Actually, the side trying to erase history is the side trying to keep the statue up, not those trying to tear it down. The statue was erected in 1884 well after the end of the Civil War, seven years into the Jim Crow era and the long suppression of civil rights in the South. Sadly, the respected general's image was not constructed as a means to honor war dead but as a means to intimidate those who were trying to bring change and equality to the South. Those blaming political correctness for this should shift the blame to those who deserve it: the white supremacists who used the image of a respected hero as a symbol for a cause General Lee would have abhorred. Let the honored dead on both sides rest in peace.