"This is a long overdue conversation. What we are seeing is frustration, pain, and anger that has reached a boiling point. Many of these monuments were, in fact, put up right after Reconstruction as part of a backlash to the rising political, social, and economic power of Black people after the Civil War. Others were put up in response to the Brown v. Board of Education civil rights achievements and successes. And we need to have an honest conversation about that. They were put up, many of them, as a signal to put Black people back in their place. And they trigger, for many people, 400 years of pain and suffering and oppression in this country. They need to be removed safely. And preferably with conversations that can lead to healing in those communities.