If you don't already understand why we shouldn't honor men who fought to preserve slavery then nothing I say is going to help you understand.

>Belgium refuse to return remains

Seems on brand for a country that also put Congolese men, women and children in the world's last human zoo for the 1958 world's fair:

>The 1958 exhibit was smaller in scale, but similar in content. A “typical” village was set up, where the Congolese spent their days carrying out their crafts by straw huts while they were mocked by the white men and women who stood at the edge. > >“If there was no reaction, they threw money or bananas over the closure of bamboo,” one journalist wrote at the time of the spectators. > >Another report told of people gossiping about “seeing the negros at the zoological gardens”

I lived in Richmond from the 70s to the 90s and experienced some of the same. (Lived in Lakeside then Glen Allen) I remember having to visit the monuments and do book reports on them in school. It brings me great joy that these statues are finally gone.

It also makes me laugh that the only statue left is the statue of Arthur Ashe .