Graduate Student Jackson Prather Featured on al.com Opinion Page

Confederate monuments are about more than just the Confederacy

Jackson Prather
Jackson Prather

By Jackson Prather, a master’s student in the Department of History at the University of Alabama, graduate of the University of North Alabama and longtime resident of the state of Alabama

It’s been called the “Hatred” Preservation Act, and it has been widely condemned for its alleged defense of the Confederacy. Officially titled the Alabama Heritage Preservation Act of 2016, the bill would prohibit the relocation, removal, alteration, or renaming of statues, monuments, memorials, and buildings on public property. After the Senate approved the bill in March, sponsor Gerald Dial proclaimed that the bill would “make sure that the true story of Alabama history is told.”

In the divisive debate over Confederate monuments, two camps have formed: outright removal versus legal protection. These two positions talk past each other and allow the debate to devolve into either an attack or a defense of slavery and the Confederacy

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