Virginia’s Governor Wants to Spend $11 Million to Reimagine a Confederate Monument-Lined Promenade in Richmond
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts would be tasked with transforming Monument Avenue if the budget goes through.
December 16, 2020
Protesters gather around the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue on June 6, 2020 in Richmond, Virginia, amidst protests over the death of George Floyd in police custody. Photo by Vivien Killilea/Getty Images.
Virginia Governor Ralph Northam wants to redesign Monument Avenue, a promenade in the capital city of Richmond lined with shrines to Confederate generals and he’s tasked the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts with the job.
By Ana Edwards and Phil Wilayto
For three decades before the emancipation that came with the end of the Civil War, Richmondâs Shockoe Bottom was the epicenter of the U.S. domestic slave trade.
Second only in size to the slave-trading district of New Orleans, the Bottomâs more important significance was its role as the fountainhead of that trade, the wholesale district that supplied hundreds of thousands of human beings to the retail markets further South.
Because of the massive numbers of enslaved people sent by ship, rail and overland coffles, most African Americans today likely could trace some ancestry to this small, long-neglected area.
Northam seeks $25M for historic justice initiatives middlenecknews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from middlenecknews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Denise Lavoie And Sarah Rankin December 11, 2020 - 3:35 PM
RICHMOND, Va. - Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam on Friday announced a proposal to spend $25 million to transform historical sites in Virginia, including the Richmond spot where a soaring statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee became a recent focal point of protests against racism.
Nearly $11 million of the money would be used to reconstruct Richmond s Monument Avenue, a historical boulevard that was lined with the Lee statue and other Confederate monuments for more than a century.
Most of the statues were taken down in July after Mayor Levar Stoney ordered their removal amid weeks of protests following the killing of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. At 21 feet (6 metres) tall, the bronze statue of Lee astride a horse towers over the avenue on a pedestal nearly twice as tall as the piece itself.
Gov. Northam to invest $25 Million in historic justice initiatives
and last updated 2020-12-11 18:22:10-05
RICHMOND, Va. - Governor Ralph Northam announced Friday that his proposed budget includes over $25 million for historic justice initiatives.
He will allocate $11 million in funding to transform Monument Avenue, the historic section of Richmond that was built around Confederate statues as a permanent memorial to the Lost Cause.
The Robert E. Lee statue is expected to be the eighth confederate figure to be removed in the new year. This investment will also enable the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to hire staff and launch a community-driven initiative to redesign Monument Avenue.