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Confederate Statues Come Down Across US, But in Richmond Quest to Add Context Remains

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As mayors and governors across the country call for the removal of Confederate monuments, Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney stands by his position that that city's statues need context, not wholesale removal.

 

Mallory Noe-Payne has this look at how a white supremacist rally has, and has not, changed the conversation about monuments in the former Capital of the Confederacy.

 

 

In the heart of downtown Richmond, a bronze statue shows two figures embracing. This monument, called the Slavery Reconciliation Statue, was built in 2007. Sitting alone on a bench is Richmond resident Burt Pinnock.

He’s here thinking not of the statue behind him -- but of the ones a short distance away. Monuments to Confederate Generals like Robert E. Lee and JEB Stuart.

“Before this weekend I many a time made the argument that we should consider not removing the monuments, because it is our history and it’s part of who we are and its right to remember. Or right not to forget.”

But now, he says, a switch has flipped. He thinks it’s time for his city to tear down it’s monuments to slaveholders.

“It’s not worth it anymore, it’s not worth losing one more life.”

And that’s what some politicians across the country are now saying. In North Carolina and Maryland governors from both political parties are calling for the removal of monuments to men who supported slavery.

But in Richmond, Mayor Levar Stoney says telling the whole truth is important.

“And I don’t thinkremoval of symbols does anything for telling the actual truth or change the state and culture of racism in this country today. At the end of the day those statues are offensive to me, very offensive to me. But you know what? I’m going to focus my time on destroying the vestiges of Jim crow where they live in our city. Public housing, public education -- you name it.”

Soon after taking office, Stoney convened a commission to add context to the city's monuments, rather than tearing them down.  Despite this weekend’s events, he says that mission is unchanged.

But Bragg Bowling, a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, isn’t reassured.

“But I can promise you this. If they put signs out that say negative things about these people. It won’t be long before a significant amount of people in Richmond all want the whole monument down, I can see it happening.

And while Bowling doesn’t support the white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville, he also doesn’t think their cause really had anything to do with Confederate monuments.

And his opinion -- that the Monuments should stay just as they are -- hasn’t changed.

This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association

 

Mallory Noe-Payne is a Radio IQ reporter based in Richmond.