In a recent Washington Post article, supporters of a Lost Cause monument unsuccessfully argued to have a Confederate statue moved from a county courthouse steps to a local cemetery.  The article sets out some of the counter-challenge arguments we described in our prior post.  But eventually the small community of Isle of Wright rejected a recommendation that the Lost Cause monument be relocated to their city cemetery.  Although a cemetery lot owner had offered to donate spaces for the relocation of the statue, the county Board of Supervisors did not feel the monument should remain on property supported by tax dollars.

A historian quoted by the article suggested that the relocation of Lost Cause monuments from public property to cemeteries “seems to only kick the can down the road”.   We agree.   A cemetery is to be a place of tranquility where relatives and friends of the deceased may come to visit for emotional comfort.   Cemetery visitors should not have to shield their eyes from a section of the cemetery as part of a compromise to a false narrative of history.