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Dear Editor:

We unequivocally need to remove the Confederate soldier monument in Farmville.

The statue was erected in 1900, while Jim Crow was in full swing. These monuments were erected during this time explicitly to intimidate black people as a symbol of social dominance.

Another symbol of white southern pride, the Confederate battle flag, was rarely seen during the Civil War; these flags only became prevalent during the 1950s specifically as a political symbol of the Dixiecrats (Southern Democrats who were anti-Civil Rights). After World War II, Germans removed their monuments to the Nazi party. They have not forgotten the dark parts of their history, but they do not honor them.

Many southern people actually rebelled against fighting in the Confederacy, as it was seen as a rich man’s war for keeping their slaves, while poor men were the soldiers sent to die in the trenches. Did your ancestors really fight for the South, or would they be embarrassed by the way we cling to these symbols of white supremacy? I highly recommend reading the pamphlets on this subject written by a North Carolina group called Rural Organizing and Resilience, located here: https://ruralorganizing.wordpress.com/resources/

Across the South, cities and states are now removing their monuments to the Confederacy, under pressure from protestors in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by the Minneapolis police.

Farmville must do the same. Black lives matter.

Allie Dudley

Farmville