Albert R. Hunt, Columnist

Must-Reads of 2017: Debunking Southern Mythmaking

Trump should read Ron Chernow's "Grant." Let's hope it was under his Christmas tree.

December 25, 2017 at 4:59 PM UTC

Albert R. Hunt is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was the executive editor of Bloomberg News, before which he was a reporter, bureau chief and executive Washington editor at the Wall Street Journal.

Virginia needs one of these.
Photographer: Mladen Antonov/AFP/Getty Images

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Virginia, the home of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, has four statues on public lands celebrating patriots of the American Revolution and seven honoring heroes of World War II. There are 136 commemorating leaders of the Confederacy.

More than a few politicians say this honors the state's heritage. And there's plenty of lingering nostalgia for the Confederacy, Exhibit A being President Donald Trump's sympathetic words for rowdy white supremacists and neo-Nazis who showed up in Charlottesville, Virginia, last summer to protest the planned removal of a statue of General Robert E. Lee.