SEATTLE — Vandals spray-painted and damaged a Confederate memorial in Lake View Cemetery on Capitol Hill, and now cemetery managers are talking with the monument's owners about taking it down.
“I was shocked to hear that this was just a few blocks from where I live,” said Hannah Wilson, who visited the memorial, Sunday.
“I wanted to make sure that someone had already done the work I was planning on doing,” she said as she surveyed the vandalism, which included “BLM” and anti-racism messages spray-painted on the granite structure. Cement was smeared in the memorial’s chiseled lettering.
The memorial, built in 1926 by the Daughters of the Confederacy, honors Confederate veterans who fought in the Civil War.
Symbols like it are being targeted across the country because they pay tribute to soldiers who fought to preserve slavery and white supremacy.
Seattle's memorial has been vandalized multiple times in the past.
“I hope to see that more people talk about it and get it taken down,” Wilson said.
A non-profit organization owns and manages Lake View Cemetery. A cemetery board member said the Daughters of the Confederacy still own memorial, and it would be up to them to decide what to do with it.
The board member said the cemetery and the memorial owners are talking about the monument's future, including taking it down.