Monumental Justice Virginia to rally in Richmond tomorrow for local control over Confederate monuments

You might have heard about some vandalism at the Jefferson Davis statue here last night. There is nothing that says this group had anything to do with that, but they want to be the ones to decide the fate of that and other monuments there.

Press Release from Monumental Justice Virginia

RICHMOND, VA — State legislators including Virginia Senate Democratic Caucus Chair Sen. Mamie Locke (D-Hampton), Sen. Jennifer McClellan (D-Richmond), Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy (D-Prince William), Del. Jay Jones (D-Norfolk), and Del. Sally Hudson (D-Charlottesville) are slated to speak at the Monumental Justice Virginia rally, Wednesday, January 8, at 2:30 pm at the State Capitol building plaza in Richmond. The rally is being held in support of a bill to amend Virginia’s war memorials law to give cities and counties local control over monuments in their public spaces. The bill will be introduced in both the House of Delegates (co-sponsored by Del. Hudson and Del. Jones) and the Senate (co-sponsored by Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, and Sen. Locke). The legislation has been endorsed by organizations around the state, including Virginia First Cities and organizations in Norfolk, Richmond, Northern Virginia, Louisa, and Charlottesville.

Take ‘Em Down Cville, Monumental Justice Virginia’s Charlottesville affiliate, has chartered two buses for area residents to travel to Richmond for the rally. Interested community members (and members of the media) can sign up for bus seats via @TakeEmDownCharlottesville on Facebook or @TakeEmDownCVL on Twitter. Tickets are $20 per seat, with free tickets available to those who need them.

“People in communities all over Virginia want the right to decide how their public spaces reflect their community values,” said Jalane Schmidt, a University of Virginia religious studies professor, Charlottesville public historian, and a Monumental Justice Virginia organizing committee member. “Monuments to the Lost Cause of the Confederacy don’t reflect our Charlottesville values.”

“The Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice and Equality have been calling for the removal of Confederate statues in Richmond since the 200th anniversary of Robert E. Lee’s birthday in 2007,” said Phil Wilayto, member of the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice and Equality, a Monumental Justice affiliate in Richmond. “Since the events two years ago in Charlottesville, Richmond anti-racist activists have re-doubled our efforts to protest these monuments, but we need a change in the state law.”

“Confederate monuments are a symbol of institutionalized racism and a painful reminder of Virginia’s past; they do not represent the proudly diverse, inclusive vision that we have for Virginia today,” said Elizabeth Janik of Christians United for Social Change, a Norfolk affiliate of Monumental Justice. “Norfolk and other localities deserve local authority over the stories and symbols in our prominent public spaces. We fully support the decision of Norfolk City Council to relocate the Confederate monument in our downtown to a nearby cemetery, and we hope that in 2020 the General Assembly will allow this long overdue action to occur.”

“Most of these statues across the South were erected in the early 1900s, many decades after the Civil War, by white leaders as part of a campaign of intimidation and disenfranchisement of their African American neighbors,” said former Charlottesville City Councilor and Vice-Mayor Kristin Szakos. “They memorialize the Confederate dedication to slavery and white supremacy, and our communities should not be forced to venerate that cause embodied in these monuments.”

Though the Charlottesville City Council voted unanimously in 2017 to remove the statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, it has been prevented from doing so by a local judge’s interpretation of Virginia’s war memorials law. The city of Norfolk recently filed a lawsuit against the Attorney General of Virginia in an effort to move a Confederate monument in that city. The new bill in the 2020 General Assembly will amend that law to clearly allow localities around Virginia to make their own local decisions about what to do with their local monuments.

The rally is expected to draw attendees from across the state; local control over monuments has been called for by several Virginia cities and counties in addition to Charlottesville and neighboring Albemarle County.

Monumental Justice Virginia is a statewide movement of Virginians who believe that local communities should be able to make local decisions about the Confederate statues in their public spaces: after the violent 2017 national gathering of white supremacists in Charlottesville it is crystal clear that localities must be able to act to protect their citizens and deal with these monuments as they see fit.