J.D.R. Hawkins

As reported back in February meeting, the City Council of Charlottesville, Virginia voted to tear down two monuments erected almost 100 years ago to Confederate Generals Lee and Jackson and to erase all vestiges of the town’s Confederate heritage. Now, after lawsuits were filed to stop it, the City is looking to sell the statues to the highest bidder.

After a series of contentious City Hall meetings where supporters of Heritage and those wishing to whitewash history battled over the council’s decision, City officials have doubled-down on the initial decision to eliminate its historical parks.

The decision to remove the two statues and redesign Lee Park to eliminate General Robert E. Lee’s name was calculated at $300,000, according to the City. Likely the costs would be far higher.

11 local citizens have joined together to file a lawsuit against the city to stop the removal of the statues. The plaintiffs, joined by the Virginia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Inc. and the Monument Fund, Inc., cited a list of reasons for filing the lawsuit. Chief among those reasons is their contention that the City is in violation of a State law preventing alteration of such monuments. According to State law, it is illegal for local officials to tear down memorials to war veterans.

But now the City thinks it has a solution to its breach of State law. If the City can sell the statues to some other City or park that will maintain the historical integrity of the statues, officials think that might satisfy State law, according to Newsplex.

Both the local activists who want to preserve history, and those who want to eliminate all history they do not like, find the move to sell the monuments unsatisfactory.

If the courts rule that a City can sell monuments it would require the re-working of monument protection acts not only in Virginia but nation-wide.

(Article courtesy of Dixie Heritage Newsletter, April 21, 2017 ed.)

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