When are you guys going to get real and stop categorizing the problem as "racism"?
The celebration of Washington is, and should be, tempered by the limits of his virtue, including his support for slavery. Lincoln deserves a lot more credit than blame for his efforts, though imperfect. Lee, and the other Confederates, were known primarily for their resistance to progress. There's nothing to celebrate there.
All of them were men of their time and few men of that time who were white saw blacks as real equals, sadly. I credit Washington for keeping our fledgling country from becoming the seat of a native king, among other civic virtues. And you're right, his flaws can't be dismissed or covered up. They were substantial. Lincoln to my knowledge never held slaves, preserved the Union and ultimately was the driving force behind the emancipation of blacks and the ending of that national cancer...Lee made the wrong choice. The only thing you can say for him is that at that point in the life of our nation most men had stronger allegiances, especially in the South, to their native states than they did to the idea of a greater whole, which was contrary to the understanding of many, slavery aside.
None of that, however, matters. Because Lee owed a greater service to the moral right. He was a man of good repute and character. He had an appreciation of the want of virtue in the practice of slavery even if he failed to fully appreciate it's evil. In fulfilling a lesser duty he failed his more substantive obligation to the good. That is why Lee should be preserved as a tragic figure, a cautionary tale for generations. He should not, under any circumstances, be celebrated.
lain: 
