The White House reportedly removed language from the Confederacy Memorial located at Arlington National Cemetery.
Previously, a sign located at the memorial detailed how the inscription on one of the statues promoted the “Lost Cause” myth that portrayed the Confederates’ efforts against the Union Army as a noble cause while downplaying the severity of chattel slavery.
From The Washington Post:
The Trump administration has removed language criticizing a memorial to the Confederacy formerly located in Arlington National Cemetery, part of its ongoing effort to reshape portrayals of the Civil War.
The Confederate Memorial, a 32-foot bronze statue commissioned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and unveiled in 1914, was removed from the military cemetery in 2023. Its removal followed a congressional mandate to rid U.S. military property of names and symbols honoring the Confederacy and its leaders.
The website also formerly featured additional context about the sculpture’s symbolism, including a Latin phrase inscribed on it.
“An inscription … construes the South’s secession as a noble ‘Lost Cause,’” the website previously read. “This narrative of the Lost Cause, which romanticized the pre-Civil War South and denied the horrors of slavery, fueled white backlash against Reconstruction and the rights that the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments (1865-1870) had granted to African Americans.”
That language and other text was removed in recent weeks, according to photographs of the sign and archived versions of the webpage.
Asked about the changes to the sign and the website, the Defense Department referred questions to Arlington National Cemetery, which did not respond Monday.
The statue, which was created by sculptor and Confederate veteran Moses Ezekiel, was dismantled in 2023 and placed in storage amid some congressional GOP opposition. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last year that the statue would be reinstalled at Arlington National Cemetery. Last year, then-Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) had said that the statue would return next year.
The sign was first placed next to the memorial in 2020 and later updated after the bronze statue was removed in 2023. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth restored the statue last year. The sign noted how the monument offered “a nostalgic, mythologized vision of the Confederacy, including highly sanitized depictions of slavery.”
This wording was later replaced with a new sign that omitted the critical context about the Lost Cause myth.
Stephen West, a Catholic University historian, said he noticed the sign was changed on Sunday. He told The Washington Post that he was “deeply disturbed by the removal of that language and by plans to restore the statue — especially because they’re of a piece with the censoring and slanting of history at other federal sites.
The Trump administration issued several executive orders that instructed federal agencies to remove exhibits, signs, and websites that include “improper ideology,” “divisive narratives,” or content that “inappropriately disparages Americans.” These include language reflecting left-wing messaging on U.S. history and other matters.
Hegseth and other officials touted the executive orders a way of rejecting “woke” revisions of history in favor of celebrating American achievements.
