Why Confederate monuments are coming down now

James Campbell (Image credit: Leah Campbell) - As Confederate monuments and memorials are toppled across the United States, Stanford historian James T. Campbell says it is important to think historically not only about the past but also about our own time and what future generations might say about us. As people across the United States confront the nation's legacy of slavery and systemic racism, monuments and memorials honoring the Confederacy have become political flashpoints, with some demanding their removal as symbols of racial oppression and others warning of an attempt to "erase” history and heritage. According to Stanford historian James T. Campbell , most of these memorials - of which there are still well over a thousand scattered across the U.S., many in states that did not actually secede - were erected not in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War but in the years 1890 between 1915. This period, Campbell points out, was the same era that saw the violent restoration of white supremacy in the South, disfranchisement of Black voters, legal segregation and a dramatic surge in lynchings. "Understanding that historical context makes it a lot harder to claim that these monuments and memorials are simply 'heritage,' innocent of any racial meaning," Campbell said. Here, Campbell discusses the historical context in which these monuments were created and how they have become proxies in debates about racial injustice and anti-Black racism today. Campbell is the Edgar E. Robinson Professor in United States History in the  School of Humanities and Sciences.