Temple was one of several audience members who spoke on Wednesday (Oct. 26) during a series of discussions the cathedral is holding on racial justice. Also present was a scholar of Civil War history and an expert from the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

The stained-glass window debate comes at a time of soul-searching in America over the legacy of slavery and renewed calls to purge public places of the Confederate flag that is for many a symbol of oppression.

Andrew Goldkuhle of Goldkuhle Studios in Hanover, Va. inspects and replaces stained-glass images of the Confederate battle flag at Washington National Cathedral. Photo courtesy of Danielle Thomas, Washington National Cathedral

The windows honoring the Confederate generals were added in 1953 with the support of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a group that sought to honor the memory of veterans who fought for the South.

Under the Robert E. Lee window there is language etched in stone that calls him "a Christian soldier without fear and without reproach." And under Jackson, it says he "walked humbly before his Creator whose word was his guide."

Cathy Ball, who attends another Episcopal church in Washington, said the windows should stay.

"Our history in the United States, in America, is a history of oppression through the very beginning, the oppression of native peoples, the oppression of enslaved peoples, the oppression of immigrants," she said.

"If we erase every trace of that terrible history, what would we have left?"