It’s a measure of progress that in our current divided political climate, the Tarrant County Commissioners Court acted, within a week of the idea being raised anew, to remove a memorial to Confederate soldiers from the courthouse grounds in downtown Fort Worth.

Some will say it was an easy, obvious choice. But the 4-0 vote, with Commissioner J.D. Johnson abstaining, is a necessary step on a long path that Tarrant County must walk to meet the demands for justice that have followed the police killing of George Floyd.

Consider that for black citizens with business at the county and black employees who enter the courthouse every day, the monument stands as a tribute to those who would have continued slavery. More than 150 years after that army was soundly defeated and slavery ended, it’s absurd that there would be such a memorial on public property, whether intended that way or not.

As commissioners considered the matter Tuesday, a few citizens offered reasons to maintain it, including that the monument honors black Confederate soldiers, too. And leading up to the meeting, County Judge Glen Whitley expressed concern that without such memorials, the stain of racism might be too easily forgotten.

For such reasons, the right step is to move the monument to a museum-like setting where it can be explained with such context. It could be that a display at the courthouse, with further explanation of the fight over slavery and how the monument came to be, is appropriate. Or perhaps such a display belongs in a historical setting such as the Texas Civil War Museum in White Settlement.

Whitley said Tuesday that his earlier comments didn’t reflect what he was trying to say about the need to study history.

“We should not have any monuments on Tarrant County public property that are believed by many to be about racism,” he said. “They should be about honoring and lifting people up, not putting people down.”

These symbols get a disproportionate amount of attention, understandably, for the emotional reaction they provoke. But it’s vital to use the energy of the current moment on the most substantive issues that directly affect the lives of black people and other minority communities.

As we’ve said before, the most urgent of these is police reform. While that’s largely a job for cities, not the county, the focus must remain there.

For the county, though, there is also plenty of work to do. Consider our other urgent national emergency, the coronavirus pandemic. An NPR analysis found that in Texas cities, including Fort Worth, testing locations are much more prevalent in largely white areas than those with high black and Hispanic populations.

Considering the virus’ disproportionate effect on the black population in particular, this is an obvious error that should be fixed and an important lesson for future public-health efforts.

Another common complaint is equal access to voting sites and equipment to avoid lines. The county election department faces huge challenges this year: making polling places safe from the virus, dealing with increased mail-in ballot requests and anticipating perhaps record turnout this fall.

Cities in Texas and elsewhere saw long lines to vote in minority neighborhoods for this year’s primaries. There’s time to mitigate that for the fall.

There’s more for county leaders to do, such as ensuring more diversity in all levels of staffing and in contracting. Commissioners showed Tuesday they could move forward on an emotionally fraught issue. Let it be the first step of many toward addressing injustice.

This story was originally published June 9, 2020 at 1:18 PM.