Richmond’s marquee thoroughfare had a rough 2020. It was not the coronavirus pandemic that brought drastic changes to Monument Avenue. It was the aftermath of the police brutality death of George Floyd 1,200 miles away in Minneapolis, Minn. Coast-to-coast racial upheaval brought forth, among other things, the removal, sometimes violently, of statues perceived as symbols of White racism and supremacy by many Black Americans (and people of other races too).
Robert E. Lee monument as seen a few years ago
As the Confederate capital during the 1861-1865 American Civil War, Richmond in the 1890s and early 1900s had many many monuments and markers to the lost war and the “Lost Cause” narrative that espouses how the South had noble intentions in fighting for state’s rights while downplaying its efforts to protect slavery.
For generations since the Civil War, many Blacks had mostly quiet disdain for these White-erected monuments. The May 25, 2020 George Floyd death under the knee of a White police officer proved the catalyst to force down by both Black and White protesters (and local government leaders in many cases) symbols like Monument Avenue’s massive statues of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee (above), Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson and Jeb Stuart.
Robert E. Lee still sits tall in the saddle. But his pedestal is now graffiti-laden. Virginia and Richmond’s governments and courts are still deciding Lee’s fate. For now, it has been allowed to stay but that could change any day (week, month or year) now.
A tall fence protects the Lee monument from additional damage and graffiti.
Here are photos I took a few years ago of the Jeb Stuart and Stonewall Jackson Monument Avenue monuments.
Unlike Lee, Stuart and Jackson are gone. They and their horses have been put out to pasture. The statues were removed months ago. not sure where they are today.
The graffiti has been removed or covered with paint at the former Jeb Stuart (above) and Stonewall Jackson sites (below). Frankly, I was surprised how clean they look today, knowing that last summer they looked as vandalized as the Lee statue does now.
Who or what, if anything, will replace the Confederate generals on Monument Avenue? And what will become of the removed statues? No final decisions have been made yet. I’ll be watching with great interest from here in Charleston (where a statue of John C. Calhoun was recently removed- see my post on that here) Richmond will always have a special place in my heart. My wife Alesia is from this area and I’m a proud graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University. VCU’s campus is just blocks from Monument Avenue. As a Civil War buff and student of the war, I had long admired the Confederate statues along Monument Avenue, especially the three iconic generals, all Sons of Virginia.
I had this large canvas print (above) of Richmond’s Monument Avenue generals made late last year. It hangs in a hallway in my house. Once a civil War buff always one I suppose. I want to always have this memento of the Monument Avenue I remembered from my college days and beyond. Maybe the time was right for these statues to come down. But seeing them during my time at VCU and several times in later years during Virginia family visits always was in a way comforting to me. Each general was a remarkable and successful military leader in various ways. Each answered the call to fight for and defend their state. And defend to the death two of them did- Jackson at Chancellorsville in 1863 and Stuart at Yellow Tavern in 1864.
I never ever viewed these monuments as racist or as a suggestion of white supremacy. But in the wake of the tragic George Floyd death and the ensuing civil rights uproar and upheaval, I certainly have a better and clearer understanding of why many Americans, especially Blacks, disliked, even despised, such Confederate symbols in public places such as Richmond's Monument Avenue.
Confederate statues have come down elsewhere in Richmond. While a VCU student my senior year I lived in a house across from a small park that had this artillery soldier (above) in the middle of it for probably 100 years or more. This photo I found in an old photo album of mine from the early 1980s.
Richmond’s roll in what many historians still consider the most important and significant event in U.S. history- the Civil War- is being cancelled. In public spaces at least. These Confederate monuments may find new homes in local museums.
Driving nearby to the Altria Theater (formerly called The Mosque) and the large Monroe Park across from it I spotted another removed statue site.
What was here was a statue, shown below, of Joseph Bryan (1845-1908), described in news reports from July 2020 as a former slave owner, Confederate soldier, ‘Lost Cause’ supporter, lawyer, newspaper owner, and industrialist.” He donated property in Richmond that became a hospital and other property that became a park named for him.
The above photo credit goes to Jackie DeFusco, a Richmond TV reporter, who posted it on Twitter in July 2020 as the monument was being prepared to be taken down. In Monroe Park a second statue was removed, that one is of CSA Gen. Williams Carter Wickham. Protestors toppled his statue during a protest on June 6, 2020.
To learn more about Richmond’s Monument Avenue,what a National Geographic magazine article calls "America's Most Controversial Street"
click here. The piece was published in July 2020.
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