Confederate Memorials – Virginia Capitol

I believe no one but the most racist ignoramus will continue to maintain that the Civil War wasn’t about slavery and the enslaved were content with their lot as chattel. We can delve into that issue further along with these images.

Old Hall of the House of Delegates 

Virginia Capitol, Richmond (5 April 2019)

What other examples of Southern Heritage can we recall? You can use this one when a heritage defender inevitably throws out the old saw about “The North is just as racist. Look at the desegregation riots in Boston. Many Northern cities are segregated, too.”

OK. Yes, the North also has bigots who don’t like people who are different. But they didn’t celebrate those difference the same way the South did. To show who was in charge and to terrorize any thought of freedom out of their minds, the South would occasionally hold a nice public lynching and barbeque. Watch your community leaders participate. Bring the kids.

“Someone said he looked at a white woman the wrong way. That’s good enough for me.”

Bring your camera and if you don’t have one, there will be professional photographers there to sell you postcards. If you’re really lucky, you might nab yourself a prized souvenir like a finger or an ear from the guest of honor. Best get it right away…before they set him on fire. The descriptions of the sheer cruelty and barbarity of these events…in 20th century ‘Exceptional’ America…will make your skin crawl.

“Terror lynchings were horrific acts of violence whose perpetrators were never held accountable. Indeed, some public spectacle lynchings were attended by the entire white community and conducted as celebratory acts of racial control and domination.

“…many victims of terror lynchings were murdered without being accused of any crime; they were killed for minor social transgressions or for demanding basic rights and fair treatment.”

From – LYNCHING IN AMERICA: CONFRONTING THE LEGACY OF RACIAL TERROR - THIRD EDITION; Report by the Equal Justice Initiative. 2017.
https://lynchinginamerica.eji.org/report/

So, you got me there…Northerner’s have shown they are bigoted and object to Blacks moving into the neighborhood. But there were thousands of lynchings…and most happened in the former Confederate states.
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The old House of Delegates Hall in the Virginia capitol is no longer used by the state legislature. It served the state until new chambers were completed in 1904 and it did double duty as the seat of the Confederate legislature from 1861-1865. Since the Delegates moved to their new quarters, the room has been a museum with sculptures of noted Virginia figures…a number of whom took up arms against the nation.

Recently, the Speaker of Virginia House of Delegates ordered the removal of seven of the representations since they are an affront to our history. Of course, the Republican minority has objected to this attempt to re-write history. This candy-coated ‘heritage’ is nonsense. The ‘Lost Cause’ apologists can’t bring themselves to admit that antebellum society was a monstrous creation that could not have achieved a fraction of its success without slave labor.

Here are a few sculptures that are no longer available for public viewing.

Robert E. Lee [1931] 

Old Hall of the House of Delegates 

Virginia Capitol, Richmond (5 April 2019) 

(Removed 24 July 2020) 

Placed on the spot where the general took command of the 

Army of Northern Virginia, the 900-lb. bronze is the centerpiece 

of the hall. It was ordered by Harry Byrd, the arch-segregationist 

Governor who would go on to greater infamy as a U.S. Senator and 

leading opponent of school integration. He ordered the statue of 

Lee for the Old Hall as the state went on to fire up its ‘Lost Cause’ 

myth revisionism through the mid-20th century. 

J.E.B. Stuart [1871] 

Old Hall of the House of Delegates 

Virginia Capitol, Richmond (30 June 2008) 

(Removed 24 July 2020) 

Alexander Stevens [1953] 

Gift from the State of Georgia 

Old Hall of the House of Delegates 

Virginia Capitol, Richmond (30 June 2008) 

(Removed 24 July 2020) 

By the middle of the 20th century, those horrible, liberal 

Commie pinko agitators were riling up the masses to mix 

the races and change our White supremacy ways. 

Two of the more hard-core Confederate states to the South sent 

gifts to Richmond to ‘keep the faith.’ After the statue 

of General Lee, they were the largest sculptures in the room. 

Jefferson Davis [1952] 

Gift from the State of Mississippi 

Old Hall of the House of Delegates 

Virginia Capitol, Richmond (30 June 2008) 

(Removed 24 July 2020) 

There is a state senator from Virginia who has announced her desire to run for governor. When she complains about removing Confederate statues, she says, it “erases the history of white people.” Really.

Trust me. I don’t want to erase this history. This history should be told forthrightly…boldly…and accurately…without the whitewashing and sugar-coating.

I can’t help but think that when the GOP regains the majority in the legislature, some ‘heritage’ traitor-lover will propose they be returned to their rightful place.

Absent that, maybe the GOP and their Klan friends could crank up a ‘Go Fund Me’ project and build their own museum to house the art work…casual dress code…white hoods and robes optional.