PHOENIX - Should they stay or should they go? The uproar over monuments dedicated to soldiers from the Confederate Army has spread to Arizona, with some demanding similar monuments be taken down.
"It's offensive and once again, these soldiers fought for segregation, for separation, for slavery," said Roy Tatem, president of the East Valley chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Tatem points to a monument just a few feet from the Arizona State Capitol that he says is currently sitting on government property.
"The Confederacy should not be acknowledged in these public spaces," he said. "Now, if people want to privately fund their Confederate monuments, they can do that at their own expense."
Tatem says he is working with legislators to raise the issue with Gov. Doug Ducey.
In total, there are six locations in Arizona honoring the Confederate Army -- two in central Phoenix, a road named the Jefferson Davis Highway in the far East Valley near Apache Junction and and three monuments in southern Arizona, including Picacho Peak, known as the western-most battle in the Civil War.
"When Jefferson Davis annexed the Confederate territory of Arizona, it didn't stay that way very long, less than a year, just a few months," said Arizona State Historian Marshall Trimble.
He explained the history of the United States isn't without controversy and considers removing the monuments as an act of censoring history.
"What America has always done is accept this is who we are, warts and all," Trimble said. "We're not perfect and nobody is and so we need to air these things and educate people on these things and teach, this is what happened."