Most of them were put up long after the American Civil War ended – and for many, that was the root of the problem.

Statues of leaders of the Confederacy, the predominantly southern states who seceded from the rest of the U.S. were toppled amid 2020’s global racial injustice protests that led to reappraisals of historic figures and their records.

Many of the monuments considered offensive reminders of slavery and segregation in the U.S. are now gone. But how to contextualize those that remain and their place in history is not easy to navigate.

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