Charlottesville Confederate Statue Outside County Courthouse slated for Sept. 12 removal

We are hoping this is a trial run leading up to the removal of the ones that were the cause of all the drama and tragedy in Charlottesville.

From a press release

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA–  A Confederate soldier statue which has stood for 111 years in front of the Albemarle County courthouse in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia, will be removed on Saturday morning, September 12, culminating several years of work by Charlottesville and Albemarle County racial justice activists.

Formally titled “At Ready,” this modest statue largely escaped controversy in Charlottesville, unlike the nearby equestrian monuments of Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson — the site of a July 8, 2017, Ku Klux Klan demonstration — and of General Robert E. Lee — place of the deadly August 12, 2017, Unite the Right rally. Nicknamed “Johnny Reb,” the Confederate soldier statue’s location at the county courthouse makes it subject to the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors.

Matthew Christensen, an Albemarle County racial justice activist who launched the October 2018 petition to remove Johnny Reb, said, “Confederate statues have been a source of trauma and a reminder of hate for too long. I am glad to see Albemarle County joining others in removing these glorifications of racism.”

Although the petition garnered signatures, local elected officials did not possess the authority to decide how to dispose of Confederate monuments, due to a restrictive state law. A legislative remedy was quashed in the Spring 2019 session of the then Republican-dominated Virginia General Assembly. But after Democrats won control in the November 2019 election, racial justice activists’ campaign went into high gear. 

Jalane Schmidt, co-founder of the advocacy organization Take ‘Em Down Cville, an affiliate of the statewide Monumental Justice Virginia coalition, explained, “Confederate statues venerate the defenders of slavery, and the Confederate veterans who had Johnny Reb installed outside the courthouse were the same people who were fighting against equal rights for African Americans inside the courthouse and inside the statehouse.”

In January and February 2020, Take ‘Em Down Cville activists traveled numerous times to the state capital of Richmond, former capital of the Confederacy, where they attended hearings, offered public comment, and lobbied members of the Virginia General Assembly to rescind a 104-year-old state law that prohibited the removal of war memorials. A bill introduced by Charlottesville Delegate Sally Hudson (D-57th district) passed both chambers of Virginia’s newly elected Democratic-majority legislature in March 2020, and in April 2020, it was signed into law by Virginia Governor Ralph Northam. 

As soon as the new law took effect on July 1, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors began the process which led to their unanimous August 6, 2020 vote to remove Johnny Reb. By that time — during a summer marked by nationwide racial justice protests which featured demonstrators pulling down racist statues — local opinion had crested in favor of removal. Calling it “a racist symbol of the restoration of white supremacy,” the Albemarle County prosecutor declared that “Johnny Reb has got to go,” while the local bar association passed, by an overwhelming majority, a resolution stating that “the Memorial’s presence on the Courthouse grounds conflicts with the promise of equality under the law.”

Long-time Albemarle County resident Frank Dukes, a Take ‘Em Down Cville activist and former member of Charlottesville’s 2016 Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Memorials and Public Spaces insists that, “white supremacy must be confronted wherever it exists. We hope that the removal of this racist symbol will inspire further commitment and action to end racial disparities and promote racial equity in the County and throughout Virginia.”

Due to COVID social distancing restrictions which inhibit large gatherings, the early Saturday morning removal of the Johnny Reb statue will be live streamed via the Albemarle County Facebook page.