Confederate statues in DC area to be restored and replaced in line with Trump’s executive order

Two of Washington’s two statues of Washington, which commemorate the Confederation, will be restored and modified, in line with President Donald Trump’s reaction to the recent efforts to reformulate the historical narration of America.

Defense Minister Beit Higseth announced on Tuesday that a statue celebrating the Confederation will return to the Armington National Cemetery. The statue, which Higseth referred to as the “Monument of Reconciliation”, was removed in 2023.

The National Park Service announced on Monday that the statue of Albert Pike, the Confederate Dean and a distinguished personality among the Masonic, will appeal his former position in Washington’s judicial square, a few buildings from the American Capitol. This was the only outdoor statue of a Confederate military leader in the country’s capital.

The statue was pulled with ropes and chains in Juntenth in 2020 as part of the mass protests after the death of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police. Confederate statues have been dropped throughout the country through similar protests, while many military bases called Confederate leaders have been renamed.

The park service said in a statement that the restoration of the Pike statue, which is targeting in October, “is in line with federal responsibilities under the historical preservation law as well as recent executive orders to beautify the country’s capital and restore existing statues.”

The Confederate Erlington monument

On social media on Tuesday, Higseth said that the Arlington statue “could not have been revealed by the time of laws. Unlike the left, we do not believe in eradicating American history – we honor that.”

In 2022, an independent committee recommended to drop the memorial, as part of its final report to Congress on the renamination of military bases and assets that commemorate the Confederation.

The statue, which was revealed in 1914, includes a bronze woman, who was crowned with olive leaves, standing on the base of the statue 32 feet, and was designed to represent the American South. Some of the characters on the statue also include a black woman depicted as “Mami” carrying what is said to be a white officer, and a slave man who follows his owner to war.

Restoring is part of a larger narration

In March, Trump issued an executive entitled “Restore truth and rationality of American history.” He criticized post -Al -Falawi efforts to re -interpret American history, saying: “Instead of strengthening unity and a deeper understanding of our common past, the broad effort to rewrite history deepens societal divisions and enhances the feeling of national shame.”

Smithsonian has targeted museums as “subject to the influence of the fragmentation focus on sweat.” It also issued instructions to the internal administration to restore any statue or offer “removed or changed to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history, reduce the value of some of the historical events or numbers inappropriately, or include any other inappropriate party ideology.”

Pike, who died in 1891, is famous for the task of a long period of time as a great leader of the Freemasonians of his Confederate military career. Freemasonon pressed Congress for the right to establish the statue on NPS in 1901 – provided that it is depicted in civil, not military uniform.

But Pike led a confederation regiment during the civil war. As the only external statue of the Confederation leader in Washington, DC, it has been a controversy for decades. Even the short garden service page on the statue indicates that it “moving the opposition since it was planned for the first time.”

A long history of demands to remove the PIKE statue

The Capital Council requested to remove it in 1992. In 2017, Mayor Morel Boser concluded an agreement with Congress leaders to finally remove it.

When the demonstrators overthrew the statue in 2020 while police officers looked at him, Trump – then in his first term – called him “a shame on our country” on social media and called for their immediate arrest.

Congress of Congress Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington’s non -vocal delegate in Congress, described the Park Park movement “strange and cannot be defended” in a statement on Monday. Norton said it would make legislation to permanently remove the statue and put it in a museum.

She said: “I have long believed that the statues of the Confederation should be placed in museums as historical antiques,” Do not remain in the gardens and sites that mean honor. “