Confederate Monuments

Jefferson Davis was hailed as the “champion of a slave society” when he was selected in 1861 to become President of the Confederate States of America. Davis was an unrepentant white supremacist who fervently believed the Southern cause, slavery and segregation were right and just until his last dying breath in 1889. It is therefore outrageous that a major Virginia thoroughfare, Jefferson Davis Highway (aka Route 1) which abuts the Pentagon and other US Capital landmarks continues to bear the name of a morally depraved, non-Virginian who rejected the very idea of a United States.   The back-story of the decision in 1920 to name southern sections of Route 1 after Davis adds to the disturbing legacy of racism in America. At that time, the Daughters of the Confederacy along with US Rep. Earl B. Mayfield of Texas, a close ally of the Ku Klux Klan, began a campaign to attach the name of the Confederate president to Southern roads in a futile attempt to create a transcontinental highway bearing his name. At the height of the Jim Crow era, when lynching of Southern blacks was conducted with regularity and impunity, these advocates of white domination routed a road symbolizing black oppression and enslavement across several predominately black neighborhoods, as if to reinforce the message of racial subjugation. The choice of name is, therefore, an affront to African-Americans and, indeed, all Americans who are repulsed by the evils of slavery, segregation and racism. It's time for the Commonwealth of Virginia, to remove the name of this Confederate leader from all sections of Route 1 in Virginia. Virginia is a state that prides itself on its diversity, technological innovation, leadership in education and progress. The name Jefferson Davis is far from what the state should honor. Let's stop indulging the race haters who named the road after their race hating hero. Let’s change the image of this important roadway from hatred and rename it to memorialize hope and progress. Please sign this petition calling on Governor Terry McAulliffe, the Virginia General Assembly and the Commonwealth Transportation Board to rename  all sections of Jefferson Davis Highway.  

The city of Pensacola has a profoundly racist past that haunts the ignorant today. With the current protest and demands that have followed since the tragic death of George Floyd, the citizens of Pensacola deserve a downtown that matches their own values...not of the appauling ones long ago. Pensacola does not deserve to be tarnished with the constant memory of the racial injustice that sparked the very war where we killed our own men due to some’s belief that all men were not equal. Those very same men decided to memorialize such horrific injustice in our very own downtown. The statue is a reminder of a time when not all men were equal...why should we walk next to that in a time when we supposedly are? As a city we deserve better. If we truly want to highlight our history let’s not hide the fact that Pensacola was known at one point as the most racist cities in America. This city experienced tragedy that we hopefully will never have to witness. It has been far too long.  We need this deplorable statue away from our city. Do we want our children growing up in a city that still can’t recognize the racial injustice of this so called “monument” ??? Tear it down!!! Build something in unity with the community. This statue does not represent the citizens of Pensacola and it shouldn’t represent the city either. 

We are calling for the removal of the Confederate Monument from the Mount Hope Cemetery. This monument was erected in 1897, 32 years after the end of the Confederacy and the Civil War. There are many reasons why this monument is problematic. It was made in honor of those who died during the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy, and a memorial is held here every year on Confederate Memorial Day in honor of the Confederacy and those who fought to maintain slavery. Standing at 60 feet tall, it is a large and obvious reminder to many of the racism and oppression that reigned in the Confederacy, that they could not escape in migration to the North. This monument has a plaque that states, " Sa­cred to the mem­ory of the heroic dead of the Con­fed­er­ate Vet­er­ans Camp of New York", seeming to glorify and commemorate those who fought to maintain the oppression of POC in the United States. At the very least, we request that this plaque be changed to denounce slavery and the oppression of minority groups of the Confederacy. This plaque and monument have remained unchanged through the defense of education, though in schools in Westchester we are not taught that many key Confederate personal and politicians assimilated into the political and social systems of the North and continued to push for oppression and racism.  Many of those politicians and military officers served no punishment for what they did as well. We are also not educated on the Tulsa Race riots or that the first Black senator who was voted into office was not allowed to serve because Southern politicians argued since emancipation was only 2 years earlier, he had not been American long enough.

Please sign this petition to show your support for removing the confederate statue off of the Daviess County courthouse lawn.  We are trying to do this the right way and have faith in our local decision makers to make the right decision in removing the statue as soon as possible.  A small group of people are really fighting to keep the statue in it's place and I want to show that the overwhelming majority is definitely in support of it's removal!  Join me in showing the rest of the world that Owensboro has no room for racism!!!!!