted by the people of that state and to be honest. The majority wants them to stay up. This is our history gentlemen and it should be respected and protected.