Allow the Creation of a Memorial Malcolm X Mural

The United States of America is a country based on not only the concept of individual rights, but also, more importantly on the concept of struggling to obtain and preserve those rights.

Unfortunately the USA is also a nation historically based on the discrimination and exploitation of minorities; from the genocide of natives to procure our land, to the enslavement of Africans to establish our agriculture, to the burning of immigrants like fuel in our factories. We as Americans pay respect to the Patriots who waged a war to emancipate themselves from unfair taxation, and we cannot fail to respect a man who fought against hundreds of years of racial persecution and oppression without firing a single bullet.

Some people may suggest that Malcolm X does not deserve a memorial on the walls of FDHS; they may look upon his words and sentiments in search of hate and hypocrisy. We assure you Malcolm X was not a hypocrite, and to even suggest these things is itself an act of hypocrisy. We find the idea of a Robert E. Lee mural to be quite distasteful, as he was both a blatant racist and a traitor to his country.

Lee’s thoroughly contemplated decision to fight for the South led to a prolonged Civil War and thousands of American deaths which would not have occurred if his military genius could have been accessed by the North. In spite of all this, Robert E. Lee is still commemorated with a mural, that just so happens to be right between those of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Frederick Douglass, the latter of whom was forced to flee the United States because of people like Robert E. Lee.

We are not suggesting the removal of Robert E. Lee’s mural, as our goal is strictly to pay respect to an influential civil rights activist. We are more than willing to embrace compromise, in that we can respect the memoriam of Robert E. Lee as long as Malcolm X is recognized as well.