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By The Editorial Board

To some people, even 150 years after the end of the Civil War, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee remains a symbol of honor, chivalry and courage; his memory conjures the Old South, a lost cause and a more romantic era. That’s why his name remains on schools, highways and monuments across the country, including public elementary schools in Long Beach and San Diego.

But it’s time to be done with the romance of that misremembered era. Certainly, Lee had his strengths — few men are purely good or evil, and there is even some evidence that he personally opposed slavery. But ultimately, the general will be remembered primarily as the protector of that repugnant institution, the military leader of the insurrection against the United States government whose aim was to defend and perpetuate a slaveholder’s republic.

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