--- title: Charlottesville: Confederate Statues Are Not True History description: In Charlottesville and Baltimore and across the country, we debate taking down Confederate statues. But they do not depict the Civil War canonical: https://time.com/4903943/charlottesville-trump-confederate-statues-civil-war/ author: Alex McDaniel article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-16T22:20:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:01:34.187Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Removing Confederate Monuments Doesn't 'Erase' History. It Fact-Checks It og:description: "They contradict what we know to be true about the Civil War" og:url: https://time.com/4903943/charlottesville-trump-confederate-statues-civil-war/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte1784be22054b8f3/6988da0d0a4a223b079cf84b/charlottesville-donald-trump-robert-lee-confederate-monuments-nazi-confederacy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Memorial for Heather Heyer, victim in Charlottesville attack og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Removing Confederate Monuments Doesn't 'Erase' History. It Fact-Checks It twitter:description: "They contradict what we know to be true about the Civil War" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte1784be22054b8f3/6988da0d0a4a223b079cf84b/charlottesville-donald-trump-robert-lee-confederate-monuments-nazi-confederacy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Removing Confederate Monuments Doesn't 'Erase' History. It Fact-Checks It > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. Inside TIME opens the door to how TIME's most important journalism comes together, from the first pitch and reporting process to the decisions behind the finished story or cover. 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Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. by [Alex McDaniel](https://time.com/author/alex-mcdaniel/) ## Alex McDaniel Aug 16, 2017 10:20 PM UTC  Signs calling for renaming Lee Park to Heyer Park, the site where white supremacists and Nazis gathered last Saturday, lay at the base of the Robert E. Lee statue after Heather Heyer was murdered, in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Aug. 16, 2017. Signs calling for renaming Lee Park to Heyer Park, the site where white supremacists and Nazis gathered last Saturday, lay at the base of the Robert E. Lee statue after Heather Heyer was murdered, in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Aug. 16, 2017. Samuel Corum—Anadolu Agency/Getty Images by [Alex McDaniel](https://time.com/author/alex-mcdaniel/) ## Alex McDaniel Aug 16, 2017 10:20 PM UTC The aftermath of [Charlottesville](http://time.com/after-charlottesville-ruddy-roye/) has sparked a national debate about [Confederate monuments](http://time.com/4833054/crisis-south-anniversary-monuments/) and their place in society, an argument often hinged upon the question of whether removing them equates to “changing” or “erasing” history. Even [President Trump](http://time.com/4902625/how-president-trump-failed-a-test/) chimed in this week with a red-herring argument regarding whether monuments of George Washington or Thomas Jefferson should be removed along with Confederate statues. Concern about erasing history by eliminating Confederate monuments is ironic considering most of them tell a false version of the history they were built to preserve. Monuments reflecting historical events aren’t the problem. Confederate monuments — most of them built decades after the war — don’t tell the real story. Most of the South’s Confederate monuments were erected at the start of the 20th century, a time when false Lost Cause ideology had taken root as a way to rationalize the Southern fight and defeat. Oxford’s monuments were erected more than 40 years after the war, and it’s no accident they were placed in the city’s most symbolically powerful spots (at the center of campus and the center of town). Monuments were designed, constructed and dedicated with the purpose of eternally memorializing the Confederacy as a nation of heroism anchored to a noble fight for states’ rights — a country that wasn’t “defeated” by the American Union it sought to sever, but merely outmanned and overwhelmed. Confederate statues don’t tell the story of the Civil War, but rather how people wanted the war to be remembered. It didn’t matter that the glossy narrative of the Confederacy’s fight for liberty stood in stark contrast to the words of its leaders who decades earlier clung to the preservation of slavery and economic prosperity as the primary cause of secession. Monuments served not only to freeze that sentiment but to establish Southern white supremacy as a distinct cultural force destined to rise again. A century later, that story persists in many ways, creating yet another false narrative that preserving Confederate monuments is crucial to understanding its history. More often than not, those monuments contradict what we know to be true about the war and the Confederacy. This isn’t to say there isn’t value to them in studying the postbellum South. But there’s no convincing argument against finding more suitable places for Confederate monuments to serve that purpose and no reason why a false account of history should remain mounted in reverence at a public park or outside a courthouse or at the entrance of campus at a public university. Even Mississippi law, which prohibits the removal of any war-related monument, statue or landmark on public property, has an exception for moving them to another approved location. The debate isn’t over. And we’re part of it, whether we want to be or not. Reassessing the placement of Confederate monuments has nothing to do with changing history and everything to do with making sure we’re on the right side of it. _This_ [_article_](http://www.oxfordeagle.com/2017/08/16/removing-confederate-monuments-doesnt-erase-history-it-fact-checks-it/) _originally appeared on_ [The Oxford Eagle](http://www.oxfordeagle.com/)_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4903943/charlottesville-trump-confederate-statues-civil-war/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4903943/charlottesville-trump-confederate-statues-civil-war/"},"headline":"Removing Confederate Monuments Doesn't 'Erase' History. 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