Explore questions of public memory through this bill that would exclude statues of confederate soldiers from the Capitol building.
In 2017, white supremacist protesters gathered at the University of Virginia, in part to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. After the protest turned violent and deadly, lawmakers proposed removing Confederate Statues from the halls of Congress.
This bill gives students the chance to consider the legacy of the Civil War and think about public memory from multiple perspectives. How should members of the Confederacy be remembered in modern-day America? Should statues be relocated to museums and contextualized in history? Should they be allowed to remain in the Capitol but out of public view? Students consider these questions in S.1772, the Confederate Monument Removal Act of 2017.
Use this lesson plan to explore the issue and prepare to conduct a Senate debate on a related bill.
