Confederate Monuments

Monuments are intended to embody a community’s ideas and values, and in the most powerful of circumstances can become a community’s spirit incarnate of which to rally around.  Communities that build monuments are making a statement to others, to those both within and outside of their community, about which ideals are to be honored.  Confederate monuments pay tribute to a dark chapter in our country’s history; a time when African Americans particularly did not enjoy much if any freedom in this country.  Why should any community memorialize this ugly era with statues of Confederate leaders in public places like in its parks or along its roadways?  These spaces should be reclaimed and reformed into spaces for us to gather as a community without standing in the actual shadows of Jim Crow memorials masquerading as war monuments. The intent of this petition is twofold.  First, it is a request for the Virginia General Assembly and the Virginia Code Commission to repeal/replace Virginia code section 15.2-1812 so as to allow for Virginia’s communities to decide for themselves which ideals and values they would like to be honored by those who commute on their streets or visit their parks and other public places.  Second, it is for the City of Richmond to lead the charge by removing Virginia’s most prominent Confederate monuments along Monument Avenue and putting them in a museum or similar institutional installment with context so that we may be able to learn from our past and continue to grow into a more perfect union.  Furthermore, the community’s leaders should choose an appropriate replacement structure to take the place of the current Confederate monuments.  Suggestions for quality replacement options may be found in Richmond’s Monument Avenue Commission report on pages 32 and 33. Virginia is home to more confederate monuments in public spaces than any other state with at least 223.  This is due in large part to its regional relevance during the civil war; Richmond served as the capital of the Confederacy.  But this is also due to a state law enacted in 1904 which allows for localities to erect “monuments or memorials for any war or conflict” while simultaneously forbidding any authorities or citizens to disturb them.  This language was later clarified to explicitly include cities as “authorities” prohibited from removing them, resulting in the conundrum that we have today.  Many locales within Virginia have expressed a desire to remove the Confederate monuments erected during the Jim Crow era, but they lack the legal authority to follow through with action. Confederate monuments serve as rallying points for those that hold on to belief systems rooted in bigotry and racial supremacy, and do not embody the ideas or values of Richmond, Virginia, or the United States.  They have no place in our public spaces, and our communities should have the legal authority to decide for themselves if they wish to be represented in such a way.

Today in 2020, to celebrate the name Lee as the Lee College Rebels do is nonsensical. Lee as we know, was a slave owner who lead a failed war against the United States. By all definitions today Lee would be considered a domestic terrorist, at best. Lee College in Harris County Texas celebrates the moniker the Lee College Rebels. As a former Marine I find it appalling my local community college celebrates former enemies of the United States.  Statues of Lee are being removed all over the country, 31 confederate monuments have been removed in Texas. The University of Texas in Austin serves as a leading example, they removed confederate memorials and statues from their campus more than 2 years ago. A few filed suit claiming their free speech had been infringed but the case was just dismissed without ever being heard, their claims had no substance. Precedent has been set, we can change the name, we need to change the name. Lee College is a Community College, the moniker, the mascot, is not reflective of the community it serves. Rather it stands as a reminder of oppression and division. In a time we need to unite, let's take the steps to do it and eliminate this partition.  Every student should be able to be proud of their Alma Mater, they should be proud of it's name. Lee College being a public institution funded through federal and local tax dollars, makes this change even more important. The University of Texas removed their statue of Lee, why do we still name our college after him?  Sign to be the change you want to see in the world.    

We, the undersigned, are calling for the removal of the Confederate soldier Memorial Statue that is in the middle of the Square in Downtown Bentonville.  The statue fosters division in our community, instead of promoting unity, diversity, and inclusiveness among residents and visitors to our great city of Bentonville, our State of Arkansas, and the United States of America.   It should be moved to a more appropriate location for historic relics, such as a museum, or the Pea Ridge National Military Park.   

Robert E. Lee Elementary in East Wenatchee, Washington should be renamed to Unity Elementary.  Robert E. Lee Elementary was built in 1953 and named after the commander of the Confederate States Army, who betrayed his country and fought against the end of slavery in the civil war. When schools are named after individuals, those names should be reserved for historical figures with overwhelmingly positive moral character and favorable impact on the local community. In this millennium, to many, Robert E. Lee is a traitor and racist icon and should not be memorialized in a school name. Robert E. Lee Elementary is the only school in the Pacific Northwest named after the civil war traitor. Washington wasn't even a state during the civil war and any ties to the Confederate States Army in the area in the 1950s would have been very distant. The school was named 88 years after the civil war, when many were creating Confederate monuments to show resistance to the civil rights era and opposition to desegregation, clearly not stances that should be memorialized in a school name. The school district debated renaming the school in the past and decided against it, as there was overwhelmingly negative local response to changing the name. In scenarios like this, the school district needs to act in the best interest of its students regardless of how the 80% white population feels about the matter and should move forward with renaming the school to Unity Elementary, a name that would represent the positive opposite of what Robert E. Lee symbolizes in 2019.