Here’s a short 2 and a half minute Youtube video that’s relevant and informative.
This timeline shows confederate monuments are about racial conflict
For those of you that don’t want to watch (of course, some of it is meaningless without having watched the video for the full context);
This makes it pretty clear that these monuments weren’t just trying to ‘celebrate history and honor the noble Confederacy.’ They were erected to scare and intimidate black people, plain and simple.
Yeah, it is looking more and more like the confederate monuments is more about white pride and racism than honoring the past. However, I do have to wonder if part of the peak around 1910 might have anything to do with the 50th anniversary of secession and the early Civil War battles. It would not be unexpected for people to erect monuments and whatnot around the 50th anniversary of a bid event.