Alabama Unveils New Confederate Monument < >
Post# of 51175
< >
Alabama went ahead and unveiled a new Confederate monument named “Unknown Alabama Confederate Soldiers” on Sunday despite the toxic politics currently surrounding the subject.
A few hundred people attended the well-guarded ceremony, which was marked by Confederate paraphernalia and a five cannon salute at Confederate Veterans Memorial Park. Some attendees donned Confederate reenactment dress.
Cultural backlash against the Confederacy has heated up especially on the left after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia turned violent earlier this month, leaving one dead.
Displaced Woman Emotional Over 'Frozen, Soaked to the Bone' Children After Harvey
Baby Harvey Born During Hurricane Harvey
Protesters, including the violent group "Antifa" afterwards defaced and tore down several statues and monuments, including some of Christopher Columbus and Abraham Lincoln.
"Confederate symbols and monuments are offensive to far too many citizens, especially blacks/people of African descent," the Alabama chapter of NAACP said in a letter to the Greenville Advocate.
However, the park's owner David Coggins assured that those in attendance are not white supremacists but merely want to celebrate their heritage and honor the dead soldiers.
"Those people that forget their heritage … are doomed to repeat it again," he said