Virginia Governor announces some Confederate monuments will be moved to Black History Museum

Virginia’s Confederate monuments will be handed over to the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia (BHMVA), where their ultimate fate will be decided, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced on Thursday.

Several Confederate statues and monuments in Virginia that have been removed after racial justice protests will soon find a new home with the BHMVA, whose board will decide what to do with each piece.

The famous Lee statue and its base, along with eight other Confederate statues, will be moved to the Black History Museum, announced Governor Ralph Northam. 

“Symbols matter, and for too long, Virginia’s most prominent symbols celebrated our country’s tragic division and the side that fought to keep alive the institution of slavery by any means possible,” Northam said in a statement.

“Now it will be up to our thoughtful museums, informed by the people of Virginia, to determine the future of these artifacts, including the base of the Lee Monument which has taken on special significance as protest art.”

In Charlottesville, another Confederate center in Virginia, voted recently to melt down its statue of Lee and turn it into a public art piece. 

Editor’s Note

To see what those statues looked like, years before their defacement and dismantling, see this article.