PHOENIX — Editor's Note: The above video is from 2017 when Arizona Democratic leaders called for the removal of a Confederate monument in Phoenix.
Arizona's secretary of state has called for the removal of the Confederate monument in front of the Arizona State Capitol.
Secretary Katie Hobbs wrote in a letter to Director of the Arizona Department of Administration Andy Tobin to remove the monument in Wesley Bolin Plaza.
"Removing this monument isn’t a choice to erase our history, it’s a choice to embrace our future," Hobbs in the letter.
Hobbs is asking the department to exercise its power to relocate the monument to the Arizona Capitol Museum, where it could be placed in long-term storage.
"This monument, like many of its kind, was built at a time when our country was on the brink of major breakthroughs --- the passage of the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, and more," the letter read.
"It was a clear attempt to repudiate the progress of our country. Today, our nation once again faces a moment of transformation. Let us refuse to repeat the mistake of the past."
The Phoenix monument was erected in 1961 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy to memorialize Arizona Confederate soldiers.
In August 2017, a group of state Democratic leaders tried to get the monument removed as controversy surrounding Confederate monuments throughout the country was ignited by protests in Charlottesville, Virginia.
At the time, Gov. Doug Ducey said he had no desire to tear down any of the state's Confederate monuments and there is a public process for those looking to remove them.
