Pressure mounts to remove Confederate monuments around the US

<p>Pressure is building to remove Confederate monuments around the United States in the wake of the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.</p>

News 12 Staff

Aug 17, 2017, 11:02 PM

Updated 2,449 days ago

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Pressure is building to remove Confederate monuments around the United States in the wake of the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Baltimore crews removed four Confederate statues overnight earlier this week after a city council vote.
Now New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker says that he will introduce legislation to remove Confederate memorials from the United States Capitol.
New Jersey has few Confederate monuments – the biggest is an 85-foot-tall monument in the Pennsville cemetery. That monument was built in 1910 and recognizes more than 2,000 Confederate soldiers who died while captive at Fort Delaware.
The cemetery also contains the graves of 13 German POWs who died while being held at Fort Dix following their capture in World War II.
President Donald Trump posted on Twitter Thursday about his displeasure at the removal of the monuments.
"Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart…You can't change history, but you can learn from it,” he posted.
The president also asked who was next – statues of Thomas Jefferson or George Washington? President Trump previously made reference to the fact that Washington was a slave owner.
New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez says that the president was “grasping at straws.”
“The other symbols that have been talked about were those who wanted to divide the country and to divide the country over race. They wanted to continue to perpetuate slavery,” the senator says.
Menendez says that the president shouldn’t stand in the way of Sen. Booker’s bill.


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