Days after the protests in Charlottesville, Paul Soglin, the mayor of Madison, directed that a plaque honoring the Confederacy inside Forest Hill Cemetery, a city-owned property near the University of Wisconsin campus, be removed. The city council will soon consider whether to take out another, larger memorial in the cemetery that is dedicated to Confederate soldiers.

A Boom in Confederate Monuments, on Private Land AUG. 30, 2017
But even in this liberal college town, the push to remove the memorial has spurred some to ask if the movement has gone too far.

“I’ve gotten a few emails saying, ‘Leave it alone,’” said Marsha Rummel, the president of the city council. “The soldiers are there, and they did live lives.”