Appreciating our enslaved ancestors despite the relics of the Confederacy

"So, this week marks the celebration of Juneteenth, which is still a fairly new holiday for me and my family.

And all the Juneteenth parties and remembrances reminded me of an article my uncle sent me recently. It’s about a group of Black citizens who filed a federal lawsuit in an attempt to get rid of a Confederate monument in Columbia, N.C., the hometown of my grandfather and his entire family. The 23-foot-high statue sits at the front of the local courthouse with a plaque on the bottom that reads: “IN APPRECIATION OF OUR FAITHFUL SLAVES.”"