But the question of who the state should or shouldn't endorse is a difficult one... the state is made up of many people with conflicting views and that means large scale disagreement on individual matters.

it's logically true if everything is racist, then nothing is. It's a hole the left is rapidly falling into. If everything done is part of white supremacy in action, then every action ceases to have meaning and can no longer be discussed. As a counter example It's worth remembering for example, that Martin Luther King Jr Day was passed by an overwhelming senate majority in the Reagan administration.

The painting of everyone and everything as constantly working to oppress everyone else is problematic. RL was an outright racist, for all the reasons you've outlined - but that doesn't mean that he didn't consider his vision of the US a meaningful one worth fighting for - and that people who listened to him feel he should be celebrated.

I firmly believe the tone of the discourse is likely to be better without him, and I'd be more than happy to argue with anybody putting his views into print (doesn't really happen on Medium) - but that doesn't mean we should try and cancel out his memory. Instead we should be working to try and understand why he appealled. You're fighting the symptom not the cause.

Also - thanks for sending me that link.... I had seen that article. I was so gutted, I was prepping something similar and then that article arrived, about a billion times better and infinitely more eloquent than my own, so I just sat and sulked for a day. :o)