The mayor of Richmond, Va., said Wednesday that Confederate monuments along the city’s Monument Avenue “need to be removed” after a white supremacy rally turned violent in Charlottesville over the weekend.
Mayor Levar Stoney, who is black, announced on Twitter that his Monument Avenue Commission will examine the removal and/or relocation of “some or all of the confederate statues.”
Effective immediately, Monument Avenue Commission will include examination of removal and/or relocation of some or all confederate statues
— Levar M. Stoney (@LevarStoney) August 16, 2017
Earlier this week, Stoney had said he preferred adding context to the meaning of the statues rather than removing them.
“Currently, as I’ve always said, since my remarks earlier on this year, the way those statues stand currently, they’re a shameful representation of the past that we all disagree with,” Stoney said Monday. “For me, it’s about telling the complete truth. I don’t think removal of symbols does anything for telling the actual truth or changes the state and culture of racism in this country today.”
But Stoney became convinced the statues should be removed after the violent rally in Charlottesville, Va., this past weekend organized by white nationalist groups.
“While we had hoped to use this process to educate Virginians about the history behind these monuments, the events of the last week may have fundamentally changed our ability to do so by revealing their power to serve as a rallying point for division and intolerance and violence,” Stoney said Wednesday. “These monuments should be part of our dark past and not of our bright future. I personally believe they are offensive and need to be removed. But I believe more in the importance of dialogue and transparency by pursuing a responsible process to consider the full weight of this decision.”
The Charlottesville rally began as white nationalists protested against the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a park in the city.
After the Charlottesville rally on Saturday, elected officials on both sides of the aisle have called for cities and states to remove Confederate monuments.
