A new garland adorns Dr Ambedkar&rsquo;s statue in Anantapur nearly every day. At around 8:30 a.m., A. Subhan, a flower seller, climbs up the steps to the gold-painted statue with a garland of red roses or lilies woven by his family. Either Subhan or his 17-year-old nephew Bablu make sure this is done regularly.

The ritual started around 2010, after an old statue of Dr Ambedkar, apparently in the way of traffic, was demolished and the present one came up. The statue is located around a kilometre south of the clock tower in the central part of Anantapur town in Andhra Pradesh, within walking distance of Subhan&rsquo;s flower stall.&nbsp;

Other statues close by are rather less fortunate. The first after the clock tower, on the same stretch of road, is of Indira Gandhi. It is covered in jute cloth now but has seen better days when the Congress was in power in Andhra Pradesh (from 2004 to 2014). In 2013, an earlier version of the statue was smashed and burned down by protesters opposing the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh into Telangana. A new statue was later installed, but it continues to be shrouded. A statue of Rajiv Gandhi on this stretch is also covered. Perhaps these reflect the Congress party&rsquo;s subdued fortunes in the state.

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The numerous statues of historical figures and politicians in Anantapur town seem to be forgotten after commemorative events, but Dr Ambedkar is remembered every day (Others)
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Several other statues stand on that road &ndash; Potti Sreeramulu (who died in 1952 fasting for a separate Telugu state of Andhra Pradesh), Abdul Kalam Azad, Y.S. Rajashekhar Reddy, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Babu Jagjivan Ram, Kanshi Ram and Mother Teresa. Occasionally, these too are garlanded. But their flowers soon start decaying, and the leaders seem to be forgotten after commemorative events.

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Subhan, whose flower shop is not far from the statue, says, &#39;We do it because we admire Ambedkar&#39; (Others)
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Babasaheb Ambedkar&rsquo;s statue though is remembered every day. A. Mallesh, a cashier at an Andhra Bank branch near the clock tower, pays Subhan at the beginning of every month for the garlands. &ldquo;He pays me 1,000 rupees,&rdquo; 36-year-old Subhan, a Muslim, says. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t make any profit, but we do it because we admire Ambedkar.&rdquo; A garland in Subhan&rsquo;s shop costs Rs. 60 to 130, depending on the flowers used.&nbsp;

Mallesh&rsquo;s reverence for Dr Ambedkar is rooted in his own experience of caste discrimination. &ldquo;There was no food, no water, no oil for the head, no books to read, no slate to write on [in my village],&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Now the god has provided us with everything &ndash; god meaning Ambedkar.&rdquo; Mallesh is a Madiga Dalit from Atmakur village of Anantapur district. &ldquo;In our village, there was only one well for drinking water,&rdquo; he recalls. &ldquo;We were only allowed to take water when the [land-owning] farmers came to draw water. Otherwise, there was no water. Madigas couldn&rsquo;t touch [the well].&rdquo;

At school in Anantapur town, Mallesh and other children from Dalit and tribal communities had to sit in a corner of the classroom, while the upper caste students sat in the front. &ldquo;We had to carry mud from outside [and spread it on the floor] for writing. We didn&rsquo;t have slates,&rdquo; he remembers. &ldquo;If someone said &lsquo;Hey Madiga! Take the mud out&rsquo; we had to throw it out.&rdquo; &nbsp;The teacher too often insulted the Dalits by referring to their caste and would beat them with palm canes.&nbsp;

Mallesh, now 59, had to drop out of the school after Class 7 to support his mother when his father, an agricultural labourer, died. He worked as a helper at a government hostel in Anantapur and started applying for government jobs. In 1982, he found work as an attendant at Andhra Bank for a monthly salary of Rs. 500. By 1985, after an interview at the bank, he got a better-paid post as a clerical assistant.

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In 2010, while working as a clerical assistant at the bank, A. Mallesh decided &#39;just like that&#39; to garland Dr Ambedkar for as long as he could (Others)
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Mallesh has also worked in various Dalit unions and organisations and was until recently the zone-wide president of the SC &amp; ST Employees Welfare Association at his bank. He has participated in various protests against caste discrimination. Around 1995, he recalls, he went on a 10-kilometre march from Anantapur to Alamur with left parties and other activists to protest an instance of caste discrimination. Mallesh was also the president of Dandora, a Dalit group formed in the 1990s, but moved out of it by the 2000s due to political differences.

Around 1996, Mallesh prepared for and passed his Class 10 exams. Eventually, this helped him move up from his clerical assistant&rsquo;s post to his present job as a cashier in 2013 &ndash; which now pays him a salary many times more than his initial Rs. 500.&nbsp;

In 2010, while still a clerical assistant, Mallesh decided &ldquo;just like that&rdquo; to garland Dr Ambedkar for as long as he could. He remembers a small informal meeting of bank employees and others from Dalit communities, where they volunteered to pool donations for the garlands. But Mallesh didn&rsquo;t want to chase people for money every month, so he and M. Gopal, an attendant at another branch of Andhra Bank, decided to share the cost. Gopal stopped contributing last year and now only Mallesh pays for the garlands.

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While Subhan garlands the Ambedkar statue early every morning (left), the statue of Indira Gandhi (right) has for long remained wrapped in jute cloth (Others)
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Mallesh doesn&rsquo;t like reading or being lectured about Ambedkar. He says he learnt about Ambedkar by just living the life of a Dalit: &ldquo;I can imagine the kind of hardships he would have faced, based on the hardships I experienced. We can learn just by looking at what he has done for us. Isn&rsquo;t he the one who wrote our Constitution?&rdquo;

On weekends or festival days Mallesh sometimes garlands the statue himself. He is planning to petition the district administration to install a shade to protect it from sunlight, wind and bird droppings. &ldquo;First we will try to get it for Ambedkar,&quot; he says, &quot;then we will ask the same for Jagjivan Ram and then for Kanshi Ram.&rdquo;&nbsp;

Although the flowers on Dr &nbsp;Ambedkar&rsquo;s statue might not be noticed by many in Anantapur, the sweepers who clean the roads in the early mornings know about it. &ldquo;Someone, probably someone big, garlands the statue every day. I don&rsquo;t know who does it,&rdquo; says G. Ramalakshmi, a Dalit woman employed by the town&rsquo;s municipal corporation to clean the streets. As she says this, she touches her fingers to either side of her chin, in a gesture of devotion, &ldquo;When I see the statue with the garland I think that the god [Ambedkar] is doing well. We pray to him while coming to work every day.&rdquo;

This&nbsp;<a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/articles/the-garland-on-anantapurs-ambedkar-statue/" rel="nofollow" target="blank">article</a>&nbsp;was originally published on 17/ 10/2017 on the&nbsp;<a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/" rel="nofollow" target="blank">People&#39;s Archive of Rural India</a>.

Photo Credit: Rahul M.

?When I see the statue with the garland I think that the god [Ambedkar] is doing well. We pray to him while coming to work every day.?

A new garland adorns Dr Ambedkar’s statue in Anantapur nearly every day. At around 8:30 a.m., A. Subhan, a flower seller, climbs up the steps to the gold-painted statue with a garland of red roses or lilies woven by his family. Either Subhan or his 17-year-old nephew Bablu make sure this is done regularly. The ritual started around 2010, after an old statue of Dr Ambedkar, apparently in the way of traffic, was demolished and the present one came up. The statue is located around a kilometre south of the clock tower in the central part of Anantapur town in Andhra Pradesh, within walking distance of Subhan’s flower stall. Other statues close by are rather less fortunate. The first after the clock tower, on the same stretch of road, is of Indira Gandhi. It is covered in jute cloth now but has seen better days when the Congress was in power in Andhra Pradesh (from 2004 to 2014). In 2013, an earlier version of the statue was smashed and burned down by protesters opposing the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh into Telangana. A new statue was later installed, but it continues to be shrouded. A statue of Rajiv Gandhi on this stretch is also covered. Perhaps these reflect the Congress party’s subdued fortunes in the state. The numerous statues of historical figures and politicians in Anantapur town seem to be forgotten after commemorative events, but Dr Ambedkar is remembered every day (Others) × Several other statues stand on that road – Potti Sreeramulu (who died in 1952 fasting for a separate Telugu state of Andhra Pradesh), Abdul Kalam Azad, Y.S. Rajashekhar Reddy, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Babu Jagjivan Ram, Kanshi Ram and Mother Teresa. Occasionally, these too are garlanded. But their flowers soon start decaying, and the leaders seem to be forgotten after commemorative events. Subhan, whose flower shop is not far from the statue, says, 'We do it because we admire Ambedkar' (Others) × Babasaheb Ambedkar’s statue though is remembered every day. A. Mallesh, a cashier at an Andhra Bank branch near the clock tower, pays Subhan at the beginning of every month for the garlands. “He pays me 1,000 rupees,” 36-year-old Subhan, a Muslim, says. “We don’t make any profit, but we do it because we admire Ambedkar.” A garland in Subhan’s shop costs Rs. 60 to 130, depending on the flowers used. Mallesh’s reverence for Dr Ambedkar is rooted in his own experience of caste discrimination. “There was no food, no water, no oil for the head, no books to read, no slate to write on [in my village],” he says. “Now the god has provided us with everything – god meaning Ambedkar.” Mallesh is a Madiga Dalit from Atmakur village of Anantapur district. “In our village, there was only one well for drinking water,” he recalls. “We were only allowed to take water when the [land-owning] farmers came to draw water. Otherwise, there was no water. Madigas couldn’t touch [the well].” At school in Anantapur town, Mallesh and other children from Dalit and tribal communities had to sit in a corner of the classroom, while the upper caste students sat in the front. “We had to carry mud from outside [and spread it on the floor] for writing. We didn’t have slates,” he remembers. “If someone said ‘Hey Madiga! Take the mud out’ we had to throw it out.” The teacher too often insulted the Dalits by referring to their caste and would beat them with palm canes. Mallesh, now 59, had to drop out of the school after Class 7 to support his mother when his father, an agricultural labourer, died. He worked as a helper at a government hostel in Anantapur and started applying for government jobs. In 1982, he found work as an attendant at Andhra Bank for a monthly salary of Rs. 500. By 1985, after an interview at the bank, he got a better-paid post as a clerical assistant. In 2010, while working as a clerical assistant at the bank, A. Mallesh decided 'just like that' to garland Dr Ambedkar for as long as he could (Others) × Mallesh has also worked in various Dalit unions and organisations and was until recently the zone-wide president of the SC & ST Employees Welfare Association at his bank. He has participated in various protests against caste discrimination. Around 1995, he recalls, he went on a 10-kilometre march from Anantapur to Alamur with left parties and other activists to protest an instance of caste discrimination. Mallesh was also the president of Dandora, a Dalit group formed in the 1990s, but moved out of it by the 2000s due to political differences. Around 1996, Mallesh prepared for and passed his Class 10 exams. Eventually, this helped him move up from his clerical assistant’s post to his present job as a cashier in 2013 – which now pays him a salary many times more than his initial Rs. 500. In 2010, while still a clerical assistant, Mallesh decided “just like that” to garland Dr Ambedkar for as long as he could. He remembers a small informal meeting of bank employees and others from Dalit communities, where they volunteered to pool donations for the garlands. But Mallesh didn’t want to chase people for money every month, so he and M. Gopal, an attendant at another branch of Andhra Bank, decided to share the cost. Gopal stopped contributing last year and now only Mallesh pays for the garlands. While Subhan garlands the Ambedkar statue early every morning (left), the statue of Indira Gandhi (right) has for long remained wrapped in jute cloth (Others) × Mallesh doesn’t like reading or being lectured about Ambedkar. He says he learnt about Ambedkar by just living the life of a Dalit: “I can imagine the kind of hardships he would have faced, based on the hardships I experienced. We can learn just by looking at what he has done for us. Isn’t he the one who wrote our Constitution?” On weekends or festival days Mallesh sometimes garlands the statue himself. He is planning to petition the district administration to install a shade to protect it from sunlight, wind and bird droppings. “First we will try to get it for Ambedkar," he says, "then we will ask the same for Jagjivan Ram and then for Kanshi Ram.” Although the flowers on Dr Ambedkar’s statue might not be noticed by many in Anantapur, the sweepers who clean the roads in the early mornings know about it. “Someone, probably someone big, garlands the statue every day. I don’t know who does it,” says G. Ramalakshmi, a Dalit woman employed by the town’s municipal corporation to clean the streets. As she says this, she touches her fingers to either side of her chin, in a gesture of devotion, “When I see the statue with the garland I think that the god [Ambedkar] is doing well. We pray to him while coming to work every day.” This article was originally published on 17/ 10/2017 on the People's Archive of Rural India. Photo Credit: Rahul M.

The garland on Anantapur's Ambedkar statue

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Friday that calls to replace or modify&nbsp;statues&nbsp;of English colonialists, including explorer Captain James Cook, were tantamount to a &quot;Stalinist&quot; rewrite of history.

Pressure has grown in the wake of the furor over Confederate monuments in the United States to reconsider&nbsp;statues&nbsp;in Australia that some deem offensive to the country&#39;s indigenous people.

Sydney, Australia&#39;s largest city, is deciding whether to alter a monument erected in Hyde Park, 1879, to commemorate Cook, who charted Australia&#39;s east coast for the first time.

At issue is the engraving on the base of the statue, which says &quot;Discovered this territory, 1770&quot;. Aboriginal people had lived on the continent for an estimated 60,000 years before Cook dropped anchor in Botany Bay.

Sydney City Council has referred the issue, along with a second statue of Governor Lachlan Macquarie, the administrator who turned the British penal colony into a free settlement, to an indigenous advisory board.

The council has not yet indicated what changes it might make.

Turnbull played down the issue as a preoccupation of the &quot;left sort of fringe&quot; in politics.

&quot;We can&rsquo;t get into this sort of Stalinist exercise of trying to white out or obliterate or blank out parts of our history,&quot; Turnbull told radio station 3AW.

&quot;Trying to edit our history is wrong,&quot; he said. &quot;All of those&nbsp;statues, all of those monuments, are part of our history and we should respect them and preserve them &ndash; and by all means, put up other monuments, other&nbsp;statues&nbsp;and signs and sights that explain our history.&quot;

The debate has intensified since the political battle in the United States over whether to remove statues&nbsp;of pro-slavery Confederate Civil War leaders turned violent.

Sydney commemorates its Gadigal and Eora traditional owners with public artworks and Welcome To Country ceremonies before official meetings, but Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the community needs to talk about how to tell its history.

&quot;I think that&#39;s a conversation that really needs to have federal leadership because it&#39;s about Australia, it&#39;s about who we are,&quot; she told reporters on Friday.

Indigenous people are campaigning for constitutional recognition in Australia and debate has raged over whether to change Australia Day from January 26 which commemorates the day British colonists first settled the Aboriginal land.

Pressure has grown in the wake of the furor over Confederate monuments in the United States to reconsider statues in Australia

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Friday that calls to replace or modify statues of English colonialists, including explorer Captain James Cook, were tantamount to a "Stalinist" rewrite of history. Pressure has grown in the wake of the furor over Confederate monuments in the United States to reconsider statues in Australia that some deem offensive to the country's indigenous people. Sydney, Australia's largest city, is deciding whether to alter a monument erected in Hyde Park, 1879, to commemorate Cook, who charted Australia's east coast for the first time. At issue is the engraving on the base of the statue, which says "Discovered this territory, 1770". Aboriginal people had lived on the continent for an estimated 60,000 years before Cook dropped anchor in Botany Bay. Sydney City Council has referred the issue, along with a second statue of Governor Lachlan Macquarie, the administrator who turned the British penal colony into a free settlement, to an indigenous advisory board. The council has not yet indicated what changes it might make. Turnbull played down the issue as a preoccupation of the "left sort of fringe" in politics. "We can’t get into this sort of Stalinist exercise of trying to white out or obliterate or blank out parts of our history," Turnbull told radio station 3AW. "Trying to edit our history is wrong," he said. "All of those statues, all of those monuments, are part of our history and we should respect them and preserve them – and by all means, put up other monuments, other statues and signs and sights that explain our history." The debate has intensified since the political battle in the United States over whether to remove statues of pro-slavery Confederate Civil War leaders turned violent. Sydney commemorates its Gadigal and Eora traditional owners with public artworks and Welcome To Country ceremonies before official meetings, but Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the community needs to talk about how to tell its history. "I think that's a conversation that really needs to have federal leadership because it's about Australia, it's about who we are," she told reporters on Friday. Indigenous people are campaigning for constitutional recognition in Australia and debate has raged over whether to change Australia Day from January 26 which commemorates the day British colonists first settled the Aboriginal land.

Australia's PM says to modify, change statues, rewriting the history

The violent scenes in Charlottesville, Virginia, that led to the death of one woman and left much more injured began as a dispute over a statue of General Robert E. Lee, which sits in a local public park. However, the controversy feeds into a much wider debate that is as old as the United States itself. So, who was Lee and why does a memorial to him trouble so many people?

The meeting of white supremacists in Charlottesville was originally held under the pretext of demonstrating against plans to remove the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-to-do-with-confederate-statues-81736">statue</a>. The Charlottesville city council voted in February for it to be removed from the recently renamed Emancipation Park (formerly Lee Park). The decision came as part of a movement to challenge the ubiquity of Confederate symbols in the South.

These statues, for their opponents, signify the oppression of African Americans under slavery and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Jim-Crow-law">Jim Crow segregation laws</a>. They serve as daily reminders of the vulnerability of black people. The message of such monuments is the same to many of their defenders, even if their interpretation is different. To the white supremacists who gathered on the streets of Charlottesville, the statue of Lee represents white military and political power.

In the decades after the Civil War, memorials celebrating the South&#39;s valiant effort and glorious defeat appeared all over the region. They embodied the myth of the &ldquo;lost cause&rdquo; &ndash; the idea that the war had been fought to defend states&rsquo; rights, rather than slavery. In this interpretation, the south only lost because of the industrial might of the northern &ldquo;aggressor&rdquo;.

This doctrine came to prominence during the Jim Crow era when whites implemented racial segregation through violent, extra-legal and then legal means. The lost cause memory was used to justify and enforce white supremacy.

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BREAKING: Durham, NC activists just TOOK DOWN a confederate statue themselves! 
 
<a href="https://t.co/TraADOeGaP">https://t.co/TraADOeGaP</a>
&mdash; The Opposition (@oppstn) <a href="https://twitter.com/oppstn/status/897239210075316224">14 August 2017</a></blockquote>
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For many, the Confederate memorials continue to represent this repression. They are a celebration of southern identity as white. Since the rise of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/black-lives-matter-14463">Black Lives Matter</a> movement, the slogan &ldquo;BLM&rdquo;, as well as the names of victims of police shootings have appeared on memorials around the country. &ldquo;Black Lives Matter&rdquo; was sprayed on Charlottesville&rsquo;s Lee statue in the days following the <a href="https://theconversation.com/hate-violence-and-the-tragedy-of-the-charleston-shootings-43579">Charleston church shootings</a> in 2015. Along with calls for the removal of Confederate flags from civic buildings, there have been increasingly vocal, and successful demands to reconsider the place of monuments in public spaces.

Who was Robert E. Lee?

The statue in Charlottesville is of Lee atop his horse, Traveller. The Confederate general and native of Virginia hold a hat in one hand and his horse&rsquo;s reins in the other, his sword ready at his side.

It was unveiled by Lee&rsquo;s great-granddaughter at a ceremony in May 1924. As was the custom on these occasions it was accompanied by a parade and speeches. In the dedication address, Lee was celebrated as a hero, who embodied &ldquo;the moral greatness of the Old South&rdquo;, and as a proponent of reconciliation between the two sections. The war itself was remembered as a conflict between &ldquo;interpretations of our Constitution&rdquo; and between &ldquo;ideals of democracy.&rdquo;

Here was the states&rsquo; rights argument. The south fought a noble war over its right to self-determination, rather than an effort to keep millions enslaved. Lee claimed one of the speakers, &ldquo;abhorred slavery&rdquo;. In his position as commander of the Confederate Army of North Virginia, Lee represented military endeavor rather than a political struggle to uphold human bondage.

This has made Lee a powerful symbol of the Confederacy. He allowed white southerners to ignore the central role of slavery in the war. They could forget that the southern states seceded in order to uphold slavery and that their defeat meant freedom to millions of enslaved people. There was no space for black memories of emancipation in the South&#39;s public spaces. Confederates were white and their monuments were celebrations of whiteness.

Lee is one of the most frequent figures to be memorialised in statues, aside from the common soldier. In 2016, the <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/20160421/whose-heritage-public-symbols-confederacy">Southern Poverty Law Center</a> cataloged all publicly supported spaces dedicated to the Confederacy, finding 203 examples named for Robert E. Lee. Streets, highways, counties, cities, parks, monuments and 52 public schools are named after the Confederate general. Up until 2015, Lee&rsquo;s birthday was officially marked in five states.

The same year as Lee&rsquo;s statue appeared in Charlottesville, Virginia passed laws which strengthened definitions of who was &ldquo;colored&rdquo; and who was &ldquo;white&rdquo;, and which reinforced the law prohibiting interracial marriage. Then, two years later, the state passed a law to enforce racial segregation in places of public entertainment.

The monument to Lee served the same purpose as the legislation &ndash; to remind African Americans of their perceived place and inferiority. White nationalists gathered to protect the statue in 2017 because they wanted to celebrate its message. Like the original creators and supporters of the Lee monument, they sought to celebrate a white supremacist vision not just of the past, but of the present.

&nbsp;

This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/charlottesville-virginia-the-history-of-the-statue-at-the-centre-of-violent-unrest-82476">original article</a>.

The statue of General Robert E. Lee serves as a reminder to the African-American of their tormentous past.

The violent scenes in Charlottesville, Virginia, that led to the death of one woman and left much more injured began as a dispute over a statue of General Robert E. Lee, which sits in a local public park. However, the controversy feeds into a much wider debate that is as old as the United States itself. So, who was Lee and why does a memorial to him trouble so many people? The meeting of white supremacists in Charlottesville was originally held under the pretext of demonstrating against plans to remove the statue. The Charlottesville city council voted in February for it to be removed from the recently renamed Emancipation Park (formerly Lee Park). The decision came as part of a movement to challenge the ubiquity of Confederate symbols in the South. These statues, for their opponents, signify the oppression of African Americans under slavery and the Jim Crow segregation laws. They serve as daily reminders of the vulnerability of black people. The message of such monuments is the same to many of their defenders, even if their interpretation is different. To the white supremacists who gathered on the streets of Charlottesville, the statue of Lee represents white military and political power. In the decades after the Civil War, memorials celebrating the South's valiant effort and glorious defeat appeared all over the region. They embodied the myth of the “lost cause” – the idea that the war had been fought to defend states’ rights, rather than slavery. In this interpretation, the south only lost because of the industrial might of the northern “aggressor”. This doctrine came to prominence during the Jim Crow era when whites implemented racial segregation through violent, extra-legal and then legal means. The lost cause memory was used to justify and enforce white supremacy. BREAKING: Durham, NC activists just TOOK DOWN a confederate statue themselves! https://t.co/TraADOeGaP — The Opposition (@oppstn) 14 August 2017 × For many, the Confederate memorials continue to represent this repression. They are a celebration of southern identity as white. Since the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, the slogan “BLM”, as well as the names of victims of police shootings have appeared on memorials around the country. “Black Lives Matter” was sprayed on Charlottesville’s Lee statue in the days following the Charleston church shootings in 2015. Along with calls for the removal of Confederate flags from civic buildings, there have been increasingly vocal, and successful demands to reconsider the place of monuments in public spaces. Who was Robert E. Lee? The statue in Charlottesville is of Lee atop his horse, Traveller. The Confederate general and native of Virginia hold a hat in one hand and his horse’s reins in the other, his sword ready at his side. It was unveiled by Lee’s great-granddaughter at a ceremony in May 1924. As was the custom on these occasions it was accompanied by a parade and speeches. In the dedication address, Lee was celebrated as a hero, who embodied “the moral greatness of the Old South”, and as a proponent of reconciliation between the two sections. The war itself was remembered as a conflict between “interpretations of our Constitution” and between “ideals of democracy.” Here was the states’ rights argument. The south fought a noble war over its right to self-determination, rather than an effort to keep millions enslaved. Lee claimed one of the speakers, “abhorred slavery”. In his position as commander of the Confederate Army of North Virginia, Lee represented military endeavor rather than a political struggle to uphold human bondage. This has made Lee a powerful symbol of the Confederacy. He allowed white southerners to ignore the central role of slavery in the war. They could forget that the southern states seceded in order to uphold slavery and that their defeat meant freedom to millions of enslaved people. There was no space for black memories of emancipation in the South's public spaces. Confederates were white and their monuments were celebrations of whiteness. Lee is one of the most frequent figures to be memorialised in statues, aside from the common soldier. In 2016, the Southern Poverty Law Center cataloged all publicly supported spaces dedicated to the Confederacy, finding 203 examples named for Robert E. Lee. Streets, highways, counties, cities, parks, monuments and 52 public schools are named after the Confederate general. Up until 2015, Lee’s birthday was officially marked in five states. The same year as Lee’s statue appeared in Charlottesville, Virginia passed laws which strengthened definitions of who was “colored” and who was “white”, and which reinforced the law prohibiting interracial marriage. Then, two years later, the state passed a law to enforce racial segregation in places of public entertainment. The monument to Lee served the same purpose as the legislation – to remind African Americans of their perceived place and inferiority. White nationalists gathered to protect the statue in 2017 because they wanted to celebrate its message. Like the original creators and supporters of the Lee monument, they sought to celebrate a white supremacist vision not just of the past, but of the present. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Charlottesville, Virginia: the history of the statue at the centre of violent unrest

A statue of Argentina soccer star Lionel Messi was unveiled in Buenos Aires on Tuesday, just days after the Barcelona forward announced he was walking away from international play. 
 
The statue was uncovered by Buenos Aires Mayor Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, who said the inauguration of the statue was just on time to call on Messi to reconsider his decision to leave the national team. 
 
&quot;It&#39;s a very opportune moment we have today with the inauguration of his statue. And I think a good way to ask Lio to come with us, for him to remain together with us and for him to take us by the hand and to win, and I don&#39;t have any doubts that we&#39;d win the World Cup in Russia, is for those who can, Portenos or Argentines who come here to visit; to come, take your picture with the statue of Lio and post it on social media as a way to ask Lio to stick with us,&quot; Rodriguez Larreta said. 
 
Argentina&#39;s failure to defeat Chile in the final of the Copa America Centenario in the United States, a fourth lost final with the national team for Messi, proved too much for the little magician, leading him to quit international football on June 26. 
 
Taking into account the Confederations Cup, Argentina have lost seven major finals since 1995, three of them to arch-rivals Brazil, and four since Messi&#39;s debut in 2005, including the 2014 World Cup final defeat by Germany. 
 
Members from Argentina&#39;s 1986 World Cup championship team also weighed in on Messi&#39;s departure. 
 
&quot;I think it is just a hot moment, of frustration for not being able to achieve anything, but hopefully, God willing, he will reevaluate what he said and remain on the national team,&quot; said Hector Enrique of the 1986 squad. 
 
&quot;There&#39;s nothing to say to Messi. He just needs to talk with himself and his family,&quot; said Carlos Bilbardo who led the 1986 team as coach. 
 
&quot;Messi&#39;s retirement is due to the difficult moment he is going through. It is definitely his toughest moment as far as soccer goes, but I don&#39;t think this is the end. He will analyse it, evaluate it, and Messi is going to continue to play with the Argentine national team. Maybe that&#39;s just what I think. We&#39;ll have to see how he feels,&quot; added Luis Islas who was a substitute goalkeeper for the 1986 side. 
 
Messi&#39;s only major international honour has been Olympic gold at the 2008 Beijing Games, even though at club level he has won four Champions Leagues with Spain&#39;s Barcelona. 
 
Messi has been named World Player of the year five times and he surpassed Gabriel Batistuta as Argentina&#39;s top scorer in the Copa America semi-final against the United States. 
 
The statue, made of polyester resin and reinforced fibreglass built around a medal interior, was designed by realist sculptor Carlos Benavidez. 
 
The statue stands at Buenos Aires&#39; Paseo de la Gloria &quot;Glory Way&quot; which honours national sports heroes in the city&#39;s Costanera Sur Park near the Puerto Madero neighbourhood. 
 
(Reuters)

Lionel Messi statue stands at Buenos Aires' 'Glory Way', in a city park honouring national sports heroes

A statue of Argentina soccer star Lionel Messi was unveiled in Buenos Aires on Tuesday, just days after the Barcelona forward announced he was walking away from international play. The statue was uncovered by Buenos Aires Mayor Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, who said the inauguration of the statue was just on time to call on Messi to reconsider his decision to leave the national team. "It's a very opportune moment we have today with the inauguration of his statue. And I think a good way to ask Lio to come with us, for him to remain together with us and for him to take us by the hand and to win, and I don't have any doubts that we'd win the World Cup in Russia, is for those who can, Portenos or Argentines who come here to visit; to come, take your picture with the statue of Lio and post it on social media as a way to ask Lio to stick with us," Rodriguez Larreta said. Argentina's failure to defeat Chile in the final of the Copa America Centenario in the United States, a fourth lost final with the national team for Messi, proved too much for the little magician, leading him to quit international football on June 26. Taking into account the Confederations Cup, Argentina have lost seven major finals since 1995, three of them to arch-rivals Brazil, and four since Messi's debut in 2005, including the 2014 World Cup final defeat by Germany. Members from Argentina's 1986 World Cup championship team also weighed in on Messi's departure. "I think it is just a hot moment, of frustration for not being able to achieve anything, but hopefully, God willing, he will reevaluate what he said and remain on the national team," said Hector Enrique of the 1986 squad. "There's nothing to say to Messi. He just needs to talk with himself and his family," said Carlos Bilbardo who led the 1986 team as coach. "Messi's retirement is due to the difficult moment he is going through. It is definitely his toughest moment as far as soccer goes, but I don't think this is the end. He will analyse it, evaluate it, and Messi is going to continue to play with the Argentine national team. Maybe that's just what I think. We'll have to see how he feels," added Luis Islas who was a substitute goalkeeper for the 1986 side. Messi's only major international honour has been Olympic gold at the 2008 Beijing Games, even though at club level he has won four Champions Leagues with Spain's Barcelona. Messi has been named World Player of the year five times and he surpassed Gabriel Batistuta as Argentina's top scorer in the Copa America semi-final against the United States. The statue, made of polyester resin and reinforced fibreglass built around a medal interior, was designed by realist sculptor Carlos Benavidez. The statue stands at Buenos Aires' Paseo de la Gloria "Glory Way" which honours national sports heroes in the city's Costanera Sur Park near the Puerto Madero neighbourhood. (Reuters)

Argentina inaugurates Messi statue days after legend announces retirement from international play

Tearful residents laid flowers to their local MP, Jo Cox, on Thursday in the normally quiet Yorkshire village where the 41-year-old mother of two was gunned down, as armed police patrolled the area. 
 
As Britain struggled to comprehend a murder that has cast a shadow over next week&#39;s EU vote, investigators sealed off the home of the suspect -- named in the media as Thomas Mair -- and carried out a forensic search of his garden. 
 
Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of Cox&#39;s Labour Party, was expected in Birstall later on Friday after paying tribute to Cox at a vigil outside Parliament on Thursday. 
 
&quot;She grew up in this community, she lived for this community, she served this community, and in the end she gave her life for this community,&quot; Jonathan Gibbs, the Bishop of Huddersfield, told residents. 
 
Dozens of floral tributes could be seen at the foot of a statue in Birstall, a large village in a district of around 16,000 inhabitants. 
 
&quot;My heart breaks for your children. So many of your constituents are proud to have called you their MP. Our whole country is hurting right now,&quot; read one handwritten note left with the flowers. 
 
&quot;Jo, what a vile and tragic day,&quot; read another. 
 
Hichem Ben Abdallah, an eyewitness to the shooting who had campaigned in the last election alongside Cox, told AFP he was still in shock at the killing, the first murder of a serving British MP since the Irish Republican Army killed Ian Gow with a car bomb in 1990. 
 
&quot;She stood for peace and transparency, fighting corruption, wanted justice for all. I think her flame will carry on,&quot; he said. 
 
&quot;I hope we learn lessons from this,&quot; he added. 
 
Cox, a former charity worker who was only elected to Parliament last year, was best known for her campaigning in favour of refugee rights and for Britain staying in the European Union (EU). 
 
She grew up in the area and made an impassioned maiden speech in parliament about the ethnic diversity of her local community, which saw an influx of migrants from Ireland and the Indian subcontinent when it was a hub for the English textile industry. 
 
Sitting outside a local sports and social club, Stephen Lees said of the attack: &quot;It&#39;s atrocious. It&#39;s not something you expect around here. 
 
&quot;It&#39;s not sunk in properly yet.&quot; 
 
In London, mourners laid flowers on the roof of the house boat where Cox lived with her husband and two young children, next to Tower Bridge. 
 
Anne Wainwright, who lived alongside, told mourners: &quot;We have lost a dear, dear friend in the most tragic and outrageous circumstances.&quot; 
 
&quot;We pay tribute to our amazing, wonderful and spirited member of this community -- a beacon of hope who believed in love, friendship and values that we all so much need at this time. 
 
&quot;The community will continue to be inspired by her relentless energy and her commitment to all that is good.&quot;&nbsp; 
(AFP)

'Jo, what a vile and tragic day,' was one of the messages left for Jo cox at the foot of a statue in Birstall where she was killed

Tearful residents laid flowers to their local MP, Jo Cox, on Thursday in the normally quiet Yorkshire village where the 41-year-old mother of two was gunned down, as armed police patrolled the area. As Britain struggled to comprehend a murder that has cast a shadow over next week's EU vote, investigators sealed off the home of the suspect -- named in the media as Thomas Mair -- and carried out a forensic search of his garden. Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of Cox's Labour Party, was expected in Birstall later on Friday after paying tribute to Cox at a vigil outside Parliament on Thursday. "She grew up in this community, she lived for this community, she served this community, and in the end she gave her life for this community," Jonathan Gibbs, the Bishop of Huddersfield, told residents. Dozens of floral tributes could be seen at the foot of a statue in Birstall, a large village in a district of around 16,000 inhabitants. "My heart breaks for your children. So many of your constituents are proud to have called you their MP. Our whole country is hurting right now," read one handwritten note left with the flowers. "Jo, what a vile and tragic day," read another. Hichem Ben Abdallah, an eyewitness to the shooting who had campaigned in the last election alongside Cox, told AFP he was still in shock at the killing, the first murder of a serving British MP since the Irish Republican Army killed Ian Gow with a car bomb in 1990. "She stood for peace and transparency, fighting corruption, wanted justice for all. I think her flame will carry on," he said. "I hope we learn lessons from this," he added. Cox, a former charity worker who was only elected to Parliament last year, was best known for her campaigning in favour of refugee rights and for Britain staying in the European Union (EU). She grew up in the area and made an impassioned maiden speech in parliament about the ethnic diversity of her local community, which saw an influx of migrants from Ireland and the Indian subcontinent when it was a hub for the English textile industry. Sitting outside a local sports and social club, Stephen Lees said of the attack: "It's atrocious. It's not something you expect around here. "It's not sunk in properly yet." In London, mourners laid flowers on the roof of the house boat where Cox lived with her husband and two young children, next to Tower Bridge. Anne Wainwright, who lived alongside, told mourners: "We have lost a dear, dear friend in the most tragic and outrageous circumstances." "We pay tribute to our amazing, wonderful and spirited member of this community -- a beacon of hope who believed in love, friendship and values that we all so much need at this time. "The community will continue to be inspired by her relentless energy and her commitment to all that is good." (AFP)

English village in shock after British MP's murder

The statue in the town square of a Houston suburb depicting two young&nbsp;women&nbsp;posing for a selfie was meant to be a sign of the times. It has unleashed another sign of the times - a heated social media debate. 
 
The statue in Sugar Land, just outside of City Hall, was part of an installation of pieces donated to the city. Residents have been quick to weigh in on social media. 
 
&quot;Selfie Statue, Seriously? Sugarland what are your officials thinking,&quot; one Twitter comment read. Said another: &quot;I hope someone demolishes that disgrace of culture and an eye sore.&quot; 
 
Others defended the selfie statue. &quot;Let&rsquo;s Be Honest: The #SelfieStatue in #SugarLand, TX is a Perfect Sign of the Times,&quot; said one commentator. Added another: &quot;Unpopular Opinion: The Sugar Land, TX, selfie statue everyone is talking about is both art and good art.&quot; 
 
The statue in question is part of a group donated from a local resident. Others in the group include a statue of a man playing a guitar, and one of an alligator, installed near a pond. 
 
Some fans of the selfie statue have posed for selfies in front of it, while others praised the work but slammed the artist for depicting the&nbsp;women&nbsp;using what appears to be an outdated phone. 
 
Sugar Land city spokesman Doug Adolph said the selfie statue depicts something seen every day and yet &quot;it has upset some people.&quot; 
 
&quot;You can&#39;t please everyone,&quot; he said.

The statue in the town square of a Houston suburb depicting two young?women?posing for a selfie has sparked off a heated social media debate

The statue in the town square of a Houston suburb depicting two young women posing for a selfie was meant to be a sign of the times. It has unleashed another sign of the times - a heated social media debate. The statue in Sugar Land, just outside of City Hall, was part of an installation of pieces donated to the city. Residents have been quick to weigh in on social media. "Selfie Statue, Seriously? Sugarland what are your officials thinking," one Twitter comment read. Said another: "I hope someone demolishes that disgrace of culture and an eye sore." Others defended the selfie statue. "Let’s Be Honest: The #SelfieStatue in #SugarLand, TX is a Perfect Sign of the Times," said one commentator. Added another: "Unpopular Opinion: The Sugar Land, TX, selfie statue everyone is talking about is both art and good art." The statue in question is part of a group donated from a local resident. Others in the group include a statue of a man playing a guitar, and one of an alligator, installed near a pond. Some fans of the selfie statue have posed for selfies in front of it, while others praised the work but slammed the artist for depicting the women using what appears to be an outdated phone. Sugar Land city spokesman Doug Adolph said the selfie statue depicts something seen every day and yet "it has upset some people." "You can't please everyone," he said.

Selfie statue fails to click with some in Houston suburb

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