The statue commemorating Confederate soldiers in Easton does not glorify those who fought in the Civil War as much as celebrate the era of official segregation known as Jim Crow that followed the conflict ("As Confederate symbols come down, 'Talbot Boys' endures," May 16).
The statue was dedicated in 1916, a time when Jim Crow laws perpetuated the notion of white supremacy and black inferiority and state and local governments devised legal restrictions to maintain separate and unequal opportunities for African-Americans.
Maryland's General Assembly passed numerous discriminatory laws during the first decades of the 20th century, including those that restricted access to schools, jobs, public accommodations and the voting booth.
Before the Civil War, the Eastern Shore was a stronghold of slavery. After the war, it remained closer to the deep South than to the rest of Maryland in terms of race relations.
By 1916, the Civil War had been over for 50 years. The Easton lawmakers who erected the statue were far more interested in sending a clear message about power and control in their own era than in memorializing the war veterans of the past.
Robert Baer, Overlea