STATUES IN BALANCE
Our questions about history influence the conversation about how we ought to publicly remember the past. With nearly 1,800 memorials, statues, and other public symbols of the Confederacy across the United States, scrutiny of historical figures has grown as more institutions, historians, and individuals reassess our past in light of our current values.
Following the August 2017 white-supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, many communities turned years of discussion about their Confederate monuments into action. Some statues were removed and some remained standing. In other cases, monuments were relocated to museums or private collections. Schools were renamed, and even the Mississippi state flag was redesigned without the inclusion of the Confederate battle flag in its canton.
After the Charlottesville tragedy, a group of people gathered in the public square of downtown Franklin, Tennessee, to hold a prayer vigil. Located in central Tennessee’s Williamson County, a little over 20 miles south of Nashville, Franklin is a key site in the American Civil War — home to the Battle of Franklin of November 1864. Among those who attended the vigil were pastor Kevin Riggs of Franklin Community Church and Eric Jacobson, historian and CEO of the Battle of Franklin Trust. Riggs
