U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) is introducing legislation to Congress that would remove all Confederate statues from the Capitol building in Washington D.C.
Booker made the announcement on Twitter late on Wednesday evening.
I will be introducing a bill to remove Confederate statues from the US Capitol building. This is just one step. We have much work to do.
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) August 17, 2017
The bill would remove statues of famous Confederate statesmen and generals that currently reside in the Capitol’s National Statuary Hall. Each state is allowed to commission two statues to reside in Statuary Hall, representing someone who contributed to their state at some point in its history.
Nine states currently have at least one statue in the hall that depicts a leader from its Confederate past. They are Florida, West Virginia, Mississippi, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana.
The controversy surrounding these statues came to a head last weekend during a “Unite the Right” rally put on by white nationalists, who descended on Charlottesville, Virginia, to protest the removal of a statue depicting Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Counter-protesters soon came to voice their support for removing the statue, and to stand up against neo-Nazis, members of the KKK, and other white supremacists who were part of the rally.
Skirmishes broke out, and several attacks made by the supremacists were carried out against the counter-protesters. One person was killed and 19 others were injured when a white nationalist purposefully drove his vehicle into a crowd of counter-protesters.
President Donald Trump, whom many have criticized for not coming out hard enough against these white supremacists and other racists, defended the Confederate statues’ existence in a series of tweets on Thursday morning. Trump said:
Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments. You…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017
…can't change history, but you can learn from it. Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson – who's next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish! Also…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017
…the beauty that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks will be greatly missed and never able to be comparably replaced!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017
Trump initially denounced violence “on many sides” after the events in Charlottesville broke out. He later amended his statement on Monday to single out white supremacist groups at the event, but backtracked on those remarks later on in the week.
Video of Sen. Cory Booker voicing opposition to Jeff Sessions’s appointment as Attorney General:
Featured image via Public Domain via Senator Booker’s official Senate page.
