Confederate Symbols?

How can the love of Confederate symbols be squared with the fact that our Civil War was fought to preserve slavery of an entire people, at terrible cost to both sides, when that prejudice continues today, and those symbols are used by hate groups which still flourish among us, producing hate and violence?  

Do we need a national conversation, in schools, churches and colleges, of how racist our society still is,? Four times as many backs as whites are arrested for illegal use of recreational drugs. -Paschal Baute