Racist Confederate monument at Tarrant court must go. Here’s what we should do with it

Against the backdrop of America embroiled in protests against police violence and the systemic racism of our country, there has been a renewed call to remove the Confederate monument outside of the Tarrant County Courthouse.

It was met by less-than-encouraging remarks from Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley.

“I don’t condone racism,” Whitley said. “But it’s important that we don’t obliterate all traces of it because then we might forget that it actually occurred.”

While we should never eradicate history, how and where we remember this part of it is of utmost importance. County commissioners will discuss the monument Tuesday, and they should vote to remove it.

Ask a German citizen if he or she believe monuments to the Nazi Party are needed anywhere in that country, much less outside of courthouses, to remind the citizens of the Holocaust and World War II. The proper place to remember the darkest time in our nation’s history is in a museum, not adorning a courthouse that is supposed to serve equal justice for all.

The real cause of the Civil War has been whitewashed. So, I’ll quote directly from the Texas Declaration of Causes for secession adopted Feb. 2, 1861: “We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable.”

As the burgeoning civil-rights movement in America was just taking off, this monument to Confederate soldiers was erected outside of the Tarrant County courthouse in 1953 as a not-so-subtle reminder of the views of those in power.

As black Americans and allies began organizing and pushing back against a system that had held them down for hundreds of years, those in power saw it fit to erect a monument honoring the wrongheaded leaders and soldiers who betrayed their country, rebelled against the U.S. and led us to the edge of the abyss over the right to own other human beings.

America and the South, in particular, have an ugly history of systemic racism. For many, the courthouse is the heart of this system.

Adorning that symbol with a monument in remembrance of a time when our country engaged in the Civil War over the right to own black people is a misplaced reminder to those whose ancestors were subjugated to the cruelty of slavery and the savage laws of Jim Crow. They suffer in a country that has allowed racial hate to permeate into every corner of its foundation, and the monument exists as a guarantee that many will never see justice properly served.

I do agree with Whitley that we must never forget our ugly history of racism. It must be taught more thoroughly in schools, along with the many ways African Americans were held down for centuries.

The monument should not be destroyed, but rather be moved to a museum, where it can be remembered with proper context as a time to which we must never return.

As Whitley acknowledged in so many words, standing outside of the people’s courthouse is a monument to racism. Now it’s time to remove it.

This story was originally published June 8, 2020 at 3:25 PM.