Letters to the Editor

Letter to BOS Over Confederate Monument

Gentlemen:

It is my understanding that a couple has requested that the Lunenburg Board of Supervisors look into removing the Confederate Monument that sits looking south on the Courthouse grounds. I will not question the motives of those that seek to do such a thing. Has anyone that has come to our fine Courthouse ever felt threatened or oppressed by this silent sentinel of a time so long ago?

 Many of those in favor of removing monuments will tell you that the Civil War was fought over slavery. While it certainly was an issue for some, it was not the main issue. Less than a fourth of Confederate soldiers possessed slaves or were from slave holding families. Economics, mainly high tariffs on southern goods, played a much larger role in going to war.  “States Rights,” simply the belief that the power of government rested with each individual state not the Federal government, was a huge factor in going to war. The final tipping point for many Southerners was President Lincoln’s call for a quota of troops (Virginia’s was 100,000) to force the states that wanted to secede to remain in the Federal Union.

 Lunenburg County was an early proponent of secession. Most men assembled at the Courthouse in 1861 said that if Virginia did not secede, then Lunenburg would secede from Virginia and become a Free State. The Richmond newspapers picked up on this and began calling the county “The Free State of Lunenburg.” To this day, the county proudly bears that nickname. How long will it be before this name is deemed offensive and retired by the forces of political correctness?

 Our Confederate Monument was dedicated on August 17, 1915 in Victoria. My understanding is that he was moved to the Courthouse grounds in 1968 due to repeated vandalism over the years while sitting across from the Victoria Elementary School, which was built long after the monument had been installed there by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. 

 Of course, those wanting to take our monument down don’t offer up any type of plan for where it would go or how the costs associated with this move would be paid for. We all know that the taxpayer would be paying the bill. I really believe they would be happy if he went to the landfill to never be seen again. The following steps should be taken prior to any removal. First, the matter needs to be placed on the ballot and voted on by all of the citizens of Lunenburg County. If this results in a removal vote, then the Board should have in a place a relocation plan for the monument. As part of that plan, the Board needs to seek bids as to what a safe removal would cost taxpayers.

 I respectfully ask that our Confederate Monument stays where he is and visitors a thousand years from now will see him. We do not need to erase our history 1984 style like Richmond has sadly done.  

Sincerely yours,

Timothy V. Hatley

Chase City, Va.

Rehoboth District Four

Removal of the Confederate

Soldier at Courthouse Square

Dear Editor,

Growing up in Baltimore, MD, studying Black History in high school, and attending a Historically Black College & University, means I studied the “Lost Cause” ideology at length. For those who aren’t familiar with this term, allow me to explain it briefly. Prior to the Civil War, the eleven states that ceded from the Union repeatedly declared that they were doing so “to preserve the institution of slavery.” However, only when the Confederacy was defeated, were those decries replaced by a narrative stating the war was fought over states’ rights, state sovereignty, the rural agrarian way of life, and the like. It helped them to ignore an inconvenient truth; that they lost and that America would be a better place because of it. Those who whole-heartedly believed the latter ideal became known as “Lost Causers.” As time passed, the narrative continues to be told in a way that memorializes and praises those prominent members of the Confederate States of America such as Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee. Those who chose to remember Davis and his “lost cause” pushed for the creation of memorials.

 The Confederate statues were erected not only during the Reconstruction Era after the war, but also during periods of civil rights tension in the 20^th century. For this reason, confederate monuments have always been closely associated with other symbols of “white supremacy.” The monument here in the Courthouse Square, like most of the monuments, was constructed between 1890 and 1920. It was relocated to its current space in 1968. As many can remember, this was a time marred by extreme racial prejudice and violence. White citizens in Lunenburg County were fueled by a “lost cause” revisionist history of the Civil War; thus institutionalizing white supremacy via Jim Crow laws and other acts of racial terror. As monuments went up, so did the body count for black men, women, and children who were humiliated, mutilated, and lynched at the amusement and behest of the Caucasian race.   

 Every time I visit the courthouse or drive past Lunenburg Courthouse Square, I am reminded that these monuments are not about “heritage,’’ but hate. These monuments dredge up history lessons of a time when Americans regarded black people as property, equal in value to livestock. These monuments serve one primary purpose – to honor figures of the past who upheld slavery. They desired black people to forever be in chains, toiling day in and day out on the plantations to line the pockets of white southerners.

The creation of Confederate statues, the resurgence of the Confederate flags, and the naming of Army installations worked in tandem with the growth of the Ku Klux Klan in Lunenburg as well as other locales. Back then, they sent a clear message that black people would never be accepted as full citizens of the United States. Now, they remind all who walk in their shadows that we haven’t really come that far. As a black woman in Lunenburg County, I see it as a reminder that blacks need to “stay in their place.” 

Leaders have suggested removing these monuments will somehow “erase history” or “bring on more division within the county.” That claim may make for good rhetoric, but it obscures one crucial fact: Confederate monuments, as well as American history, have already done that! Those that defend this logic fail to acknowledge that Confederate monuments and symbols exist to intimidate black Americans and uphold a racist, often one-sided version of history. Honoring a revisionist history is not only repugnant, but it also undercuts the argument of those who now claim they only want to preserve history. 

Removing this confederate monument does not require any “whitewashing” of history.  No one claims to erase the darker, more uncomfortable lessons of Southern history. I just see no reason to honor or worship the error in the Confederacy’s cause.

 What should happen to this monument once it is removed? Here are a few ideas:

Donate it to the Museum of the Confederacy or the American Civil War Museum where it can be appreciated

Ship it somewhere that will provide an accurate interpretation of history in the context of the “Lost Cause ideology, the Jim Crow era, white supremacy, and systematic racism

Place it one of the local cemeteries where confederate soldiers are buried

Removing this statue from standing proudly in our Courthouse Square will honor patriots who fought for their country and not against it. Your vote will convey the willingness to construct and promote a multi- ethnic society. Racial equality, social justice, and a more educated community are the only goals here. There is no path to a peaceful and prosperous county without challenging and rejecting this monument’s presence in the courthouse square.

Donna Dagner

Lunenburg County, Va.