Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced that a Confederate statue which whitewashes slavery will be returned to Arlington National Cemetery in Northern Virginia. The monument, known as 'The Reconciliation Monument', was removed in 2023 under the Biden administration as part of efforts to take down Confederate symbols.
Hegseth wrote on X Tuesday evening: 'I’m proud to announce that Moses Ezekiel’s beautiful and historic sculpture ... will be rightfully ... returned to Arlington National Cemetery near his burial site. It never should have been taken down by woke lemmings. Unlike the Left, we don’t believe in erasing American history—we honour it.'
The bronze memorial, measuring 32 feet, was created by Ezekiel, a Confederate soldier who promoted the 'Lost Cause' myth that the Civil War was a heroic struggle against tyranny rather than a war to preserve slavery. The monument includes figures of an enslaved woman holding a white officer’s child and a man accompanying his owner to war, suggesting Black support for their own enslavement.
Critics argue that the statue whitewashes the violence of slavery and memorialises the post-Reconstruction era of racial segregation and oppression. The National Park Service has also announced the return of a statue of Confederate General Albert Pike, who advocated for white supremacy, to Washington, D.C.
