What to Do with Confederate Monuments? By Paul Gilbert UMENTAL Decision T here are approximately 1,500 Confederate monuments and statues on battlefields, town greens, in parks and in front of courthouses. While most are in the South, surprisingly, many are also in the North and Midwest, and a number of them are in areas managed by park and recreation agencies. There has been a push in many areas to remove these monuments from the center of civic life. So, some thought is necessary about the pros and cons of removing these monuments from some areas and potentially accepting them in other public areas. Sorting through those issues takes some insight into the current issue and the last 150 years of American history, particularly in the South. W W W. PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N . O R G | O C T O B E R 2 0 1 7 | Parks & Recreation 37