Some of us came to the issue of Confederate monuments and symbols following the killing of nine parishioners of the Mother Emmanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina on June 17, 2015 (and in their honor we say their names: Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lee Lance, Depayne Middleton-Doctor, Clementa Pinckney, Tywanza Sanders, Daniel Simmons, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, and Myra Thompson). The white supremacist who was responsible for the mass murder left behind a 5-page, typewritten manifesto as well as photographs of himself holding the Confederate battle flag in one hand and a handgun in the other, images that made it clear how symbols of the South from the Civil War are an energizing force for those possessed of a hateful ideology and the dream of a whiter America.
As the nation grappled with the tragedy in Charleston, the state of South Carolina, in particular, underwent its own reckoning. One response to the shooting at Emmanuel AME was undertaken by the artist Bree Newsome, who climbed the South Carolina Capitol flagpole and took down the “stars and bars” just ten days after the shooting. The aftermath of Charleston and the debate over the presence of Confederate symbols in our public space is also linked to events in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 and what is now called the Summer of Hate. On August 11 and 12, white supremacists groups marched across Grounds, in front of Friendship Court, and the streets of downtown Charlottesville repeating slogans like “You will not replace us!,” Jews will not replace us!,” and the old fascist slogan “Blood and soil.” There were Confederate flags, guns, fist fights, and canisters of tear gas deployed into faces and the air, and most unspeakably the death of Heather Heyer and the helicopter crash that took the lives of Berke Bates and Jay Cullen.
Tragedies like these will happen, again, if we do not take action. We need to address the symbols of white terror that haunt our parks, courthouse lawns, capitol buildings, and schools. The people who inspire us include Zyahna Bryant, now a freshman at the University of Virginia, who authored a Change.org petition at the age of fifteen and continues to be a force for racial justice, today. We also attempt to follow the example of the Black Student Alliance at UVA, including one-time president Wes Grobar, who spoke up and led the charge to take down the plaque to the Confederate dead at the front door of the Rotunda of the University of Virginia. Over the past year, UVA Students United has also served as a conscience for the university, including but not limited to their reaction to the militarized zone created by police and campus security on the first anniversary of the Unite the Right rally (as expressed in their banner “Last year they came w/ torches This year they come w/ badges”).
We have also been inspired by the efforts of #TakeEmDownRVA, Maya Little, #SilenceSam, #RememberJamesCates, #DoItLikeDurham, and the 2020 #MonumentalJustice campaign led by Dr. Jalane Schmidt, among many others. When we set out to learn more about the racial history of Charlottesville and Richmond, we engaged in a critical reading of sources such as Onmonumentave.com, the findings of The President’s Commission on Slavery at UVA, The Blue Ribbon Commission Report from Charlottesville, The Monument Avenue Commission report from Richmond, and media coverage related to the formation of The Advisory Committee on the Future of the Historical Landscape at the University of Virginia. With those debts acknowledged, our advocacy aspires to be lightweight, agile, and tactical, and we look to initiatives like the Kudzu Project in Charlottesville, the collaboration between the artist Noah Scalin and The Cheats Movement on the New Legacy tees and sweatshirts, and Free Egunfemi’s work at UntoldRVA, particularly her concept of “commemorative justice.”
A lot is happening in the memorial landscapes of Charlottesville and Richmond. Changes are being made. We want to be a part of that. And it’s not about “making it right.” That’s an impossible project given past violence against African American and Indigenous peoples in the region. However, we are committed to racial conciliation in the here and now. To borrow words from Dr. Wes Bellamy, the former City Councilor and vice-mayor of Charlottesville, we know it’s deeper than statues. Discussions of works of art and the historical record are valuable if they point to the systemic and structural issues faced by African Americans, today, and the legacies of racial injustice in our schools, housing, zoning, public transport, food supply, and systems of governance.
In the past few years, progress has been made in Charlottesville through the renaming of the Barringer Wing to the Collins Wing in UVA Hospital, the completion of the Monument to Enslaved Laborers, the establishment of a $15 minimum wage at UVA, a federal court overturning the Union Hill compressor station permit, the re-dedication of Preston Avenue in honor of Asalie Minor Preston, increased attention to the Johnny Reb statue in front of the Albemarle Courthouse, and the #MonumentalJustice campaign for local authority of war memorials in the state of Virginia. In the city of Richmond, we’ve seen the dedication of Arthur Ashe Boulevard, the “Black Monument Avenue” mural on Meadowbridge Road, the passage of Councilman Jones’ local authority resolution (in its third year), Rumors of War, the re-introduction of the community-generated proposal for a nine-acre Shockoe Bottom Memorial Park, and the erosion of support for the proposed Navy Hill redevelopment plan. So something is happening. Somethings are changing. Let’s keep working, learning, and acting for a more equitable society in central Virginia.