Maddy Thurber, Staff Writer
Richmond removed three Confederate statues that stood in Capitol Square on Friday, Aug. 28. The statues relocated to battlefield sites managed by the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation. The Virginia General Assembly authorized the removal and the relocation in the final budget.
Former Virginia Sen. Adam Ebbin introduced Senate Bill 636 in January, which called to have the Department of General Services remove the monuments. The bill passed the Senate 21-19 in February and was later tabled by the House Appropriations Committee in March. The budget allocated 1.79 million to the Department of General Services to relocate the three statues and gift them to the SVBF.
Ebbin, who initiated the relocation, said a former member of the General Assembly approached him about it several years ago. He said he pursued the relocation as leaving the legislature because he did not want to miss the opportunity to act.
The statues were of Thomas J. Jackson, William Smith, and Hunter Holmes McGuire.
The removal of the statues is part of a broader movement within Richmond and across the U.S Southeast to remove Confederate monuments from public spaces. In 2020, Richmond City Council authorized the removal of the Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, J.E.B. Stuart, Jefferson Davis and Matthew Fontaine Maury statues along Monument Avenue, including the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors and the A.P. Hill monument, according to rva.gov.
According to the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, Jackson, Smith, and Mcguire were placed in the Capitol of Richmond as part of the “Lost Cause” historical movement.
“I think the thing to think about is what message does having Confederate monuments sent to children on school visits or family visits to the Capitol,” Gabriel Reich, professor at the School of Education said. “I think it sends a message about who the state believes is important, who the state believes should be revered as historical figures.
Reich studies how people remember and understand the past, with a particular focus on historical consciousness and history education. His research examines how young people understand the Civil War and how historical memory is shaped through education, culture and public monuments.
Reich said students can have different interpretations of Confederate monuments, meaning their presence in public spaces can shape how they understand Richmond’s history.
Ebbin said the decision to relocate them to Shenandoah does not change the history itself.
“We’re not changing history, just changing what we celebrate in our public spaces,” Reich said.
First-year forensic science student Ja’Nia Hollingsworth said she believes the statues should have been removed sooner, but their removal does not erase the history connected to the men they represented.
Hollingsworth said the history is present even though the statues are no longer in Capitol Square, and that removing the monuments simply means the men or their roles in history are no longer being glorified.