In August 2017, the death of anti-racist protestor Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, Virginia lead to an American reckoning regarding the prominence of Confederate symbols in public spaces. Cities across the country began finding ways to remove the statues of Confederate soldiers and statesmen, and to reexamine other statues dedicated to controversial historical figures. In Baltimore, Maryland, the city’s mayor chose to remove four statues located on public land associated with the Confederacy in an overnight operation. This removal followed two years of debate stirred by tragic events in early summer 2015: the death of Freddie Gray in the custody of the Baltimore Police Department and the Charleston A.M.E. shooting. This paper offers a review of the historical context under which these four memorial statues were erected on public property and an examination of the period from 2015 to 2017 during which the city and its citizens engaged with questions of historical memory in the local setting. This permits an examination of the change in political power dynamics within the city of Baltimore and the nation more broadly, as well as a deeper understanding of how the nation has chosen to reckon with the symbols of a painful past
