I really recommend that folks check out Kai Wright‘s TAP article today on the spate of noose-related hate crimes cropping up around the country this year — two times as many noose incidents than usually documented annually. Passing anti-hate crime legislation is an important step. But as Wright points out, we need to go further, and fully confront the long chapter of American history that gave us this symbol of violence and hate. One idea is erecting public memorials to commemorate lynching victims. I think those would look nice right next to Confederate army memorials. Don’t you think?

–Dana Goldstein

Dana Goldstein, a former associate editor and writer at the Prospect, comes from a family of public-school educators. She received the Spencer Fellowship in Education Journalism, a Schwarz Fellowship at the New America Foundation, and a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellowship at the Nation Institute. Her journalism is regularly featured in Slate, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Daily Beast, and other publications, and she is a staff writer at the Marshall Project.