Sometime last week, the chair was pulled out from beneath Confederate sympathizers. A bench that was placed, at taxpayers expense, in front of a stone marker in the 2400 block of Wise Street in South Side, is gone now. As it should be.

The city’s attention to this historical marker, donated by the Richmond chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1939, continues to perplex us. Last year, a fence and bench appeared at the site without warning or fanfare. City officials have claimed the structure shouldn’t be lumped in with confederate monuments, since it is “a marker for the dead.”

Other research done by the city’s Department of Public Utilities, indicates the bodies that the writing on the marker refers to were relocated decades before the substation was built.

We hope the City is on the path to doing the right thing and that’s why features that adorned the marker have vanished. We also hope some transparency is forthcoming as to what happened here and who is responsible. Building and protecting monuments to the Confederacy is something that we can’t stand for.