oa Reparations After a Century of White Supremacy Set in Stone: Confederate Statues in the Transitional Justice Debate

Confederate monuments in the United States of America are part of a public, emotional debate that is increasingly heated since the events in Charleston in 2015, Charlottesville in 2017, and the murder of George Floyd in 2020. This work focuses on the potential impact of transitional justice mechanisms on the Confederate monument debate in the Southern United States. The ‘monument debate’ ties into the theme of diasporic heritage and identity. United States heritage protection laws decide whether to keep or remove the monuments. Confederate monuments hold close ties, positive or negative, to the identity of Black and white Americans, at home and in the diaspora. The history of and debate around these monuments continues to shape American identity. This paper describes the impact that transitional justice processes could have on the Confederate monument debate in the Southern United States. Previous failures to enact transitional justice measures in the United States for slavery and systemic racism have exacerbated the current conflict surrounding these monuments. For the ‘monument debate’ to have a more successful outcome, transitional justice must take center stage. A transitional justice approach recognizes the heritage, identity, and collective memory that these monuments represent while at the same time acknowledging that they are symbols of suffering and oppression.