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Letters to the Editor

Confederate monument in Manatee should be removed

This monument for Confederate veterans was erected by the Judah P. Benjamin Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The monument, which has a Confederate flag etched on one side, was unveiled in June 1924 and sits outside the Manatee County Historic Courthouse.
This monument for Confederate veterans was erected by the Judah P. Benjamin Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The monument, which has a Confederate flag etched on one side, was unveiled in June 1924 and sits outside the Manatee County Historic Courthouse. Tiffany Tompkins ttompkins@bradenton.com

Kudos to the Bradenton Herald. Its blockbuster revelation on July 17 (online, and in print July 18) of a 93-year-old monumental tribute (literally) to the brutal system of chattel slavery on the grounds of the Manatee County Historic Courthouse should evoke demands for the monument's immediate removal.

The terrorism inflicted on the slave by the slaveocracy, our African American Holocaust, supported by the Confederate soldier was hardly “CALM AND NOBLE... TRUE TO THE BEST TRADITIONS OF THE SOUTH” — contrary to the monument’s claim.

Robert Phillipoff

Bradenton

This story was originally published July 22, 2017 at 12:51 PM with the headline "Confederate monument in Manatee should be removed."

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