- House Republicans overwhelmingly called for restoring the Confederate monument at Arlington National Cemetery.
- However, 24 Republicans joined all Democrats in opposing the bill, and it failed.
- The Confederate monument was removed from the cemetery in December and is now in storage.
House Republicans failed in an effort to reinstall Confederate monuments at Arlington National Cemetery after 24 lawmakers joined Democrats in opposing the bill.
The amendment was supported by 192 Republicans (about 90% of House Republicans), but 24 Republicans opposed the bill.
Supporters of the amendment include House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana, House Minority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana and House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik of New York.
Rep. Byron Donald of Florida, a prominent black conservative who argued earlier this month that “black families stayed together through Jim Crow,” voted for the amendment. Two other prominent black conservatives in Congress, Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas and Rep. Burgess Owens of Utah, also supported the amendment.
The amendment, authored by Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia, is part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2024.
No Democrats voted in favor of restoring the monument.
Last December, the monument was removed from Arlington National Cemetery as part of a movement to reconsider military sites named for Civil War-era Confederate leaders.
The removed monument is a 32-foot-tall bronze statue featuring an image of an enslaved black woman. The statue depicts a “mammy” holding the young child of a white Confederate officer, while an enslaved black man follows his Confederate owner to battle, according to the cemetery’s website.
The monument was designed by sculptor and Confederate veteran Moses Jacob Ezekiel and installed at the cemetery in 1914, nearly 50 years after the end of the Civil War.
The portrayal of the “Black Mammy” was stereotypical, depicting enslaved black women as content with their plight.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York on Friday blasted Republican lawmakers who supported the amendment.
“What traditions do radical MAGA Republicans uphold? What traditions do they uphold of the Confederacy? Slavery? Rape? Kidnapping? Jim Crow? Lynching? Racism? All of the above?” he said at a Capitol press conference.
The current debate comes four years after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police and the subsequent national reckoning on racial injustice. At the time, protests against racial injustice swept across the country and many lawmakers sought to push reforms to address racism and disparities in everything from health care to education.
But in the years since, many Republicans, spurred by former President Donald Trump’s campaign and a 2023 Supreme Court decision that effectively ended affirmative action in college admissions, have opposed Democratic-led efforts to redress past racial discrimination.
