Academic rigor is an alien concept in American schools and universities.
Don’t like the facts? Change or ignore the facts.
The statues were put up to change the facts and revise the history.
The basic fact of the matter is that a civil was fought over slavery and the South lost that war.
These statues were not erected at the time of the civil war.
They came later. Many were put up at the time of Jim Crow and the Civil Rights movement.