https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdsvSA74Tuw
While a dozen St. Louis residents gathered to urge the removal of a 103-year-old Confederate monument, one woman is fighting to do the opposite.
“We’re all dividing and fighting over stone when we should be fighting for our community and our young people’s future,” Peggy Hubbard, who is Black, tells News 4.
The granite Civil War monument located in St. Louis’ Forest Park was vandalized for the second week in a row on Tuesday, May 30. “End Racism” and “Black Lives Matter” were among the writings spray painted onto it.
Following the removal of a monument in Louisiana, Mayor Lyda Krewson is looking to have the piece removed soon with a plan becoming final by the end of June.
“I want it left alone. I really do,” Hubbard says. “I think if people know the history behind why this statue is here and the significance of it all … these were Americans. These were soldiers. They were veterans and they have a right to be remembered like everybody else.”
Hubbard tried to convince others to share her stance, leading some to question why she, as a Black woman, would support a memorial rooted in racist history.
“It’s not about my color,” she says. “It is about only three colors — red, white and blue.”
Hubbard, who has previously spoken out against the Black Lives Matter movement, is hosting a unity rally Saturday, June 3, to discuss an alternative solution to removal.
“I want us to have dialogue,” she says. “I would like to sit down with the mayor [and] come up with a doable plan.”
Hubbard’s support of her local Confederate monument follows a similar showing in New Orleans from another Black woman.
