This week, HBO's 'Last Week Tonight' took aim at the misconceptions around Confederate statues, and the Confederacy in general. Host John Oliver took a humors tone as he cut straight into history surrounding Confederate monuments. Including historical quotes from Robert E. Lee, Vice President of the Confederacy Alexander Stevens, and former Vice President Spiro Agnew, Oliver take less than 20 minutes to frame the modern-day arguments over these statues.

But after he finishes his monologue, he moves on to an offering of new statutes for cities. Which is where the Ark-La-Tex comes in.

LastWeekTonight via Youtube.com
LastWeekTonight via Youtube.com
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Oliver revealed a statue replica of Bessie Coleman as a suggestion to the city of Atlanta, Texas. Coleman is a historical legend, who was born in Atlanta in 1892. History recognizes Coleman as the first African-American woman to hold a pilot license. In fact, Coleman has been honored multiple times, including a middle school in Cedar Hill, Texas being named after her.

Coleman has a bronze plaque of her likeness on the front doors of the Paxon School for Advanced Studies in Jacksonville, Fl. But we can't find an example of a statue of her. The closest we found was a fundraiser in 2013 attempting to fund one. 

Perhaps this suggestion is a suggestion that should be investigated. With no existing statues to Coleman, Atlanta could actually become home to the first, and only, statue dedicated to Coleman. This could become a historical point, and tourist destination.

 

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